A Scout is friendly. And while it is easy to be friendly with our friends, we also need to be friendly with those who don't know us, and who aren't our friends. This also means that we need to be friendly to our enemies. Although a difficult thing to do, there is a story of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865, 16th President of the United States of America) and his unique way of dealing with his enemies.
An associate once took him to task for his kind attitude toward his enemies. His friend advised, "Why do you try to make friends of them? You should try to destroy them." To this, Lincoln gently replied, "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make them my friends?"
--Ron Wendel, The Scoutmaster Minute, p. 120
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