Mr. Coppinger Goes To Washington

Howdy folks!

Oh man, did I ever have a good weekend! Took the boys to D.C. and it was amazing. Took a tour of the Capitol, walked Arlington, saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier (if you have never seen this, make plans to do so!) Said a prayer at the Kennedy graves. We stopped at the USMC Monument (flag-raising at Iwo Jima) and we were lucky enough to have a veteran of Pearl Harbor and Iwo Jima there to tell the boys the story behind it. He was a remarkable gentleman and the boys were fascinated. What was supposed to be a 10 minute talk turned into a 1-1/2 hours.

After that, we walked The Mall; stopping at the Lincoln Memorial (breathtaking), the Vietnam Wall (heartbreaking - a family was there laying flowers beneath a loved ones name) the Korean War memorial (beautiful) and the new WWII Memorial. That was another highpoint. We had a tour guide who was going off duty but when he saw a troop of Boy Scouts (every one in full Class-A uniform!) he came over and asked if we'd like a tour anyway. We spent the next two hours with one of the most remarkable story-tellers I have ever met. the man was brilliant and the boys loved every minute of it.

The high point of the weekend came when we stopped at Fort McHenry in Baltimore on the way home. I saw something there that I can't even really describe to you, but I'll try.

Boys of this age (12-18) are forever losing things. It's become a running joke in our Troop that if an adult finds an item that a boy leaves behind, we make him sing a song for everyone in order to get it back. (usually: "I'm a little Teapot", or something equally silly) Well, we had a boy who lost a small item and because we were in D.C., the adult leader who found it asked him to sing "The Star Spangled Banner". Well, you could have heard a pin drop when the boy said: "What's that? I don't know that song." Needless to say, his mission for the weekend was to learn the song, so he could get his item back. Just as a way to tease him for not knowing the song, we told him he'd have to stand on one of the walls at the Fort and sing it for us. Well, he learned the song from the other Scouts and after we'd completed our tour of the Fort (with another amazing guide!)we told him to go ahead and sing. Laughing and slightly embarrased, he stepped up on the outer rampart and began the first verse in a squawking, stuttering, mumble.

What happened next was one of the most dramatic and touching things I've ever seen in my life.

With no word from any adult, and without any type of discussion, every single one of our boys climbed up onto that rampart beside their friend and began to sing with him. In moments, the entire Troop of thirty-odd boys was singing loud and clear; proudly belting out our National Anthem atop the very walls that had inspired it. The entire Fort came to a stop. Visitors, workers, volunteers . . . everyone there stopped to listen and when they had finished, to give them a standing ovation. Every adult leader in our Troop (myself included!) had tears in their eyes. It was the type of moment that you never expect to see anywhere in real life: it belonged on a movie screen. And you wanna know what the true beauty of it was?

The boys had no idea they'd done anything out of the ordinary!

They were truly shocked by the response they got to their song. When I spoke to them afterward, they all said essentially the same thing: they saw their friend up there alone -and nervous- and just wanted to help him out. Besides, they figured if they were gonna sing that song anywhere, this was the place . . .

How's that for simple courage and decency? Folks, if you've ever had any fear about the type of future leaders this Nation will have: set them aside! I've seen what the leaders of tomorrow look like and I'll sleep easy knowing there are still kids like this out there.

Damn, it was a great weekend!

Later!