Peter Kinder honored at Boy Scout dinner

This story has been edited to correct information about Peter Kinder's service as the 46th Lt. Governor, and about his father's and grandfather's occupations.

About 100 community members, former Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts gathered Thursday at The Concourse in Cape Girardeau to honor former lieutenant governor Peter Kinder at the Dr. James A. Kinder Jr. Good Scout Community Dinner.

Peter Kinder has had a long political career, serving as Missouri's 46th lieutenant governor since 2004 after several years as a state senator. He has earned several distinctions, including the National Rifle Association's highest A+ rating and Missouri Right to Life's "Defender of Life" award.

Before he entered politics, Kinder was a Boy Scout, earning Eagle Scout as a teen and attending the 1969 Boy Scout Jamboree.

Kinder credited his father with instilling in him a sense of determination, which he said coincided with lessons he learned from scouting.

Kinder quoted Pat Moynihan, a Democratic senator from New York who served from 1976 to 2000. Moynihan spoke of the importance of young men having strong mentors, in their early lives especially, and Kinder said this echoed the mission of Scouting.

"From the wild Irish slums of the 19th century Eastern seaboard, to the riot-torn suburbs of Los Angeles, there is one unmistakable lesson in American history: A community that allows a large number of men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future -- that community asks for and gets chaos. Crime, violence, unrest, disorder -- most particularly the furious, unrestrained lashing out at the whole social structure -- that is not only to be expected; it is very near to inevitable. And it is richly deserved," Kinder quoted Moynihan as saying in the mid-1960s.

Kinder said he thinks this statement encapsulates many of the country's social problems today.

"That to me is what scouting is about: socializing young men, channeling aggression into useful pursuits throughout their lives," Kinder said.

Kinder also spoke in tribute to his father, for whom the Dr. James A. Kinder Jr. Award is named.

"I agreed to do this on the condition that I could talk about Dad," Kinder said, adding he was uneasy about being honored in this fashion.

Kinder's father, a pediatrician, lived in Cape Girardeau, and his grandfather owned Kinder's Drugstore on Good Hope Street.

His father started with the Boy Scouts at age 11, and he continued working with the Scouts for the next 70 years, inspiring his sons to join the Scouts and learn about leadership and community service.

Frank Kinder, dinner chairman and brother to Peter, introduced Ethan McMillan, a current Boy Scout who asked former Scouts and Eagle Scouts to stand. About 30 former Scouts were present, and about 20 of those had achieved Eagle Scout rank.

The Greater St. Louis Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America has about 66,000 members, making it one of the biggest in the nation, McMillan said.

Peter Kinder said scouting was a great help to him, meant a lot to his father and has helped countless young men find direction in their lives.

"I'm honored," he said.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

429 N. Broadview St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.