I Have a Dream

I am happy to join with you over this blog in an event that will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our ward.

Precisely five score years ago, truly a giant of a man, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell wrote a book by the name of Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship. Thus, the BSA was founded on Good Citizenship. The idea that people could contribute to society of their own free will. That is what made the program so great: people striving to become better citizens and ultimately create a more productive civilization.

Then, in 1911, the name of the highest rank achievable in the BSA changed from the Wolf to the most powerful of birds, The Eagle. As the years went on, the BSA honed in on an idea: the idea that hard work always precedes the fruit of their labors. That hard work always came before the next rank, award, or recognition. That we must sow before we reap. The system started out by the young men having to only receive a certain number of merit badges, but as their focus narrowed to what the BSA truly wanted, they made it harder and harder to obtain the rank of Eagle. The requirement came all the way up to 21 merit badges, several ranks to climb, and a 3 month service project.

Now today, close to one hundred years later, we find ourselves with a problem: the Eagle rank loses more and more prestige every day. It would seem that people have forgotten the saying, "Once an Eagle Scout, Always an Eagle Scout." More importantly, people have forgotten all together what it means to be an Eagle Scout.

I have a dream this day!

My dream, contrary to many peoples' beliefs does not discourage getting an Eagle. My dream is that a young man can wake up in the morning not in fear or under oppression and decide for himself that he wants to soar among the Eagles... Eagles are a great example in the way that they teach their young to fly. When ready, they take their young children on their backs and then roll, dropping the young eagle into the depths. Just before the young eagle hits the ground, the parent swoops down and saves the young one from its fatal plummet. They repeat this until the young eagle learns for itself how to use its wings. Cruel might you say? Nay, it is not. For if the parents had left the young eagles on their backs or in the nest, they would never had learned how to truly fly.

I have a dream this day!!

That my future children can grow up in a ward that will not judge them on a silver medallion on their uniform, but on the effort the put forward to being a Good Citizen. And that because my children want to be good citizens, they will look up or forward to those few who have chosen and put forth an honest effort to become an eagle.

I have a dream this day!!!

That the Eagle can mean something again. That it won't be my parent, leader, or neighbor's dog's friend's uncle's cousin whose wing I will be floating on to get my Eagle. That by what I sow, so shall I reap.

Truly yours,
Daniel Force

p.s. No offense Sister Wixom.