As far as I know, it's a Christian organization, right? I know they don't allow homosexuals. And like other Christian organizations, there's probably a whole lotta buggary going on there.
My brother-in-law's kid is way into it. It came up in a conversation I just had and got me thinking. Being too lazy to do any research, I'm asking you guys what you think.
I have one Boy Scout experience. Jeff knows about this, but I'm gonna tell it anyway.
I got hooked up with some troup, I don't remember who's idea it was. Not mine, I can tell you that. I've never been one who spent their free time doing activities.
Anyway, I think it was my first day and we were at the Den Father's (?) house, building fucking Nativity scenes with power tools. I was just going along with it.
Later, the kid who lived there hung out in his room with a couple of us. While we sat in this kid's bedroom, Den Father started yelling at Den Mother. The yelling escalated into a beating.
We heard all of it. Her pleading with him to not do this while there were kids in the house. Screaming. Him screaming at her. He beat her with something, maybe it was open-palmed slapping; maybe it was a belt.
We all asked the kid what we should do. He stared at the carpet and I think he told us to wait, that it would be over soon.
After that night, I was out. I must've told my parents about it, although I reminded them of this story recently and they had no recollection.
So, pretty fucked up stuff.
What do you think of the Boy Scouts organization?
One love.
9 comments:
Boy scouts are fine, they weren't as Christiany in my kids' day, or maybe they were and I didn't notice. I was a girl scout leader for a year and there was none o' that shit going on with our troop. We did do cookies, though. Ugh.
Anyhow, while you experienced that scenario once, at a scout meeting, I fookin' lived it. 'Course mom was forced to spew out two more kids (6 in all) before she was finally able to leave. We moved from New Orleans to Michigan, on New Years day cos even after the divorce, dad would come over and beat her up for kicks. Replace your boy scout troop with the Mardi Gras. Pah - I had fookin' clowns and floats! Still, I only caught the tail end of the abuse; my older sibs had it much worse. And I rather like Mardi Gras still.
What I really remember of that time was the obscene phone caller she picked up soon after she moved us all out. That fucker dogged us for several years. I still hate answering the phone to this day and if I hear silence on the other end for more than a second, I hang up.
What? TMI? You brought it up, MV!
No, not at all!! That's terrible shit. Nobody should have to go through that.
I've been spaced out by this topic because my memories of the incident are coming back. I remember thinking I was going to step in. I don't know how old I was, but I couldn't understand why we were just sitting there when, I thought, my mere presence in the doorway would be enough to make him stop, at least for the moment.
But now that I think of it, I think he was raping her. And once I realized that, I was too freaked out to move. I don't remember leaving the house.
It's a worthless fucking asshole who would do that to a woman. I wish I could've walked in and had the strength to throw that muther fucker out the window.
I'm like Russell Crowe in L.A. Confidential. I ever see anything like that again, I'm gonna go apeshit on the guy.
I've been spaced out by this topic because my memories of the incident are coming back.
I understand completely! I find that happening a lot - memories that have the meaning you've always thought they had, then you look at them as an adult observer, and realize what was really going on. It's fookin' odd and disconcerting. By today's standards, what you saw was not only domestic violence, but heinous child abuse, too.
Like I said, I was lucky because I was the 4th of 6 and a girl so I didn't get much of the abuse which normally involved a lot of intimidation and derision and spankings. My dad was nicer to the girls (not in that way, thank goodness, tho I think an uncle was so inclined, but not with me) but we still had to watch the boys get whipped a lot. Dad always picked on the oldest boys, in all his subsequent families, too. I have three brothers who were damaged by having to watch and listen and not be able to do anything to protect their mom. It's with them still because that kind of helplessness hits to the core of every male of our species, the instinct to protect the females and young. Sticks with ya.
And to top it off, we have both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in our family as well as alcoholism. We're Irish-German, it's to be expected. I always say my family is physically healthy as horses, we're just wacky. *wink*
We're also, to a one, creatively inclined, with higher than average IQ. All artistically inclined, all with musical ability, academically (until the teen years when we all discovered drugs and alcohol) above average. All that, and I was the only one who got a degree or went to therapy to fix some of the damage. Too bad for my brothers. One found God and the others drink and relive the horror. Ick. BTDT
I have to make clear, too, my dad wasn't the slob in the wifebeater on COPS, he was an engineer who worked on the Apollo projects in Houston and Dallas and then was an exec in Detroit until the late '90s when he retired to a cool house on a golf course in AZ. We were totally well off. Or he was, cos after the divorce, he was really bad about child support, and it was a bitch feeding 6 kids on a night job at a bottling plant. Women were paid shit back then, too, though we're still not up to the same pay level as men! Boo! One xmas memory is of my mom, alone in her room, crying that she didn't have enough money for great presents for all of us. Prolly why I overcompensate for my kids on xmas, now.
All that's pretty much why I got my degree in Psychology and Sociology and why I understand what Jeff is going through. I've had clinical depression. I found a good therapist and thought of the kids. They needed me. It was painful, but it was worth it. The key is the therapist, too, no pill is going to "fix" you alone.
Of course, the divorce helped; I'd always been taken care of, now I had to do it on my own. What was cool was I finally felt in control, and it felt good. I don't recommend it for everyone, but divorce really made me feel free. Woohoo!
That's some heavy shit. I've had an awful week by the way. Feel a little better tonight, but may be slipping into another hole. I love my therapist, too, but once I start to slide, there's nothing much he can do besides remind me when I was better and what's important. Helpless.
No! Don't go! You're not helpless!
I may have staved it off with a little pot last night, Coyote. May be ok. Don't feel good today now.
Well, sometimes that helps, but really, it would be best to stay away from the booze during these times, as I'm sure you know. It makes it worse, not better.
Booze is bad.
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