Former Defense Secretary Dr. Gates: The future of the world depends on leaders like Arrowmen

Dr. Gates spoke as “a leader from one generation to the leaders of the next,” he said. “Young leaders on whom much will depend.”

He said America faces many threats in our “world of oppressive change.” North Korea, China, Russia, as well as conflicts at home, threaten our nation. The time to act is now, he said.

“The future of the world itself will depend on the kind of people we 21st century Americans prove to be,” he said. “And that depends on the kind of leaders you Arrowmen become. Because it starts with you.”

After all, who else but Arrowmen and the other members of the Boy Scouts of America will step up to accept this responsibility? Celebrities certainly won’t do it.

“When was the last time you heard a celebrity you like … speak of responsibility or honor or duty?” Dr. Gates asked.

So it has to be Arrowmen and other Boy Scouts.

“In all our lives there are people who seek after wealth and the many kinds of power without regard to what is right or true or decent,” Dr. Gates said. “And yet you here tonight and countless others in Scouting and in the Order of the Arrow demonstrate daily that Scouting offers an alternative. That a life based on … Scouting values can be adventurous, fulfilling and uplifting to an entire community and to a nation. And it starts with you.”

Dr. Gates, a Distinguished Eagle Scout and our current Boy Scouts of America president, has worked with countless world leaders in his day. He has worked alongside eight U.S. presidents, 14 secretaries of State, 13 secretaries of Defense, nine chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and “more general and admirals than I can count.”

Yet in all that experience, Dr. Gates says, “I never found better insight into what truly makes a leader than in the Ordeal ceremony of the Order of the Arrow.”

The OA, Dr. Gates said, offers unparalleled lessons in self-confidence, self-awareness, a spirit of cheerful service, and the importance of values and virtue.

“There is no finer program for preparing young Americans for leadership at home and abroad than the Boy Scouts of America and the Order of the Arrow,” he said.

http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2015/08/04/former-defense-secretary-dr-gates-the-future-of-the-world-depends-on-leaders-like-arrowmen/