As a kid I remember having our GHC Club. That was the “Girls have Cooties” Club, if you were wondering. Only boys, and more specifically, only local shoe shine boys, were members.
That was the early 1970s. I lived in the city streets of Boston, before it was cool to live in a city like that, by the waterfront, before there were such things as condos. I joined the Cub Scouts probably because my mom (a single mom) thought it would be good for me to get into the woods see what real trees and grass looked like, and so I would have strong male role models.
When we moved to live close to my cousins, my new Cub Scout den leader also happened to be my aunt. Eww! A girl was leading the boys. How could that be?
It was very different. I was a little boy who needed guidance, and I needed a man to teach me how to be a man. A plumber can’t teach you how to be a jeweler any more than a woman can teach a boy to be a man or a man can teach a little girl to be a woman.
The Boy Scouts of America recently decided, after years of pressure, to allow gays to be Scout leaders. The decision was based largely on corporate pressure applied by pro-gay companies that threatened to pull funding (which they have every right to do). As a result, the Boy Scouts are “re-thinking” their rules.
The BSA decided not to force local chapters to accept gays (which they also have every right to do). Good for them, for now. It’s only a matter of time.
Religious groups that have always supported the Boy Scouts in a big way are now re-thinking their involvement with the group as a result of this change.
President Obama recently said he thinks the Boy Scouts should allow gays at every level in the organization. Once again, the president thinks, then speaks, and the damage begins.
Is anything sacred? Is any group allowed to have its own set of rules and way of doing things?
Now, don’t get radical on me, I’m not talking the KKK; the last I heard, the Boy Scouts aren’t burning crosses on lawns.
Maybe we should disband the Girl Scouts, Boys Scouts, Eagle Scouts, Brownies, Cubs Scouts, Weebelos and just make one big “Gender Neutral Scouts” or just “Scouts.” Do you see how ridiculous this gets?
Leave the Boy Scouts alone. Leave the Girl Scouts alone. If you want to show strength and diversity the American way, start the LGBT Scouts or any other kind of “Scouting” you want. Because they are different – as different as boys are different from girls, and as men are different from women.
We should continue to have the freedom to allow clubs, groups and churches the ability to serve specific subsets of people with common interests and beliefs without government intervention.
Just because the president thinks the Boy Scouts should allow gays at all levels, that doesn’t mean it’s the way things should be. This is a private organization. The government should be concerned with jobs and the economy, not interfering with the mission and goals of an organization it “feels” is not being fair to all human beings.
What’s next? Do Asian-American clubs now have to grant membership to those with Italian, Greek or whatever heritage? Will Hooters be forced to have male waitresses? I could fill up one of those T-shirts, but there wouldn’t be any people at my tables.
The government has no business getting involved in every aspect of our lives, every club, every organization or business. And the president doesn’t have all of the answers. Otherwise, we wouldn’t continue to be sinking deeper into the mess we’re in as a nation.
