A Ceremony that Counts: Eagle Scout Award Trumps the Academy Awards
Ventura Star, March 13, 2006

By Terry Paulson, PhD

Sunday night was a study in contrasts. There was the glitz and glamour of the 78th Academy Awards Ceremony, and there was the heartwarming satisfaction of attending a Boy Scout Eagle Ceremony for a young man we'd watched growing up. As any red-bloodied American, we tried to make room for both. I Tivo'd the Academy Awards and headed off to Westlake Lutheran Church for the Eagle Ceremony for John Francis Murphy IV.

The Academy Awards selections this year were an exercise in obscurity and political activism. The movies nominated for Best Picture were not epics; they were niche movies with small budgets and even smaller audiences. Thank goodness they had clips of film highlights, or people might not have even known what they were about.

I must confess that my wife and I liked Walk the Line and Pride & Prejudice. We even found the Best Picture winner, Crash, a thought-provoking, well-acted movie. But those movies aside, all the buzz was about cowboy gay themes and a Desperate Housewife playing a transvestite. Still others focused on trashing US covert operations and unethical drug industry czars. Emcee Jon Stewart said it best: "A lot of people say this town is too liberal, out of touch with mainstream America, an atheistic pleasure dome, a modern day beachfront Sodom and Gomorrah, a moral black hole where innocence is obliterated in an endless orgy of sexual gratification and greed. I don't really have a joke here. I just thought you should know a lot of people are saying that. I've been to the parties!"

The Academy loves edgy pieces where their antagonists are rich, evil business executives or overly zealous Republican politicians bent on controlling the world. They save the best roles for liberal characters who can't win elections in the real world. Stewart provided the best line of the evening: "The Oscars is really, I guess, the one night you could see all your favorite stars without having to donate money to the Democratic Party. And it's exciting for the stars as well. This is the first time many of you have voted for a winner. No, it's good--enjoy. Enjoy your votes!"

I celebrate the freedom in America we have that allows Hollywood screenwriters to be critical of our country. But actors and directors act as though their actions are somehow courageous. Their "courageous" pieces get applauded in Hollywood and receive numerous industry awards. It would be truly courageous for a film to have a Republican hero or an executive who outsourced low-paying jobs to an impoverished village in desperate need of hope. No, that kind of courage would be seen as selling out. Courage in Hollywood is defined as saying something all liberals will applaud.

At John's Eagle Scout ceremony, we applauded something far greater. The emcee quipped that the best supporting actor award should go to Debbie Murphy, John's mother, for all the work she has done to shepherd John through the scouting maze. This was America at its best. We celebrated values worth valuing! We talked about a young man giving over 300 hours of service, of going above and beyond expectations and mentoring other younger scouts.

Families had bought their own young scouts to show them what they could achieve if they worked hard. The mayor of Thousand Oaks was there to congratulate John. There were letters from Presidents and a flag that had flown at the US Capital. As with all ceremonies, John gave a brief acceptance speech.

I congratulated one of the scout leaders after the event, and indicated that we had increased our financial support of the Boy Scouts ever since the ACLU had made them a target. He was gracious in his reply, "The ACLU has done some good things over the years, but their efforts against the Boy Scouts of America has taken dollars and hours of volunteer time away from developing more young men like John Francis."

The Boy Scouts had made a difference in my own life. As a young boy in Atlanta, I achieved my Life Scout Award and became a member of the Order of the Arrow. I attribute my love of backpacking and my confidence in handling most survival situations in the wilderness to those years. I never achieved my Eagle Award. When I moved to California, I joined a troop that loved to camp and play but did little to build a culture of excellence like John had in troop 775.

Which award ceremony do you think is more important to America? As for me, give me more Eagle Award Ceremonies and young men equipped and ready to be responsible citizens. I'd rather support an organization that celebrates what is right with America and tries to perpetuate that than patronize Hollywood liberals eager to bash anything American in pursuit of artistic "excellence." Supporting freedom of expression does not mean we have to appreciate their products or pay ten dollars to see movies the industry feels are worthy of an Academy Award.

Dr. Terry Paulson is a psychologist, speaker and author of The Dinner: The Political Conversation Your Mother Told You Never to Have. Share your comments at his PoliticalTalk Blog or contact him at Terry@TerryPaulson.com.

—May we never forget how truly blessed we are!