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It All Depends

A lot of you Scouts have been working on the Communications skill award and merit badge, and I hope you've learned the importance of communicating clearly.

(Show walkie-talkie. ) With this little device I can throw my voice a half-mile, maybe more. But what good is it if I don't communicate clearly?

Suppose I radioed you on this walkie-talkie and said "Go, man! Trapped in cave. In trouble at Spencer s Mountain." Sounds like I'm trapped in a cave at Spencer s Mountain, right? But what if I used exactly the same words but said them like this: "Go! Man trapped in cave-in. Trouble at Spencer s Mountain."

Quite a different story, isn't it? No doubt you'd rush to Spencer s Mountain if you heard it either way. But would you bring a flashlight and rope to fish me out of the cave? Or would you bring a shovel to dig the other guy out of the cave-in.

As you can see, sometimes a breakdown in communication can be a matter of life and death.

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