It's a true sign of the times. Gone are the days when the humble boy scout – a rite of passage for
many a young man – simply learned the useful ways of orienteering, knot
tying and other outdoorsy stuff.
In
the current international climate of evil axes and suicide bombings,
like many things in our modern day life, they've needed to adapt to a
new world. Now, instead of training in something as innocent as rock
climbing, they're facing trip-wire, poisonous gas and hostage
situations like real life S.W.A.T. teams. Hardcore.
The new program is a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of
America – The Explorers. They take out faux snipers with pellet guns,
run imitation drug raids, are confronted with staged terrorist
activities and chase down staged illegal border-crossers all in day's
work.
I'm not sure how I feel about this to tell you the truth. I guess on
the one hand it teaches kids how to look after and protect themselves
and others from bad situations. Hopefully at the very least they'll be
able to protect themselves from the kinds of sexual abuse that the
Explorers' program has been surrounded by over the last three decades.
Apparently there have been numerous cases both civil and criminal where
supervising police officers have been charged with a little too much
"exploring" with their young and impressionable scouts... food for
thought.
To the right of this post are some photos of Explorers in action.
via