GS: web page/songs
Barbara Van Dyke
a peak at our Service Unit web page at:
http://www.infi.net/~bvandyke/su226.html
I've assembled a small collection of silly songs and camp songs in zipped
files.
Hope some of you can use them.
YiS
Barbara Van Dyke
Brownie Girl Scout Troop 1541
Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital
Brenda V
I have been to this site. Barbara Van Dyke has done an excellent job of
putting the songs down on the computer for us to use. I have taken some
of the songs off of my computer to my girls who have enjoyed them
thouroughly.
Brenda V.
Junior GS Troop 3046
Chaparral Council, NM
Stan DCmr
Earthsong <sera...@eskimo.com> writes:
>Hello, I am an Arrowman and an Eagle Scout from Washington State. I am
>writing because I am scared to death. I just earned the Heart and
>Crescent Award and was feeling very proud. Well, we are coming up on a
>Brotherhood I think. And at the Brotherhood gatherings we are supposed
to
>wear our class A uniforms. This uniform includes all awards earned
>through scouting, and this is my question: can wearing the Heart and
>Crescent get me kicked out of scouts?
Seraphim,
If you get no specific "BSA policy" info to guide you, consider this
approach to limit your risk:
Discuss with your religious leader whether the religious organization has
acquired recognition from BSA (national) for their religious award. I
think that it is this recognition that entitles the Scout to wear the
emblem (or the Square Knot that represents it) on his uniform. (This
approach keeps the search/inquiry in "safe territory".)
(Another guage of this is whether a "packet" can be acquired thru BSA
which defines the requirements for the award.)
If the answer is "no", then perhaps you should consider it a well-deserved
personal recognition and reserve it for non-Scouting ceremonial occasions.
If the answer is "yes", then you would appear to have two alternatives:
(1) wear the sewn-on "square knot" that represents the award. (It is the
same knot, regardless of which recognized religious emblem you earn.)
(2) wear the medal.
Medals are usually reserved for ceremonial occasions; the square knots are
for daily wear as a part of your uniform, just as you wear your sewn-on
Eagle badge and OA flap.
I understand that you earned this recognition as part of a BSA troop
activity... this does not necessarily make it a BSA-recognized award.
Again, that does not lessen the personal significance... it just bears on
when (i.e. on what clothing) the award should be worn.
I'm interested to learn what you find out.
Regards,
Stan
zardoz
> In article <Pine.SUN.3.92.96033...@eskimo.com>, Seraphim
> Earthsong <sera...@eskimo.com> writes:
>
> >Hello, I am an Arrowman and an Eagle Scout from Washington State. I am
> >writing because I am scared to death. I just earned the Heart and
> >Crescent Award and was feeling very proud. Well, we are coming up on a
> >Brotherhood I think. And at the Brotherhood gatherings we are supposed
> to
> >wear our class A uniforms. This uniform includes all awards earned
> >through scouting, and this is my question: can wearing the Heart and
> >Crescent get me kicked out of scouts?
>
> Seraphim,
Sorry I missed the original post on this. BSA still officially does not
recognize the Hart and Crescent award due to religious discrimination. Only
religious awards sponsored by particular religions are approved by BSA.
With that said, most Troops and Councils do not discriminate against
particular scouts because of their religion, and most pagan scouts who earn
the Hard anc Crescent award are free to wear it unless someone objects out of
their own religious biggotry. The worst you might get, if there are biggots
in your OA Lodge, is asked not to wear your award.
You might also be intereseted to learn that Amber K who wrote the Hart and
Crescent book is an OA member.
> If you get no specific "BSA policy" info to guide you, consider this
> approach to limit your risk:
> Discuss with your religious leader whether the religious organization has
> acquired recognition from BSA (national) for their religious award. I
> think that it is this recognition that entitles the Scout to wear the
> emblem (or the Square Knot that represents it) on his uniform. (This
> approach keeps the search/inquiry in "safe territory".)
I was the chair of the committee that spent several years following BSA
procedures to get the Hart and Crescent award accepted, and I can assure you
that BSA officially discriminates against "minority" religions by refusing to
accept religious awards earned by boys of religions that they do not approve
of, including the Hart and Crescent.
BSA adopted new rules for religious awards specifically because of our
application -- to keep us from qualifying which we did under their old rules.
The new rules say that a religius body has to sponsor 25 units before their
religious award can be accepted. Then, when we offered to sponsor the 25
units, BSA turned down our application based on religoius biggotry, and
returned our initial unit charter application.
> (Another guage of this is whether a "packet" can be acquired thru BSA
> which defines the requirements for the award.)
> If the answer is "no", then perhaps you should consider it a well-deserved
> personal recognition and reserve it for non-Scouting ceremonial occasions.
Like most religous awards, Hart and Crescent is available from the religous
sponsors. BSA accepts only those awards from their "approved" religions. A
Scout has the option of going along with the religious biggots who run BSA or
may wear his religous emblem with pride and let local Scouters confront him
if they are so discriminatory. Our experience is that its much easier to sit
in Texas and discriminate than to look a Scout in the eyes and tell him that
his religoius practice is unacceptable.
> I understand that you earned this recognition as part of a BSA troop
> activity... this does not necessarily make it a BSA-recognized award.
> Again, that does not lessen the personal significance... it just bears on
> when (i.e. on what clothing) the award should be worn.
Religous awards are not part of troop activity, but are sponsored by
religious organizations outside of BSA which "accepts" the awards for wear on
uniforms. No religious awards should be part of BSA troop activity.
My advice to Seraphim is to wear his Hart and Crescent with pride, after all
he has as much right to our religion as anyone else has to theirs. You will
not get "kicked out" of scouting or OA no matter what. If you run into
biggots who demand that you not wear your religious awards, you will at least
know who they are.
Blessed Be!
ZardoZ
The opinions expressed herein are mine alone, and do not reflect policy or
beliefs of any organization. If you disagree with my opinions, that is not
my problem.
Copyright: The above is the copyright property of the author. All rights are
reserved.
Grant O'Neil
>Hello, I am an Arrowman and an Eagle Scout from Washington State. I am
>writing because I am scared to death. I just earned the Heart and
>Crescent Award and was feeling very proud. Well, we are coming up on a
>Brotherhood I think. And at the Brotherhood gatherings we are supposed
>to wear our class A uniforms. This uniform includes all awards earned
>through scouting, and this is my question: can wearing the Heart and
>Crescent get me kicked out of scouts?
Forgive my Aussie ignorance; just what _is_ the Heart and Crescent, and
why is it apparently so contoversial that someone would be concerned that
wearing it could get them kicked out of scouts?
P.S. I don't get much chance to look at the newsgroup, so I would
appreciate if any replies were emailed to my address on...@sea.wa.edu.au
Grant O'Neil
zardoz
> Forgive my Aussie ignorance; just what _is_ the Heart and Crescent, and
> wearing it could get them kicked out of scouts?
>
> P.S. I don't get much chance to look at the newsgroup, so I would
> appreciate if any replies were emailed to my address on...@sea.wa.edu.au
>
> Grant O'Neil
Glad you asked that. I will also post this on rec.scouting for anyone else
who has recently arrived and missed the years of discussion.
The Hart and Crescent is a religious award sponsored by the Covenant of the
Goddess for Wiccan and other Pagan scouts. It has been the subject of
religious discrimination by BSA for the past 5 years since it was proposed by
The Covenant of the Goddess. Only Scouts belonging to particular BSA
approved religions may officially participate in religious award programs.
Despite BSA's public statements that boys of all faiths may participate
equally, in practice Scouts belonging to other religions such as Wicca,
Asatru, Druid, and several other pre-christian European religions are
excluded from full participation. The Hart and Crescent is controversial
because BSA likes to pretend that they do not discriminate against boys of
any faith, when in fact they do. The Hart and Crescent is a glaring example
of their religious discrimination. BSA also refuses to allow any church
belonging to The Covenant of the Goddess to sponsor a troop or other scouting
unit.
At the recommendation of several long time Scouters, the Covenant sponsors
the Hart and Crescent award without BSA sanction, and a number of scouts have
earned it. It is then up to individual Troop Leaders to tell scouts that
their religion is unacceptable in scouting. It is much easier for BSA
officials to sit down in Texas and practice their institutional bigotry than
for Scoutmasters who have to confront boys of other faiths.
To learn more of The Covenant of the Goddess, the Hard and Crescent award, or
the Wiccan religion, check out their web site at "http://www.cog.org/"
--
George A. Booth
: Earthsong <sera...@eskimo.com> writes:
: >Hello, I am an Arrowman and an Eagle Scout from Washington State. I am
: >writing because I am scared to death. I just earned the Heart and
: >Crescent Award and was feeling very proud. Well, we are coming up on a
: >Brotherhood I think. And at the Brotherhood gatherings we are supposed
: to
: >wear our class A uniforms. This uniform includes all awards earned
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
: >through scouting, and this is my question: can wearing the Heart and
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
: >Crescent get me kicked out of scouts?
The following is a non-scouting response.
First, I'm christian. This information is to level the playing
field as I already know that you are wiccan.
This conflict you have has 2 facets, personally and as a scout.
As a scout - Did you earn the award through scouting? If you did,
and they require the award to be worn then do so. If you didn't earn the
award through scouting then don't wear it. You are there as a scout, not
as an advocate for a faith. This concludes my address of the topic of the
award.
As a person - Scouting only recognises the person you are - they
DON'T define you. Even if they take the rank away from you - you are
still the person who earned it. I would never favor duplicity over
integrity, and I don't now.
As for your fear, I have yet to meet or correspond with a wiccan
who didn't harbor the very paranoia you describe. Wicca, a 40 year old
religion - not 10,000, invents almost all of the persecution it
"experiences". If this is your faith, fine. Stand up for it. Playing coy,
lurk-in-the-shadows head games is no way for an Eagle scout, supposedly a
man of courage and integrity, to act.
Alan Houser
: (Another guage of this is whether a "packet" can be acquired thru BSA
: which defines the requirements for the award.)
: If the answer is "no", then perhaps you should consider it a well-deserved
: personal recognition and reserve it for non-Scouting ceremonial occasions.
Not all of the "packets" may be obtained thru BSA or PRAY. Quite a few
must be obtained directly from the sponsoring religious body. The latest
information I have on where to obtain the materials for religious emblems
"approved" by BSA is at
http://www.emf.net/~troop24/reqs/religious.html
This is from a 1991 printing of the BSA information on religious emblems,
with some updates and corrections that have been forwarded to me. I am
sure there are more and would appreciate hearing from folks who know.
Alan R. Houser ** Scoutmaster, Berkeley Troop 24 ** tro...@emf.net
** WWW page ** http://www.emf.net/~troop24/t24.html **