Boy Scout Troop 325
By George Denise, Scoutmaster
Our theme this month is Citizenship. We are citizens of many things: certainly our country, but we are citizens of our state, and our communities too. We owe an allegiance to all of them. They provide most of the things we need and cherish. Alone in the wilderness, most of us would soon wither and die. Yet a city, a state, a country, all are only as good as the people who make them up, and the people are only as good as their deeds.
George Bernard Shaw, a famous English playwright, stated:
"I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community... and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is not brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
Shaw wished to live a long life and to work hard all his life, making a meaningful contribution to others. Coming from a poor, lower middle-class family, with an alcoholic father, Shaw lived to the age of 94 and he produced over 104 major written works during his life.
Helen Keller was rendered deaf and blind by a severe fever when she was nineteen months old. She could not read, speak, nor by her own admittance in later life, even think coherent thoughts. Yet in her teens, she was taught to read raised letters and Braille, and then to speak. She went on to attend Radcliff College and was the first blind deaf person in history to earn a Bachelor’s degree. She also wrote several books in later years, and lived to the age of 84. Helen Keller once stated:
"I am only one: but I am still one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do."
Citizenship is doing the best you can with what God has given you. It is trying to make a contribution. It is helping others.
Don't wait to be great men. Be great boys!
Thank you, and God be with you!