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Text of speech delivered by    Dr. Lyle W. Morgan II,
(Eagle Scout, Vigil Honor member W.W.W., Silver Beaver,)  for the Ozark Trails Council Eagle Recognition Banquet on Sunday,
February 12, 1995, at Springfield, MO.
Dr. Morgan will be recognized as one of the National Eagle Scout Association╒s ╥Distinguished Eagles╙ on June 7, 1995.
He is Professor of English at Pittburg State University, Pittsburg, Kansas.
Dr. Morgan's E-mail address is: <[e-mail]>
Permission is granted for reproduction and distribution provided  this document's contents are not modified in any way.

TEXT OF SPEECH:

Friends of Scouting, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Eagle Scouts...

There are no more important people in this room this afternoon than the
young men we honor here.  If there were a Congressman or a United States
senator, a governor, of a chief executive officer of a FORTUNE 500
company here today, there would be no one in the room more important than our new Eagle Scouts.  They are among the most important people in America.

Why do I say this?

Because our new Eagle Scouts are the worthiest members of the greatest
youth organization on Earth--the Boy Scouts of America.

While not alone in serving the needs of children and youth, the BSA is
almost the oldest and certainly the most successful.

When you young men were presented the rank and honor of Eagle Scout at
your Courts of Honor, you joined the two percent of all Scouts who have
achieved this highest and most noble goal.  Just think!  Of the millions
of boys who have joined Scouting since 1910--85 years ago--only TWO out
of every 100 has become an Eagle Scout.

I would like to address my comments here this afternoon to these boys
themselves.

You are "Marked Men."  By achieving the rank of Eagle Scout, each of you
has proven--to yourself, to your community, to your state, to your
country, and even to the World, that you are a CAN DO, WILL TRY person.

One of the pieces of literature that has most spoken to me in my Life
comes from a religious manuscript entitled UNTO THEE I GRANT.  It is a
7th century Tibetan manuscript on Life and Living.  I quote from it now:

    "My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are
impossible.  All are of no value unless they are followed by action.  I
will act now.  Never has there been a map, however carefully executed to
detail and scale, which carried its owner over even one inch of ground.
Action, alone, is the tinder which ignites the map...my dreams, my plans,
my goals, into a living force.  Action is the food and drink which will
nourish my success.  I will act now.  My procrastination which has held
me back was born of fear and now I recognize this secret mined from the
depths of all courageous hearts.  Now I know that to conquer Life I must
always act without hesitation and the flutters in my heart will vanish.
Now I know that action reduces the lion of terror to an act of
equanimity.  I will act now."

And each of you has acted.

I receive a journal for physicians, The Townsend Letter for Doctors.  I
would like to quote from a section called "The Rules for Being Human" at
this time:

>You will receive a body.  You may like it or hate it, but it will be
yours for the entire period.
>You will learn lessons.  You are enrolled in a full-time informal
school, called Life.  Each day in this school you will have the
opportunity to learn lessons.  You may like the lessons or think them
irrelevant and stupid.
>There are no mistakes, only lessons.  Growth is a process of trial and
error:  experimentation.  The "failed" experiments are as much a part of
the process as the experiment that ultimately "works."
>A lesson is repeated until learned.  A lesson will be presented to you
in various forms until you have learned it.  When you have learned it,
you can then go on to the next lesson.
>Learning lessons does not end.  There is no part of Life that does not
contain its lessons.  If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
>"There" is no better than "here."  When your "there" has become a
"here," you will simply obtain another "there" that will, again, look
better than "here."
>Others are merely mirrors of you.  You cannot love or hate something
about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about
yourself.
>What you make of your life is up to you.  You have all the tools and
resources you need.  What you do with them is up to you.  The choice is
yours.
>Your answers to life's questions lie inside you.  All you need to do is
look, listen, and trust.
>You will forget all this.
>You can remember it whenever you want.

I meet so many young people, just a little older than most of you are, in
my work.

So many walk the halls, come into the classroom, looking glum.  They have
no animation, no spark, no sparkle.  And it too often seems, from what
they tell me, that nothing is their own fault.  If they get a poor grade
on a test or a paper, they stream into my office complaining "my
professor was unfair!" "I work 40 hours a week and take 18 hours--how can
my professors expect me to do all they require?"  "I can't be expected to
remember all this stuff!"

This that I've just said goes back to one of the Rules for Being Human:
"What you make of your life is up to you.  You have all the tools and
resources you need.  What you do with them is up to you.  The choice is
yours."

That is the lesson that each of us needs to learn and always to
remember.  IF IT IS TO BE, IT IS UP TO US.

I would like to quote, in part, the words of a great living American
treasure--Marian Wright Edelman--from her book The Measure of Our
Success: A letter to My Children and Yours.

Edelman was born in poverty, lived much of her life suffering from
discrimination.  But a spark inside her, fanned by the positive beliefs
of her parents, sent her to college and on to Yale Law School.  She was
the first African-American woman to be admitted to the Mississippi Bar.
She is the founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund--the most
powerful and national force for children in this country.

    "We need to teach our children--by example--not to be lazy, to do
their homework, to pay attention to detail, to take care and pride in
work, to be reliable, and not to wobble and jerk through life.  Each of
us must take the initiative to create our opportunities, not waiting
around for favors.  We must not assume a door is closed but must push on
it.  We must not assume if it was closed yesterday that it's closed today."

    "Set goals and work quietly and systematically toward them.  We
must all resist quick-fix, simplistic answers and easy gains, which often
disappear just as quickly as they come."

    "Assign yourself.  Don't wait around for your boss [your friends,
your parents] to direct you to do what you are able to figure out and do
for yourself.  Don't do just as little as you can to get by."

    "Be a can do, will try" person.

The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their
commitment to Excellence, regardless of their position in life.

Quality is never an accident.  It is always the result of high intention,
sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution.  It
represents the wise choice from many alternatives.

Each of you new Eagle Scouts possesses one of the greatest gifts of
all--a dedication to excellence.  Use it, grow with it, and never abandon it.

To end my challenge, I want to quote from the "Rules" of another American
treasure--General Colin Powell--an American hero, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:

>It isn't as bad as you think.  It will look better in the morning.
>Get mad, then get over it.
>Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position
falls, your ego goes with it.
[in other words, live Life, have other interests outside your job.  When
your job or rank in Life ends and you have nothing else to fall back on,
you are lost--
Remember that 100 years from now no one will care about the car you
drove, the size of the house you lived in, the dollars in your bank
account.  In most cases, no one will remember who you were.]
>It CAN be done!
>Be careful what you choose.  You may get it.
>Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
>You can't make someone else's choices.  You should not let someone else
make yours.
>Check small things.
[it is the little things, the small, perhaps seemingly insignificant
details--ignored, or left undone, that can disrupt Life in a major way.]
>Share credit
[if it is your original idea, fine; if others had input in planning, even
in a small way, thank them publicly and privately.  Never assume all
credit for yourself whenever the task has been shared.]
>Remain calm.  Be kind.
>Have a vision.
>Don't take counsel of your fears and naysayers.
>Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

May God in His infinite love and greatness, bless each and every one of
you young men--today and always and in all ways throughout your lives.

Thank you.