So after yesterday's post about the UAE Scout Movement commemorative coin, I've been thinking about my own involvement in Boy Scouts. For those of you who don't know, I was a Boy Scout back in the day, and I reached the Eagle Scout rank.
Sadly the Boy Scouts of America in the last decade or so have courted some real controversies, primarily including revoking memberships (of both boys and adults) for being atheists, agnostics or homosexuals.
And of course, women can't join, either.
One webpage I found about the discrimination in the Boy Scouts - bsa-discrimination.org - lists their exclusions as the 3 G's - gays, girls and the godless.
It's really too bad, all of these recent controversies, because I enjoyed my time with scouting. I got lucky that the other scouts were bunch of my very good friends, and that their fathers and my own dad were the leaders. Granted, we weren't really by-the-book scouts - we famously skipped the "official" olive colored shorts for Hawaiian shorts, and instead of the red neckerchief we sported day-glow yellow ones (hey, keep in mind this was the late 80s, okay?) We weren't quite the Bad News Bears, but we were probably close.
We kind of fit in to the whole Groucho Marx, "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member" thing. The counterculture troop, if you will.
But then there was this one troop from Scarborough - Troop 39. They were the ones who had custom-built trailers to put their gear in, the ones who brought generators on weekend camping trips, the ones who were just a little bit too into it. If, continuing the "Bad News Bears" metaphor, we were the underdogs than they were the bad guys. The evil empire of Southern Maine scouting. The New York Yankees of the Pine Tree Council. The Globo Gym Purple Cobras to our Average Joes.
(Okay, phew, that's one too many references for this early in the morning.)
Anyway, while we had a blast with scouting but nowadays I don't really know where I stand with my views. I mean, a "Declaration of Religious Principle"? Are you kidding me?
(And, just for the record, the Girl Scouts accepts homosexuals and allow members to substitute another word in place of "God" when reciting the Girl Scout Promise).
Now, I'm not saying that I'm going to go all crazy and write to the New York Times like this guy did - An Eagle Scout No More, but I am going to look into the Scouting for All.
It'd be nice, in the estimated decade or so before we have kids of proper scouting age, if the Boy Scouts of America could get their shit together and join us in the 21st century. Because I'm for sure not going to tell my kids that gay people are bad and that they have to pray to God.
I want them to grow up trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and not a damned bigot.
