Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
He Did It First
February 14, 2006
Larry Polyak, Scoutmaster

A long long time ago, when I had only had my driver's license for a couple of years, I found myself driving on an unfamiliar road in the afternoon. I got in line behind another car in the left lane, turned on my turn signal, waited for the light to turn green, and made a left turn. Suddenly, a police car appeared behind me with its lights flashing. I pulled over, and the policemen got out and came to my window. He explained that there was a sign at the intersection that read "No left turn between 3pm and 6pm". I looked at my watch and saw that it was 4pm. I said "But another guy in front of me did it first - I was just following him!" He shrugged and said "Well I couldn't catch you both, and you did it last, so I caught you.", and he gave me a ticket.

For a long time, I thought about how unfair that was. But in retrospect, it wasn't unfair at all. I broke the law, I deserved a ticket. It's as simple as that.

"He did it first!" is not a good a reason for doing something wrong. I have heard that "reason" several times since I have been scoutmaster. I heard it on our last ski outing. I asked a scout "Why did you push him down?" The reply I got was "He pushed me first." This weekend at the Moreland Woods cleanup I told a scout "Don't throw things at other people." The reply? - "He threw it at me first!". Well you know what? - it doesn't matter. It's human nature to fight back in the same manner, but try to avoid that response. Just think what our society would be like if every time someone did something wrong, it gave the next guy a legal right to repeat it. It would be chaos.

If someone does something to you, don't repeat his mistake. If it was harmful, tell someone. If it wasn't, ignore it. It's hard! It's much harder to ignore it than it is to react and make the situation worse. If you do ignore it, don't be surprised if he repeats it himself, because he didn't get the reaction he wanted the first time. But be the bigger man. Let the guy who "did it first" be the guy "who did it last" and be the guy who gets into trouble, not you.

Thanks for listening.