Where are your kids, right now? What are they doing? Do you know? Really? Of course, they told you they were headed to McDonalds or Burger King or whatever to meet some friends. Are you certain that is where they actually went? You have only their word to go on. Of course you trust them! So do I (trust my kids). If they said they are at Burger King, I am sure that is where they went… I think.
At least I know that when my kids are at Scout Camp, I know where they are, who they’re with, and what they are involved in. I know because I am a Boy Scout leader. I know because I know the value that the Boy Scouts of America place on the youth in their program.
Actually, I have all girls. That’s O.K. because they have decided that the best youth program they have encountered is the Boy Scouts of America. I know what you’re thinking… and get your mind out of the gutter. It’s not the boys they are interested in (yet). It is the fun they have.
Boy Scouts are really all about fun. The founder of the Boy Scouts of America, Baden Powell, said, “Scouting is a game with a purpose.” He talked a lot about giving boys fun things to do while we, the adult leaders, provide moral and ethical lessons weaved into their fun. The boys are often not even aware they are learning something. That is the point; teach the boys principles and concepts without them knowing they are learning it. They key is to let them have fun!
On with the rant…
It’s been a while now, and like 911 people have generally forgotten the hype about the Supreme Court’s decision on the BSA’s policy against gays; or at the very least it has slid down the drive-by media’s hot list. But as a trained and registered Scout Leader I have personally taken some flak from that from time to time so let’s finally set the record straight.
The Boy Scouts have this fixation about “morally straight” and that translates, in this regard, to straight straight, as in not-gay. If you’re gay, the Boy Scouts of America doesn’t want you to be an adult leader in its organization.
The Supreme Court is cool with that, but such a rule goes counter to the required fanny kissing of the day. For some reason, gay people are America’s favorite minority. We love gay people. So we put them in sitcoms and we wear ribbons for them and we pretend that the whole thing doesn’t nauseate us.
And to prove we’re not bigots we go out of our way to show how accepting we are, and we become willing accomplices to a perversion which disgusts us. So we turn our back on the good to advance the bad. And the institutions of power in this society are turning against the Boy Scouts of America.
It’s time to hit back, and hit back hard. It’s time to fight a war like Dick Cheney and Colin Powell did; to overwhelm and smother and prevail. They bombed. We can boycott - purposefully, loudly, and viciously. We can boycott the cities, states and philanthropies which have targeted the Scouts.
But such an effort must be resolute and even ruthless. And it will require sacrifice. Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale, for example, must come off our vacation list. Perhaps the entire state of Florida should be targeted. Ditto for Connecticut and the businesses which are headquartered there. And we should stop contributing to or through the United Way.
Is any of that fair? Probably not. But it could be effective. And this is about winning. The tourist industries of Florida probably have nothing to do with the spurning of Boy Scouting. The same goes for the businesses of Connecticut – or Tempe and Tucson for that matter – or the vast majority of United Way chapters.
Sometimes you make a man sweat by pestering his neighbors, and if the consequences of anti-Scouting initiatives are spread out, that will simply create more people with an interest in having the anti-Scout measures reversed.
Opposition to the Scouts must come at a price; a high price. So high that the wave of prejudice against Scouting can be reversed.
Boycotts are tricky tools. They usually don’t work. They seldom have sufficient economic impact to even be noticed. But when a large and committed group of people withhold their business and monetary support, and there is an aggressive public information program associated with it, good things can be done.
The parents and supporters of Boy Scouting are legion and affluent. They tend to be the doers of society; the movers and shakers and if anyone can pull off a boycott, they can. But there will need to be an organization and orchestrated action. In fact, it may have to be so confrontational as to be uncomfortable for some of the people who typically are involved in Scouts.
Boy Scouting, however, is worth it. Check that. It’s not actually Boy Scouting which is so valuable; it is the values which it instills. This really isn’t about the Scouts; it’s about the society in which they will live as adults. We are not teaching youth how to camp. We are teaching them how to be husbands and fathers, mothers and daughters, and leaders.
And that is worth fighting for.
So think it over.
See if this is something you want to start.
