On Using Old Photos…
Posted in Personal Stuff by John E. Pannell on November 25th, 2009 at 2:33 am 
Stephen Graves: Eagle Scout
Homer Dearmin sent me this page from the website for Stephen Graves, a candidate in 2004 for the US Congress in NY’s Fifth Congressional district.
Some of the biographical material on the site and photo captions read like they were written by a second rate publicist. His biography begins:
“Like many people living in New York’s 5th district, Stephen Graves immigrated to the greatest city in the world from elsewhere. Stephen Graves grew up in Tennessee, lived in Los Angeles and also abroad in Asia and Europe…”
He immigrated to New York from “elsewhere”? The man grew up in Tennessee, not some foreign country! That surely did not gain him any support from the district’s immigrant communities.
He has a picture captioned as “Visiting my grandparents” (he’s at their graves). Another shows him kayaking on the Colorado “before a shoulder injury cancelled (sic) (his) Olympic hopes.” He also posts his high school senior picture taken “not long after winning the National Merit Semifinalist Award”.
The funniest photo, for me, is the one I lifted and posted here. He is shown as an “Eagle Scout with Order of the Arrow and God & Country Award”. If one is going to use former membership of the BSA as a political prop and post a picture in uniform, please do a little checking to make sure there are no glaring errors in the photo! He was such an active member of the Order of the Arrow that he didn’t even know how to wear his OA sash! I wonder if this photo cost him votes among those who might have otherwise been sympathetic to an Eagle Scout and OA brother running for Congress.
The site is copyrighted 2004 and the blog no longer exists. According to the NY Times his Congressional bid failed with the Democrat achieving an easy victory.
Popularity: 17% [?]
From Talidandaganu’ Lodge, Cherokee Area Council #556, Chattanooga, TN no less . . . .
Only slightly funny is the picture where he is visiting his grandparents–where the last name “Graves” is engraved on the headstone!
Wow! I actually ran into this photo couple months back….
Not only is he wearing both sashes at the same time, but over his left shoulder, too!!! Too funny. We gotta use this for one of our presentations.