By JAMES J. KUROPATWINSKI
District Chair
Sangre de Cristo District of the Great Southwest Council
Scoutmaster Emeritus
I saw the most awesome thing Saturday. In Albuquerque, at a New Mexico United soccer match being played on a temporarily sodded-over American baseball field – I witnessed 50 immigrants get sworn in by a U.S. Federal judge to become Citizens of the United States of America. Over 9,000 fans of the world’s Beautiful Game burst into applause as many of the new Citizens wept tears of joy, and not a few fell to their knees and kissed the ground of their new homeland. And in attendance: BSA scouts from across New Mexico – including Los Alamos – bore witness to the Beauty that this nation still offers.
The spirit of scouting is woven into the fabric of the Los Alamos community. Scouting in the United States started in 1910, and the Scouting story began in Los Alamos in 1918. We all know the story of the Los Alamos Ranch School and how its founders organized their academic and outdoor program around the principles of the (then new) BSA Scout program: the principles of character, citizenship, and fitness. Principles that are still instilled into Scouts today.
The Honorable Steven C. Yarbrough, U. S. Magistrate judge for the State of New Mexico, administered the Oath of Allegiance to 50 new American Citizens. These new citizens were called to support and defend the U.S. Constitution; bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution; bear arms and perform non-combatant service when needed; perform work of national significance; and to do these with the assistance of God. Every week, we have scouts from kindergarten to high school recite the Scout Oath and Law that contain these same elements of duty to Self, duty to Country, and duty to God. These sentiments are spoken by boys and girls, young men and women, ages 6 to 18, every week when they recite the words “On my honor…”, and “A Scout is….” Scouting is truly an amazing movement that is desperately needed in our community today.
Judge Yarbrough invited those 50 new U.S. Citizens from 18 countries to live according to the spirit of the soccer team we were about to watch: Live United. I invite the families of Los Alamos and White Rock to see if Scouting is for you. There will be recruitment events this fall around town. I myself will be at the Los Alamos High School Open House Wednesday (Aug. 24) with scouts from Los Alamos and White Rock to share how scouting has impacted our lives. Another opportunity will be an informational night at the Catholic Church in Los Alamos at 7 p.m. Sept. 13. We will have representatives from the various scout units available, and also be able to connect you with other scouting organizations that are not Scouts BSA.
In the words of Baden Powell, the founder of the modern Scouting movement, “Teach Scouts not how to get a living, but how to live.” I invite you to see if the life of a Scout is a life you want to live.
