A troubling email from a self-proclaimed scout

It is only mid-January, yet Americans on both sides of the continent have already faced with different kinds of natural disasters, a mudslide in the west and a bomb cyclone in the east. These could partly be attributed to the global climate change. However, there is another shocker that has nothing to do with the phenomenon just hit a small part of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) family, namely the Vietnamese units of this National Scout Organization.

The shocker is a very troubling email sent to Michael J. Lo Vecchio, the Program-Advancement Specialist with the BSA. The email, included verbatim at the end of this writing, was written by Tran Anh-Tuan, a self-proclaimed scout.

Following are a few observations.

First of all, Mr. Tran Anh-Tuan has failed to understand the fundamentals of salutation in letter writing, be it formal, semi-formal or informal. In addressing Mr. Michael J. Lo Vecchio, Mr. Tran Anh-Tuan omitted the word “Dear” and the courtesy title, “Mr.”

Also, the last name of the addressee in the email is “Lo Vecchio” not just “Vecchio.” Using “Vecchio” alone, the addresser is ignorant of the multiculturalism in the United State of America.

Mr. Tran Anh-Tuan’s salutation style is non-existent in any language used by anyone with a minimal education. Tran Anh-Tuan is Trần Anh-Tuấn in Vietnamese. Could the Vietnamese equivalent to the salutation “Vecchio:” be “Tuấn mày:”? That salutation is only used by bullies in the schoolyard.

Secondly, Mr. Tran Anh-Tuan self-proclaimed credential as an “oath-taking scout” of a certain scouting movement shows that first, he is not a member of the BSA, and second, he understands nothing of the scouting language in the English speaking world. He also does not seem to understand the Movement and the Organization of the World Scouting. A person who pledges himself or herself to the Scout Oath is an invested Scout.

There could be a great possibility that Mr. Tran Anh-Tuan misunderstood the motto “Once a Scout, always a Scout” that Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener used in his address to the scouts of Leicestershire, England on April 19, 1911. In later editions of “Scouting for Boys”, Baden-Powell did further explain what Lord Kitchener meant when he said, “Once a Scout, always a Scout”. B.-P. wrote,

“Lord Kitchener said to the Boy Scouts: “There is one thought I would like to impress upon you all – ONCE A SCOUT, ALWAYS A SCOUT”. By this he meant that when you are grown up you must still carry out what you learned as a Scout – and especially that you will go on being honourable and trustworthy.”[1]

That is exactly what it meant. It has nothing to do with being a member of any scouting movement forever, as often misunderstood.

To the BSA, a federally “Title 36” chartered corporation in America, an accredited NSO and a founding member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), Mr. Tran Anh-Tuan is a big nobody of concern.

Despite his lack of knowledge in English and on Scouting, he should understand the Vietnamese saying “Quốc hữu quốc pháp, gia hữu gia quy” – A country has its rule of law, and a family has its regulations.

Certainly in the USA, one of the greatest democracies on earth with its rule of law, the BSA also has its own Bylaws, Rules and Regulations, Policies and Guidelines.

Mr. Lo Vecchio, by his letter dated January 9, 2018, to all Vietnamese Unit Leaders simply reiterates some of the BSA guidelines to remind its members how and what insignias authorized by the BSA to be worn on the official uniforms of this National Scouting Organization.

Mr. Tran Anh-Tuan certainly revels in his freedom of expression in the USA; nevertheless, it does not mean that he could gratuitously insult and attack Mr. Lo Vecchio personally for simply carrying out his responsibility.

The reasons for Mr. Tran Anh-Tuan’s many fallacies in his argument

• Ad hominem – Because he simply does not have an iota of knowledge about the issue at hand, he turns to attack a person, Mr. Lo Vecchio in this case, instead of the issue, The BSA policies on its uniforms and insignias.
• Post hoc – Due to poor reasoning capability, he assumes that since the use of some unauthorized insignias on the scout uniforms is a long time phenomenon means that it is approved by the BSA.
• Hasty generalization and Red herring – Due to a lack of knowledge on national scouting organizations and to confuse the issue he assumes that a certain insignia not authorized by the BSA is being used in other countries – “...Canada, from Australia to New Zealand, from the United Kingdom to Germany, from France to the Netherlands” – as the reason that it should be acceptable in the USA. This has nothing to do with the BSA policies mentioned in Mr. Lo Vecchio’s letter. However, it would be quite difficult for Mr. Tran Anh-Tuan to substantiate his exaggerated claim.