Scouting has the power to help boys become solid citizens

"The free institutions of the United States and the political rights enjoyed there provide a thousand continual reminders to every citizen that he lives in a society. At every moment they bring his mind back to this idea, that it is the duty as well as the interest of men to be useful to their fellows."

— Alexis de Tocqueville, "Democracy in America" (1835)

We have little time to get it right, making boys into good men and thereby good fathers and citizens. The interlude between Fathers Day and Independence Day is a worthy time to pause and reflect upon how we make "keystone" citizens in America — ones able to hold up the arch of democracy. As we know, men commit the lion's share of violent crimes and wield the greatest threats to the civil peace. It's not as though some women are not capable of great evil, only that, statistically, if you gamble, that's not where to place your money. Look to world history and America's cellblocks for the sad evidence.

Boys are quicker than girls to escalate conflict to violence. Women cooperate and men compete, to simplify it. Something in testosterone stokes the flames of machismo. To safely channel that drive for adventure, physical testing, and "envelope" expanding, one needs structured discipline and guidelines.

Hence the need for good men and good fathers on June 21. Their good example is the steel reinforcing bars in a boy's concrete foundation. A father can be displaced but not replaced by some other than a man. American society's conventional wisdom accepts that displacement. As a country, this has cost us dearly. Our crowded prisons are, in large part, testament to absent fathers. Some single mothers manage admirably, but they are the exception and are at considerable disadvantage.

On my wife's suggestion, I was blessed to discover Boy Scouting as a proven way to connect more deeply as a father with our one child and share with him important rights of passage to his manhood and productive citizenship. Now a Life Scout angling for Eagle, he is living a father-son experience rich in clean adventure and crisscrossed with the teachings of a productive life. Scouting holds onto the timeless, values-laden instruction worth believing in while lifting a boy's sights to noteworthy achievement. My son is learning "to be useful to his fellows," as de Tocqueville wrote.

Scouting takes a boy into the heart of our rapidly disappearing wild lands and teaches him to respect nature. His "Leave No Trace" code makes him a steward of the earth, a godly principle. An obedient scout leaves the outdoors better than he found it. Conservation in America is strengthened by this ethic.

Scouting insists on a reverence for God. Moral purity is still required of a scout. Groups unhinged from immutable truth have attacked both of these principle requirements in federal court. As John Adams believed, our representative and limited government is designed and suited only for a moral and religious people. As July 4th approaches, we do well to recommit to that fundamental philosophical tenet.

Scouting promotes physical conditioning and strength as a means to build confidence to face adversity. Mental alertness - intellectual curiosity - directs a life of learning.

Regarding raising a boy, C.S. Lewis, pointing out the incongruity of feminism's attack on manhood, stated that one cannot "neuter the gelding and then bid him be fruitful." Boys need challenge. They need manly tests to gain healthy assurance of their own manhood. Scouting provides that in spades to the future of American fatherhood and thus the foundation of family and citizenry.

Looking back on Fathers Day, let us be grateful to the fathers made for us and dedicate ourselves to those we are making now. Let us, also, look forward to Independence Day, and the accountable citizens we are making of our children. No finer institution is here in the Lowcountry for that purpose than the Coastal Carolina Council of Boy Scouts of America. In the coming year, 2010, the Boy Scouts of America will be 100 years old. Do your part to strength it in our community - bring a boy into Scouting and keep him there until he becomes a good man. Give generously to support the Boy Scouts, a Trident United Way organization.

Frederick J. Whittle is the Chief Operating Officer of Jupiter Holdings and the Vice President of Finance for the Coastal Carolina Council, BSA.