Boy Scout Troop 325 Scoutmaster Minute
Dec 14, 2010
Andy Duprey, Scoutmaster
As many of you know, I was raised in a very strict Catholic family and attended Catholic School through eighth grade. Also, many of you have asked me if I was a scout when I was a boy. I have always said that my family had neither the money nor transportation for scouting, which is true, as far as it goes. Many of you know that I grew up in the 60's and early 70's, on the Lower East Side of Santa Barbara, which is still today a working class part of town. It is also true that none of the Catholic Churches in our area sponsored scouts, nor did our school. The closest pack was on the 'other' side of town.
This is what I think happened. My parents, who were as active in our lives, as I am in the lives of my children, were the kind of people who would start programs, if they did not exist. My father was big into our local CYO and the Knights of Columbus, and my brothers and I participated in their events. But why did he not choose scouting to encourage us to participate in? I believe that there was a consistent and pervasive ant-catholic bias against us. And, I believe that my parents demonstrated a clear bias against non-Catholics, because of the slights and biases they had felt growing up.
Catholics were easy targets of bias at the time. The nation had just elected the first and only Catholic president, after much gut wrenching discussion, as my father put it "as to whether or not a Catholic was good enough to be president". This with the legacy of many generations of Irish American being seen as "illegal immigrants stealing jobs from hard working Americans" (look up the start of the "Know Nothing Party)"-Catholics were definitely an out group. We also stood out, making us easy to put in the "out group". We wore uniforms to school, walked around with ashes on our foreheads during Lent, ate no meat on Fridays and fasted on holy days.
Now, I can say that the worst thing that happened to me was being hassled by kids that did not go to our school, as to why I was so stupid that I wore the same clothes to school every day, or why I did not wash my forehead before going to school. I can also say that, because of my experience and how I was taught by my parents I have developed biases and stereotypes of my own, though my parents also instilled in me a great desire for tolerance.
What is tolerance? It the ability to live and let others live, even those whose opinions, practices, religion, nationality and so on differ from you own. Tolerance is also the foundation of our civil society.
I ask you tonight to think: am I tolerant of my friends, neighbors, school mates and colleagues who may be different from me?
Thank you and good night scouts.