It is this reporter’s opinion that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is unneccessarily attacking American institutions.
It is the Boy Scouts that the ACLU now has in its crosshairs. The Scouts, it is claimed by adversaries, excludes children or adult volunteers based on their sexual orientation.
One can only ask, Why does the ACLU with so many other problems in the world that we face, take a destructive stance against the Boy Scouts? Why attack an organization that relies on the very values our Founding Fathers espoused?
Furthermore, the exclusion based on sexual orientation is a false claim. The scouts are against overt sexual conduct or statement by anyone — homosexual or heterosexual. Sexuality has no place in the Boy Scouts organization.
There has been plenty of backlash: The book “On My Honor Why the Values of the Boy Scouts are Worth Fighting For” by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is putting the Boys Scouts and the ACLU’s position of homosexuality into the forefront of renewed discussion. The book explores the depths to which liberal organizations sink when they condemn values-oriented organizations.
As a lifelong member of the scouting movement, from 10-year-old prescout activity to being named the youngest member of the National Council of the Boys Scouts of America, I feel well qualified to speak against those who attack the scouting movement.
How better to stop youth gang activity and violence than for boys to spend their adolescence as members of the Boy Scouts? The effort begins in the family, at home, and in the community.
What better way to learn values and ideals than as a member of the Boy Scouts?
Since scouting’s humble beginnings in 1908, Boy Scouts have epitomized the ideals of community service. What a wonderful way to stop youth gang activities than to introduce these kids when they are young to scouting.
That is the way to stop gangs from proliferating. The numbers are staggering: In America, youth gangs are taking over and may number as high as 30,000 violent street gangs with 800,000 members.
In Los Angeles alone, the birthplace of notorious gangs such as MS-13, the Bloods, and the Crips, there are 700 street gangs comprised of 40,000 gang members.
Incredible that to be a Boy Scout in the 21st century entails strange consequences. It means you may not get funding from the United Way, that you cannot have summer camp in the city park, that your troop cannot be sponsored by a public school, that you may even be booed at a national political convention.
It even has meant you will be compared with the Taliban which is exactly what the Philadelphia Daily News did a few years ago.
Recently, in Philadelphia, home of the liberty bell symbolizing our freedom, being a Boy Scout means a $200,000 rent increase on the headquarters building. This increase followed the decision by the city of Philadelphia to penalize the scouts for the organization’s long-term policy excluding homosexual members and leaders.
Now the scouts in Philadelphia must make a tough decision in order to come up with a fair-market rent of $200,000 annually — $199,999 more than the previous annual rate of $1.
What this means is that Philadelphia is cutting off one of its most valuable partners, the Boy Scouts, because of their gay ban. And regardless of how one stands on the Boy Scout policy on homosexuals, there is no question the Boy Scouts benefit America’s communities.
This following a U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 that the Boy Scout organization has the right to establish its own membership standards.
No one in Philadelphia is forced to accept the Boy Scout policies. What the public must accept is a partnership in benefiting from the thousands upon thousands of volunteer hours generated by members. The countless “good turns” the boys do undoubtedly make Philadelphia a better place to live.
All scouts, since the days of the birth of the movement by Lord Robert Baden-Powell share in one common 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.”
That is the statement that appears to upset the ACLU. It is a statement that has inspired millions of young men from puberty to adulthood for nearly 100 years to live lives of service and leadership.
But apparently there are consequences for choosing honor these days. Being a Boy Scout is not as publicly admirable as it was years ago. But that should not stop decent people from doing the right thing.
It is time America says we have had enough and springs to the support of efforts of thousands of scout leaders and parents who are making a day-to-day positive difference in the lives of our youth.
That is one reporter’s opinion. I welcome yours!
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
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