I think now is an appropriate time for a history lesson, boyz and girlz. Now don't worry. I'm not going to spend time here campaigning for one candidate or another. I've made my choice, and I'm sure most of you have made yours. But we can tend to get caught up in the last minute frenzy of politics that might make us pause, or flip or doubt ourselves or even what it is that is most important to us as a country.
I think a little required reading will help. If you're sure of your vote, it will just enhance you. If you're not sure, maybe it will help.
The following was written some years ago by my Daddy (aka Larry Parsons, aka Pops), to educate a troop of boy-scouts on how things got started. It's called "It's a Republic, if you can keep it". I love it.
Once upon a time there were a handful of boys that liked to camp out. In the community where they lived, there was a small farm. In addition to his crops, the Farmer kept a few hens and had a small apple orchard. On the far side of the farm, a good way from the barnyards and roads was a small wood with a cool fresh water spring, an ideal place for overnight camping.
Each time the boys wanted to camp out, they would politely ask the Farmers permission and the Farmer would always agree. He would say “keep the noise down, keep your fire small, and make sure you douse the fire before you leave”.
The boys had great fun camping in the Farmers woods. They would brag to their friends at school about the cool stuff that they did on their camping adventures. As time went on, more and more boys wanted to join the group.
As with all large groups, not all of the boys liked the same things, and naturally gathered as smaller subgroups of like minded boys. Some boys liked to play ‘Capture the Flag’, others liked Dutch oven cooking and others liked other stuff. The boys came to call these subgroups ‘Patrols’. Each Patrol chose a name like Fox or Wolf and created a unique Patrol Flag.
The Patrols would select their own camping area in the woods. They ate and played together and just did their own thing most of the time.
It became a tradition though, that at sundown the patrols would gather together around a shared camp fire to sing songs and tell scary stories and stuff. When the camp fires flame turned to glowing embers, the boys would quietly return to their Patrol sites and bed down for the night.
Now on those camping weekends that carried over to Sunday, most of the boys would gather in the morning around the ashes of last nights campfire in quiet prayer to thank their Creator for the right to camp however they wanted. As you would expect from a group of young boys, these were not long drawn out services and they would quickly return to their Patrol sites for breakfast.
Things did not always go well and occasionally there would be disagreements among Patrol members and sometimes even between Patrols. They decided that each Patrol would select a Patrol Leader to represent the Patrol as a group. Each patrol member had one vote and which ever member got the most votes would be the Patrol Leader for the next two campouts. They made the vote by writing a name down on as small slip of paper and putting them in to a hat to be counted at the end. That way no one would know who voted for whom.
One weekend, when they were still camping at the Farmers woods, The Wolf Patrol set up their campsite around the fresh water spring. There was an unwritten rule of camping etiquette that Patrol members would respect the other Patrols campsites and always ask permission before entering or crossing through another Patrols site. So when it came time for the other Patrols to get water and the Wolf Patrol suggested that they share some of their food in return for passage through their campsite, the Patrol Leaders got involved. The matter was quickly resolved as it was two against one.
It was not long, maybe when the group had grown to around three patrols that the Farmer got involved. One time he told them that if they wanted to camp in his woods, that each boy had to buy an apple from him for a nickel. Another time he told them that if they wanted to have eggs for breakfast, they had to buy them from him or pay him a nickel for each egg that they brought from home.
The boys thought that the Farmers ‘Apple Act’ and ‘Egg Act’ was a bunch of bull. They realized that they needed to find a different place to camp. They needed to get organized. They needed to get some help from the older boys and their parents. Someone suggested that the Patrol Leaders get together at some ones house on the Monday before the camping weekend. They could decide on a place to camp, make arrangements for transportation and such. This arrangement worked well for quite a while. The group really liked going to different places for their weekend adventures. They even gave the group a name. They called themselves the Loudoun Camping Club.
The Club continued to grow and as time went on, younger boys joined and some of the older boys lost interest and dropped out. Some boys joined different Patrols and new Patrols were formed.
Of the boys that lost interest, one parent observed that it was “something in the air, either the smell of gasoline or the smell of perfume”.
The Club had grown to thirteen Patrols and at one of the Monday Patrol Leader meetings; someone suggested they also plan the menu for the upcoming weekend campout. Someone could buy all of the food and the Patrol members could chip in for their fare share. That way they could all save some money. Some agreed and others objected so a vote was taken. The result was seven to six and the menu was planned.
As one might expect, the weekend did not go as planned. Ben was the patrol leader of the ‘Fox’ Patrol and Alex and Powel members. Ben complained that two hot dogs was not enough for his dinner, Alex said he was allergic to peanut butter and Powel asked why he had to pay the same as others if he didn’t like beans.
One of the older boys suggested that it was time to write down some rules. “We need to let them know just what we want them to do” he said of the Patrol Leaders Meetings. “And we need to get everybody to agree on the rules” he added. They decided that the upcoming Patrol Leader meetings would be dedicated to writing down the rules.
For these meetings, The Patrol Leader would pick a member of his Patrol to attend with him. Ben picked Alex to go with him. They would dedicate as many meetings as necessary to get rules set down that every one could agree on.
Well the boys worked very hard for several Monday meetings. There was much discussion back and forth, sometimes loud and heated. They talked about the idea of majority rule and how that had screwed up the menu thing. At one particularly heated meeting, someone even suggested that they take a break and pray over the meeting, which they did.
They began to make progress, starting off by saying that the purpose of the rules was to allow them to do things that were in the interest of all Patrols as a group. They decided to have a Club Chief that would be selected by all of the members. His job would be to make sure that the rules were enforced. They decided that once they had all of the rules set down, at least three fourths of the Patrols would have to agree with them before they took effect. They also said that any changes to the rules had to be agreed to by the same three fourths.
One week between meetings, Ben bumped into Powel at school. They talked some about the rules that they were working on. Powel asked; “What about that spring water deal that the Wolf Patrol tried to pull back at the Farmers woods?” Ben replied; “We got that covered, one of the rules is that they will make sure that no Patrol can keep another Patrol from crossing their campsite if they are going to get something that is needed by all of the Patrols”.
So on a hot, humid July Monday night in Sterling, they had something that they could take to the Patrols to look at. They scheduled one last Monday meeting to finalize the rules after the Patrol Leaders had a chance to discuss them with their Patrol members. In Bens meeting, Powel asked “where is the menu thing fixed”. Ben said that “there is no rule that allows them to set our menus”. Powel’s reply was; “where does it say that they can not?” Ben acknowledged his concern and said that he would get them to change it in the final meeting.
At the final meeting, there were nine other changes that the Patrols wanted. When Ben proposed the tenth change to fix the menu problem Alex suggested that it shouldn’t be just the menu but it should cover everything else. So they decided that the last change would say that everything else not in the rules would be up to the Patrols.
So when they were all done, Ben returned to his Patrol. Powell said to Ben “So what’s the deal, what do we have?”
And Ben replied “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
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