Sunday, June 05, 2005
Our Newest Op Ed
What's Wrong with the Boy Scouts?
- By Hans Zeiger
Are the Boy Scouts of America really so awful that they are no longer welcome in our schools? On June 1, the Portland (Maine) School Committee voted six to three to ban the Boy Scouts from distributing promotional literature to students. The committee argues that it wishes to uphold its commitment to diversity and nondiscrimination. Far from doing so, the committee has discriminated against one of the most diverse and valuable organizations in America.
This summer will commence the national Boy Scout Jamboree. It will be a diverse gathering of people from every geographical region of the country, every ethnicity and race, every economic class, every political belief, and every major religious practice. The Boy Scouts celebrated diversity long before it was the popular thing to do. Anyone wishing to stand by the idea that the Scouts are behind the times on diversity ought to visit the Jamboree and see for themselves.
The Boy Scouts is not a hate group comparable to Hitler Youth ("brown shirt" has become common epithet against the Scouts) or the Ku Klux Klan, or a militant terrorist corps like the Taliban (as the Philadelphia Daily News editorialized). Neither is it a church (as federal Judge Napoleon Jones defined it) or a public accommodation (as several courts have defined it).
The Boy Scouts is a private organization that begins meetings with this simple oath: "On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the Scout Law, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight." And what is wrong with that? .........
Click HERE To Read On
- By Hans Zeiger
Are the Boy Scouts of America really so awful that they are no longer welcome in our schools? On June 1, the Portland (Maine) School Committee voted six to three to ban the Boy Scouts from distributing promotional literature to students. The committee argues that it wishes to uphold its commitment to diversity and nondiscrimination. Far from doing so, the committee has discriminated against one of the most diverse and valuable organizations in America.
This summer will commence the national Boy Scout Jamboree. It will be a diverse gathering of people from every geographical region of the country, every ethnicity and race, every economic class, every political belief, and every major religious practice. The Boy Scouts celebrated diversity long before it was the popular thing to do. Anyone wishing to stand by the idea that the Scouts are behind the times on diversity ought to visit the Jamboree and see for themselves.
The Boy Scouts is not a hate group comparable to Hitler Youth ("brown shirt" has become common epithet against the Scouts) or the Ku Klux Klan, or a militant terrorist corps like the Taliban (as the Philadelphia Daily News editorialized). Neither is it a church (as federal Judge Napoleon Jones defined it) or a public accommodation (as several courts have defined it).
The Boy Scouts is a private organization that begins meetings with this simple oath: "On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the Scout Law, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight." And what is wrong with that? .........
Click HERE To Read On
# posted by Publius @ 6/05/2005 02:00:00 PM 
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