Peeing in the Dark…
I was all alone, deep in the countryside at Slippery Falls, just northwest of Tishomingo, Oklahoma. Chigger bites covered my 15-year-old body. I set up a lean-to and started a fire.
My scoutmaster, Alvin Williams, had flown me down to an airstrip in Madill in a Cessna 172. After landing, it was a 20-minute drive to camp using an airport loaner. Alvin spent his own money on me, but I think the trip also counted toward maintaining his Pilot’s Rating.
It was my very first time in an airplane.
I fell asleep in the backseat.
Alvin got a kick out of that.
He had entered me into a Boy Scout leadership program. It lasted 6 days, Monday-Saturday. For 2 days I was on my own — doing survival training. The other 4 days I was grouped with 7 scouts around my age. We set up camp, cooked our own food, learned new skills, and competed against 3 rival groups using our newfound knowledge.
There were no bathrooms or showers, so we dug a latrine. Which was a three-foot-deep hole about 40 feet from our tents. We bathed only one time during the week, in the 2-acre pond near the center of the camp.
At night, a couple of the scouts met up to ‘get busy’ with each other out in the woods. No one monitored these activities, but we knew what they were doing. It was an open secret.
A little over a month ago, (on September 8, 2022), a judge in Delaware federal bankruptcy court granted final approval for the reorganization plan for the Boy Scouts of America — one set to pay out more than $2.4 billion in compensation to more than 82,000 sexual abuse survivors. The Court found that the BSA’s liability for abuse will have initial funding of $2.279 billion to survivors: $78 million from the BSA, $515 million from local councils, $30 million from the United Methodist Church, and $1.656 billion from settling insurers.
You see, it wasn’t just scouts who were getting busy with each other. Some predators became scoutmasters to prey on young men. Unchecked selfishness + sexual desire is a horrible combination. It causes people to commit reprehensible crimes, lying to themselves the whole time.
Let me be clear — the vast majority of scoutmasters are unselfish, outstanding individuals. They give up huge chunks of time and money to mentor young men who need someone to care. As is often the case, the actions of a tiny few stain an entire organization.
It breaks my heart what happened to the Boy Scouts. The only winners were the lawyers, who made a killing. I can’t help but wonder how many cases of sexual abuse were made up just to get in on the money. I also can’t discount the harm done to the true victims.
So very, very sad.
Meanwhile, 44 years ago, I was all alone — deep in the woods not far from the Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge. Covered in chigger bites. Scrounging for berries to eat without making myself sick. Starting a fire using no matches nor lighter.
I learned skills that last to this day. How to improvise and solve problems. Trusting myself to survive without help from others. Facing fears of the unknown.
I guess I’m lucky.
I never felt any danger peeing in the dark…
