Eagle Courts of Honor are slowly turning into 4th grade graduation ceremony in not marking anything special except for an excuse for a ceremony. One day in the dim past they were glorious and planned now they’re ad libbed and poorly choreographed, even the decorum of the guests have dropped.  Yesterday, I attended one for an unusually competent staff member and noted the following:

• A presenter forgot her glasses to read an accolade and someone in the room shouted “FAIL!”
• During the closing the kids doing the points of the Scout Law began giggling uncontrollably and tried to recite them sounding like John Wayne
• Someone laughed when I said “Appius Claudius Caecus” during my presentation.
• Some woman tried to correct me when I said “Brindisi” as the end of the Appian Way, her thinking it was Bren- or Brundisi.
• The same woman shouted “oh, yes!” when I mentioned the Romans.

I hate Eagle Courts of Honor.  Now I can at least say “well, this one wasn’t as bad as the time I got heckled talking about the origin of the term milestone”