This last weekend, I watched an amazing thing take place. I saw Boy Scouts burning an American flag. Despite what you may think, it was not the same sort of scene that normally attends the burning of our nation's most sacred emblem. Instead of angry shouts, and chanted political protests, it was done solemnly, reverently, and in utter silence.

It is one of the rights granted by Congress to uniformed Boy Scouts, that allows them to participate in retiring an old, worn, or torn American flag. It was a special ceremony that I witnessed, and it reminded me almost of a cremation where the loved one was reverently returned to the elements from which they came. The scouts carefully separated the stars, from the stripes of the worn-out flag, and handed each boy a part to throw onto the fire, while reading a patriotic saying from our nation's historic past. It struck me how different this ceremony was from those who burn flags on the news. Where protestors, who hate our country, burn flags to show their contempt, Boy Scouts do so, to show their love.

And this is the point then. There has been a cultural war in the nation as of late, and the Boy Scouts of America have been thrust at times onto the front lines of that war, not because they hate anything at all, but because of what they believe in. Boy Scouts believe that in order for boys to grow up to become happy, healthy, and responsible men in our society that they need to be given a moral compass through the wilderness of amorality out there that tells them where to go, and how not to get lost in getting there. Scouts believe in honoring your word, and in respecting other's beliefs even if they are very different from your own. They believe in truth, and honesty, and trustworthiness all concepts that indeed have become lost today.

It is almost as if our nation has become lost. We have forgotten our compass, and are wandering aimlessly in the wilderness, looking for the path that would return us to our former greatness as a free, and open American society. It is time for us then as a people to look again for that moral compass, and to find our way out of the woods before the night descends upon us.

It is my belief that we can find our way again for, as I was standing there at silent attention in my own Boy Scout leader's uniform, watching the boys reverently, and lovingly retiring the flag it occurred to me once again, that the Boy Scouts of America have managed to keep their compass. They apparently continue to remember what most of us seem to have forgotten. That if one doesn't stand up for their morals, and beliefs then the morals cease to exist, and there is no guarantee that a boy, striving to become a man won't wander off the path to responsible manhood, and become hopelessly lost instead. By staying the course then the Scouts have ably demonstrated for us all, that a person who stands up for what they believe in even in the face of public scorn exemplifies one of the basic axioms of Scouting itself, that: "A Scout is brave." It seems to me that the Boy Scouts of America are in fact, brightly shining their flashlight on that moral compass for all of us lost out there in the forest of liberal relativism to see the way out.

It's time for us finally to follow, the brave, and cheerful Scout's friendly wave, and find our way home to the campfire. It's getting dark out here.

Sincerely Yours
Al Perrin