Tarnishing Scouting's highest award

I was just leafing through the latest issue of Scouting Magazine.

I was rather saddened to learn that the Silver Buffalo award, the highest award in all of Scouting, was recently awarded to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Donald himself is an Eagle Scout BSA. In my eyes, that honour remains untrammeled, as I know how hard it is for a young man to show the commitment and dedication to become an Eagle...and he was probably only 17 at the time and hadn't yet decided what course his life would take.

What I do have an issue with is the Silver Buffalo. Two beloved icons of my Scouting life have been so honoured...my Scoutmaster James Virnelli of Boy Scout Troop 61, who held the position for some 30 years and inspired hundreds of rudderless boys (myself included) on to greater heights. (some 25 of which became Eagle Scouts under his guidance)...and my own father, who was my Cubmaster and Webelos Leader, and spent two decades with North Bay Council (MA) in various local leadership positions...making sure our community had a strong scouting presence.

Mr. Rumsfeld 'earned' the award by simply being the Secretary of Defense, and did nothing for Scouting, the community, or for the youth of our country, except to set up a meat grinder to kill them. For as you know, many Eagle Scouts choose a military career...and many enter the service academies.

Thanks, Mr. Rumsfeld! You've tarnished a cherished award with your stink, and have sent thousands of former scouts and scouters to face their deaths overseas! A true candidate for the Silver Buffalo if there ever was one!