TN-5667

In a world where more boys have smartphones than dads, it’s easy to underestimate the power of presence. Embodied, steady, presence.

At 15 years old, most boys today are hardly expected to get themselves up for school on time. But that’s not because boys are incapable of taking responsibility and being dependable. It’s because we don’t expect them to. We hesitate to trust them with real responsibility.

“Listen, my children, and you shall hearOf the midnight ride of Paul Revere…” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Measure of a Man History remembers the ride. It remembers the pounding hooves, the lanterns in the Old North Church, and the midnight warning that stirred sleeping towns into action. Longfellow’s poem etched the image into the…

The same wiring that makes teenage boys expensive to insure is the very wiring that propels exploration, invention, and bravery. Insurance companies know the statistics. Teenage boys take more risks. They drive faster. They climb higher. They test limits. And yes, sometimes they make costly mistakes.

There are moments in a boy’s life that look small from the outside. A ceremony. A decision about where to spend Thursday nights. A choice of which friends to run with. But heaven and history both know better. Because a life is often steered—not by one critical moment—but through a series of seemingly minor crossroads.

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”—John Adams

It’s National Sons Day. Just a square on the calendar. But if you’ve ever stood beside a crackling fire with your boy on the other side of the flames — his face half lit, half shadow — you know there’s something deeper burning there.

When Roger Krone, CEO of Scouting America said, “Our number one job is to get kids into this program,” he was likely speaking candidly about the pressures facing his organization. Membership has plummeted, finances have been strained, partnerships have faltered, cultural and political crosswinds are real, and government relationships are at a breaking point.

Altadena, California — January 2025 The house was filled with noise. Phones screamed with emergency alerts. Wind battered the walls. Somewhere beyond the windows, flames were racing downhill toward Altadena. Inside, the Maljanian family moved in every direction at once.

This op-ed was published by the Daily Caller on February 12, 2026.  The Pentagon’s recent warning to Scouting America—cut certain diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives or risk losing federal support—has placed the organization in an unenviable position. Comply, and it alienates one constituency. Refuse, and it risks funding at a time when membership and finances…