Final Update from Mickey

Happy Holidays everyone!

So I bring you all a holiday update for the Free Mickey group.

I am sure if not already, most likely at least one bottle of champagne will or had been uncorked. With glasses raised high, the corrupt paid Scouters of the Rip Van Winkle Scout Council and their cronies who have kept them in power will be together toasting the new year.  They will be doing so as National BSA has given them an early Christmas present. They have finally ended the facade of their non-transparrent  process or should I say theater to finally do what they made up their minds to do 16 months ago. Reguadless that there was a lack any real reason and a total lack of due process at all, the revocation of my membership has been sustained.

I am sure there will be Scout Handshakes, winks and nods as they feel they have somehow won a victory. Don't ruin it for them by telling them, it is the holidays afterall, but they have lost in ways they will never realize.

They lost 63 years of Scouting experience and knowledge and a traditions. They selfishly robbed themselves of the "wonderful" that could have been in the future from the Profera boys who were enthusiasticly participating in the program as they watched their fathers get pushed out.  For what? Greed? Having to feel they are always right? Never wanting or knowing how to handle constructive critisim? Needing to be the final word in every difference of opinon? If they cared about the program I would say they smited their noses for the rest of their faces, but I have come to the conclusion through the disenfranchisement of this experience that they could care less about the program or the youth.

What they care about the most is what they have also lost from my family. They have lost the future profits from what they could have made from the sales of; candy, popcorn, coffee, hot chocolate, patches, books, uniforms, official scout equiptment, summer camp fees, year round event fees and lets not forget their favorite slush fund "Friends of Scouting". A lot of profits, ALL,  that primarily line their pockets. Their loss.

As for those young Profera boys who were the ones I was most concerned about. They have moved on to new passions and have continued to be happy and healthy boys who at times are in inspiration for the rest of the family.

I did not mean for this to be an angry tyrade rather than an update. I wish I could say that after a year of silence from National that I am surpised, buy I am not. I been over feeling upset about any of this for the better part of that year. If anything I feel a tremendous amount of empathy for those paid scouters and their volunteer cronies who have lost their moral compass. Those who have failed to absorb the true meaning behind the ethics and values that the program was originaly built upon and only ever now hinted at in recent handbooks.

If you are reading this, please harbor no hate, no anger, no discourse in your hearts. I harbor none in my heart. I forgive them for what they have done. I have been in the process of moving on for quite while. It is my wish that everyone do the same. If they ever feel the slightest pang of  regret about any of it, its my hope they will forgive themselves. Hate does not undo hate, only love wil do that. Keep them in your prayers everyone.

There is no path to happiness, happiness is the path.

Always remember to leave things and more important people better than you found them.

Thank you who all signed the petition, offered a shoulder, helped in so many ways. Some may think I am accepting  defeat when in fact I am recognizing reality. I have been offered no further appeal or recourse. So, I guess its  time to move on. Life is too short to get stuck on something like this. As I have discovered there is life after Scouting and the rest of the world to discover, in many ways, its Awesome.

With love, seasons greetings to ALL! Perhaps we will all meet again at the end of the trail sitting at the final campfire together. I will save you all a seat and put the coffee on.

-Mickey

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Sadly, it appears that this will be the final update from Mickey as National BSA has completed their farce of an appeal process. This page was created to support Mickey in his fight for justice against an unjust and perverted establishment that used to be a great organization. While we are waiting for Mickey's request to us, discussions with him have indicated his wish to move on. So this page and blog will probably end in the near future.

A Message from Mickey 6/23/16

So its been one year to the day since I was dismissed from Scouting. I was going to summarize again the circumstances and my inocence in it all. I will spare you all of that. To do that is to re-live it all and I am in a better place with it all. If you desire, you can read it all on the Freemickey webpage and watch the Freemickey youtube video.

I will however provide an update since my dismissal;

Friends had been filing ethics complaints with the National BSA before and after my dismissal that seem to be falling on deaf ears. Then these friends began posting the names and  financial comtributing donors of the local council with the call to both contact them and boycott them until I was re-instated. That grabbed the National BSA,s attention as the program these days does not seem that its really about the program or the youth but the overinflated pay and benifits packages of paid Scouters from local to National. It seems it's only about the egos and awards volunteers strive to gain. Paid Scouters go by the titles of "Professional Scouters" however I have NOT experienced them acting in any way professional, they maintain what they have by giving out patches, medals and meaningless titles to volunteers to stroke egos to keep them in their positions.

National flew in Area and Regional paid Scouters to investigate the the situation. They spent the day prior to their meeting with me and then with my friends ONLY talking to ONLY those the paid Scouters wanted them to talk to about me/us. They told me that they practically didn't have to talk to me, "they" had already made up their minds about me before meeting me. They wanted me, to bring an end to the boycotting and negative social media hype. First,  very little of it was me, and second, kick me out and then demand my cooperation? They expressed no sense of empathy for me over the potential of what the false allegation could have meant for me. They seemed to have acknowledge that they knew it was false with a "so what?" and cavaleer attitude.

In their meeting with my friends they talked down to these very experienced Eagle Scouts and leaders as if nothing was corrupt going on and that my froends were the only problems. All that was important was to stop the potential financial bleeding that could come of a boycott. My friends agreed to hault with the boycott until my appeal was heard by the National BSA.

I was given 60 days to send an appeal which I complied with. It took a month for them to send a reciept of their recieving my packet. By the end of October a REGIONAL not NATIONAL review, chaired by the Regional paid Scouter who I met with months before and who had said that he had already made up his mind about me before talking with me. It was decided to uphold the local council's actions. I was given another tight deadline to request the NATIONAL review I orriginally requested. I recieved receipt of my letter requesting a National review a couple of months later with a promise of a timely review and then....silence. There was a total lack of transparency in my appeal process and a total lack of profrssional actions from the top down.

Wait long enough and you figure I won't care any longer and just move on. Well it has occurred.  My son left Scouting as he wants nothing to do with program without me being a part of it with him. Now my brother and his son are no longer Scouts either. A proud long lineage and family herritage of Scouting ended by corrupt actions of  paid Scouters and the select volunteers who have kept them in power and a paycheck. Fathers and sons have moved on to better things, things to be proud of.

I even debated posting this but their had to be an end to this story.

As it ends I have reinvented myself, no longer tethered to the idea of my Identity as a Scout (originally through no choice of my own, now I embrace it).  I would like to think that I came out the other end a year later a better person in multiple ways. I can"t really tell you if this is really is true but please spend some time reading my social media post over the last year or spend some time with me  fishing or having a cup of coffee and chatting, then you can decide.

I will not ask anyone to continue hanging on  with the Freemickey movement. I was never the leader of the movement, only the name of it, a name I would have gladly traded to not have any of this happening.

I harbor no animosity despite my writing of the accounts of what has occurred in the last year.  I harbor no ill feelings,  If you do, please don't, I am asking you not to, nothing good will come of hangimg on to those feelings Life is too short for that.

Please rather than spending time hating or seeking vengence spend time leaving things and more important people better than you found them. Please do not waste time seeking justice, I am ok with knowing that it may never occur. Let Karma play its hand if it is to happen.Please spend sometime if you haven't already healing wounds I have not lost a night of sleep over this in months as it only steals from my sense of overall happiness. I have come to realize that there is no path to happiness, happiness is the path.

I had a lot of great experiences and memories that I will always have. I have nothing to be ashamed of andno regrets. I have met and was able to know a lot of Awesome people over the years. I have made lots of friends, hopefully more friends than otherwise.

Perhaps I will meet many of you someday in a diner over coffee or on a trail somewhere or fishing (and we will fish together for and with soul) or even at a campfire. Who really knows where our life journeys will lead us as long as its a happy and fullfilling journey.

-I am Mickey and be well

A Message from Mickey 4/10/16

Message from Mickey and the Profera Family

On behalf of the Profera family, I want to take this time state that at this moment in time the current generations of the Profera family have been one way or another un-ceremonially and unjustifiably driven out of Scouting. This was done by our belief with a huge amount of prejudice by those who are the paid Scouters of this council and those volunteers who have kept them in power.
  Our family had been involved in Scouting for 64 of the 106 years that the program has existed in the United States. Every one of the Profera’s in the program except for our current sons had served the community as leaders of Scout units. We were a part of an effort in an attempt to effect a positive outcome for the youth in our community’s with the focus that those youth that would become healthy and productive adult citizens in not only our local towns and villages but also our nation. We feel that we could go on about our individual Scouting resumes but feel there is no need.
Although it has brought us great sadness that our sons, the future generations of our family are not involved in Scouting we are also ok with the idea that they will not be a part of what has become a very toxic environment that has been created in our local Scout council. An environment of greed, corruption and underhanded politics has overshadowed the true mission of the Scouting program. We are confident that our sons will benefit from their fathers deeply seated values of the character development that Scouting had deeply instilled in us.
Despite the situation we still believe in the ideals, aims, means and methods of the Scouting program.  Those parts of Scouting are indelibly branded on our hearts. We never gave up on Scouting. Perhaps that was the issue all along. We embraced Scouting in every facet of our lives, while others had not and may only be involved in the program for their own personal gain, whatever they may be.
Through this unfortunately unpleasant experience we have come to realize that there are other things in our communities to be involved in. There are other programs that promote the same goals that we can to devote our time, resources, skills, talents, knowledge and money towards.
We feel it is not our loss that we are no longer involved in Scouting, but rather the loss is with Scouting program that they may not benefit from what we have to offer. It is not a loss that our sons and perhaps grandsons will feel by not being involved in Scouting, but rather the Scouting program who will miss out on the potential and success that our sons could have been to the program.  It is true that the luster of Scouting has dulled for them. It is true that the light of Scouting for our family flickered out, however as that flame was extinguished it has helped us see the many other opportunities that exist. 
Overall, speaking for the family we feel a sense of sympathy for those who have caused this situation to be what it became. We are sad by the short mindedness of it all.  We feel sorry for them that they seem to have lost their moral compass and lost their way. We feel bad for them that they seem to be engaged in a perpetual cycle of doing the same thing over and over again, expecting something different while constantly coming up so short and the whole time scratching their heads asking why.
As for myself, I am Mickey and I want to remind you all;
We should always leave things and more important people better than we found them. Please be good to one another.
Do good things for others who may be in need without expectations that they will ever be able to return the favor. Do this for the satisfaction of helping others.

Message from Mickey 3/14/2016

I am still on some Scouting FB pages. I have taken down so much in my life that reminds me of Scouting. I can't yet let go of it all.

There was a question posted on an Eagle Scout page. What has the Eagle Rank done for us outside of Scouting - in life. I wanted to share my response. (For some of you who know me sorry for tge length of it all. You know there us no long story short for me, :-) .

The rank of Eagle has not provided me with anything extra in college, a job or even being given the benifit of the doubt by the National BSA. I don't mention it much. It has been on my resume and in my professional portfolio.

I think it was the learning how to set a goal and work towards it. I learned how to work hard and bo task is meaningless. The experience i took from earning the rank. The concept of learning to be prepared helped me in life as i physically am prepared as well as through education the pursuit of learning has helped me. Working over a decade at a camp for a director who was an army drill Sgt. helped me to learn leadership, how and when to be a follower, personal responsibilty, and discipline. At that camp I learned the love of teaching and as a camp commissioner the art of diplomacy. That assisted me in life. I learned a lot of self reliance in Scouting in general.  I learned how to be a member if a team.

I learned how to plan events. I learned some knowledge and skills in first aide, outdoorsman skills, survival skills, cooking (my wife has always been happy about that) and every now and then knowing the proper knott to tie has come in handy.

I learned to be sensitive to others beliefs and religious practices as I learned about so many other religions of the world. We had international staff at camp from ALL OVER the world. As I was quartered with, ate meals with, and worked shedding sweat and in some cases blood and tears with, I learned that most people around the world are people. For as much as we may seem different we are very much the same. The thought of Wars upset me.

I met folks in Scouting and knew  what true bonding friendship is. I learned so much from Scouting in general and use all of that more than my Eagle rank.

I learned the importance of doing for others and putting others before myself and being of service to my community, something I have vocationally dedicated my life to through my life's work.

I also unfortunately learned through Scouting that there are those who hate and hold grudges. There are folks in Scouting who are cruel, mean, vindictive, scheming and only in the program for their own personal gain both montetarily and to stroke their own ego. I have learned that there are those on high volunteer levels and paid professionals who do not practice the aims and means and  character development they teach. Through Scouting I have learned great happiness and deep sadness, dissapoimtment and discouragement.

That is what Scouting rather than my Eagle rank has done for me. Those life experiences in Scouting good and unfortunately bad is what I use in life on and off the job and with my family.

The rank of Eagle if you earned it what you are not what you have. When I earned the rank of Eagle Scout I was issued a paper rank card and certificate rather than plastic credit cards. I often thought over the years of getting the plastic credit cars but, why to try to get out of  a traffic ticket? To cash in somehow? For me, my eagle rank is never used as a credit card towards employment, college or military rank but it was always a promise to others for others.

The Eagle rank for me was always something to wear inside rather than all over your uniform and wardrobe. Its not a symbol of pride but humility as it says in the Eagle Charge.

I am Mickey - always leave things and more important people better than you found them.

Message from Mickey 8/6/2015

Greetings family, friends, supporters, and those who have been following and reading in the last 43 days,

As per the boilerplate form letter I received on July 24, 2015, I was given 60 days to send the National B.S.A Headquarters a request to review the decision of my dismissal. Yesterday that request was mailed overnight delivery and should arrive by this afternoon.

My request included;

ü  A letter explaining my request for reinstatement

ü  Letters from many requesting my reinstatement and speaking to my character and or performance as a Scout, Scout leader and the citizen I am in my community. 

ü  A petition in support of my reinstatement with over thee hundred names THANK YOU to all that have signed it thus far!

ü  My professional work experience over the last 23 years most of which as a youth worker

ü  Training and professional credentials

ü  A Scouting history of my youth and adult years as well as trainings

ü  A copy of my Eagle Scout Certificate, Vigil Certificate, Scout Leader Training Award, and Distinguished Camp Tri-Mount Award. (If they gave out a certificate rather than a plaque for District Award of Merit that would have been included, however it was listed on in my Scouting history)

ü  Lots of photos of me as a Pack and Den Leader, involvement at various Scouting events, involvement in Venture Crew 405 (one of my favorite units to be a part off), my family in Scouting, my “father and son” Scouting moments, and many more photos.

ü  A list of the many other volunteer community activities I have been or am still involved including some pictures.

ü  A DVD copy of the FreeMickey Documentary

ü  And many other documents supporting my case for reinstatement

I want to take this time to formally thank;

Ø  The folks who have thus far sent me letters of support and requests for my reinstatement

Ø  The folks who thus far signed the petition

Ø  Those who have reached out to me in an effort to provide assistance and support through phone calls, text messages, e-mails or Facebook messages, face to face conversations to talk about things or simply ask how I am doing.

Ø  The Naked Crusaders and the time they spent on the production of their FreeMickey documentary

Ø  Members of my extended “Scouting Family” who have been there for me in so many ways and have shown me that there is a “Brotherhood within Scouting” and it runs deep and strong.

Ø  My brother Paul Benjamin, my life long confidante and best friend

Ø  My brother Pete who has been there with me standing with me shoulder to shoulder Love ya Bro! and his wife, my sister in-law Catherine

Ø  My in-laws and extended family members in their support

Ø  My wife Christine who has been my rock in all of this and more than that one of the coordinators of the movement, my secretary, my biggest supporter, my everything. I love you honey! 
Ø  Last but certainly not least my greatest motivation for fighting this injustice and not just walking away, the one person who brought me back into Scouting after a not so active period of time, the apple of my eye and source of pride, my son Michael. You never cease to amaze me with everything you do and your love.  I strive to live my life to be a person of honor and conviction and someone who you can be proud of. I continually try to live my life and “lead by example” so that you may one day grow up to not only follow in my footsteps but become better, do more, and go further in life than I ever did.  I am trying to do my best to teach you through my life the person who you should be and more important how to deal with the adversities that life brings. Love you buddy!

Hopefully haven’t left anyone out

My struggle is not over as the folks at the National BSA Headquarters will be reviewing my letter and materials. Their decision as per the form letter could be soon or could take months.

In the meantime if you still want to write letters I will send them to National. If you haven't yet signed the petition and chose to do so it is not shut down yet. As the petition hits new goals I will also send the lists of names to National.

THANK YOU IS NOT ENOUGH!!!

Love One Another and Leave things better than you found them,

Michael “Mickey” Profera Jr.

   

     

 Perhaps we will meet again on the trail. 

                                              Me and my son when he was  only 3 hours old. Just couldn’t resist posting. He was such a little peanut and already Daddy's little Scouter.    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Update

Things have been a little quiet lately since Mickey took his son to Camp Alpine last week for summer camp. Now that he is back, he is putting the final touches on his appeal packet and sending it to National BSA. We will have updates as they become available as well as any requests that the Profera Family may need.

Thank you for your support

#FreeMickey Staff

Thoughts of the Day from Mickey 7/16/15

A very important requirement for each Scout rank is to display  "Scout Spirit".  The notion of having or displaying Scout Spirit has always been a bit of a quandry for me. Unlike the concrete requirements of a merit badged, required skills for ranks or any other achievements, Scout Spirit is, well...very subjective. It is not not a measurable construct or something you work up to that can be measured with some sort meter. "You almost have enough Scout Spirit, three more units left and the needle will register that you have achieved it".

Some leaders at Scoutmaster conferences and boards of review try to pigeon hole it to specifics such as; wearing a full uniform to meetings, regular attedence at meetings and events, showing up to Scout unit community service projects,  and the list goes on. Still I have never read any real literature that explains it and the requirements to achieve it.

The best explainations I have ever heard were from a few wise and sage old Scout Leaders over a cup of coffee around the campfire.  Scouting Spirit is striving to live up to the core values of Scouting (as recited in the Scout Oath, Law, Motto and Slogan). Doing so the individual attempts to achieve this both in and out of a uniform. It's doing the right thing even when no one is looking. It's realizing that if you have to look around to see who is looking before you do something, it may not be the right thing to do.

Often Scouting Spirit is about seeing multiple sides to an issue. It is about realizing multiple ways to deal with things and having what I have heard refferred to as a "little Boy Scout injinuity". Scouting is a program that helps create problem solvers and open minded individuals.

Part of that open mindedness is dealing with criticism both constructive or otherwise. In Scouring one learns how to utilize different perspectives or points of view to accomplish tasks.  In leadership trainings I have attended, it has been encouraged that leaders listen to all points of view even if they are not popular and conflict with your own ideas and agendas. It is through listening to critism and different opinions that often produces the best results.

It is easy to only want to only hear your own opinions, plans and agendas and want to only surround yourself by those who only see things as you do. It is easy to push away anyone else who has ideas contrary to your own. The real challange is to work with folks who have different opinions.

Is Scouting not about shaping and molding individuals to be the future good citizens, workers, proffessionals and leaders? Aren't the most effective leaders those who embrace everyones opinion even when thet are not popular to their own?

It is possible that the individual(s) who dismissed me from Scouting have not yet themselves realized the full potential and benefits of the deeper meaning of Scout Spirit. I do not have ill will nor should anyone with the indivudual(s) who decided that my opinons, concerns, and views ran so contrary to their own that they felt that I should be suddenly without warning unjustly dismissed from Scouting, just to...silence me. Again feel no ill will because it is possible that they did not benifit from the sage old and wise words spoken around council fires or if they did they have simply forgotten. They may simply have lost their way from the path of Scouting Spirit.

I am Mickey and these are my thoughts for the day.

Listen to each other and embrace each others ideas even if they differ from your own. We live in a society that has become polarized by many social and political issues. Its easy to have happen as we can be influenced by the media and news affiliates and Social Media. Take the time to pick up the phone and have a real conversations. Spend time face to face talking and at least hearing each others point of view. You dont have to convert each other but at least try understand each other. Would there not be more peace in the world if we all practiced this?

Remember to do good things for others.

"May the Great Scoutmaster of all Scouts be with us all until we meet again, good day Scouts"

-Mickey