Save our Scouts Bill (S 3026, 108th Congress 2d Session)

[johndaigler]

Hola, Friends,

 

This isn't a Bill that Politicians or Scouters should support. Senator Frist may mean well, though I'm skeptical. We're a private group, let's be content with our choices. To think that we somehow deserve special treatment compared to other private groups is . . . I don't know, . . . arrogant, ignorant, self limiting, self agrandizing, . . . whatever! It's just wrong. We have such support around the country, we don't need special treatment -- we're special because of how we treat others!

 

We were chartered by Congress in a different time, and world. Does anyone for one minute think that BSA could get such a thing accomplished today? Would we want or need it? Our support of "American" values is more a support of "good" values. It doesn't help us when anyone, ourselves or others, see us as somehow a junior agency of the US govt.

 

National ought to step up, thank Sen. Frist for his concern, and ask people NOT to support the bill. Instead of good PR for Frist we would claim the higher moral road and a little good PR for the BSA.

 

BTW, If the best bit of criticism we have of the ACLU is a complaint against a 70 year old quote, it sounds like a serious appreciation of their efforts over the last 69 years!!! Do we want to go find 70 year old quotes from the major political parties?? Maybe we could find an interesting tidbit in a 70 year old Scout Handbook. Come on!

 

Respectfully,

 

(Well, everything but that last paragraph, anyway!)

 

jd

 

 

[NJCubScouter]

Johndaigler,

 

Great post. I agree with all of it.

 

I had done a little research on Roger Baldwin and found a good article that sort of puts his 1930's pro-Communist quote in perspective. I wanted to wait until I had time to write what I think about it, but I still don't and probably won't anytime soon, so I'll just post the link:

 

http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/baldwin.html

 

The bottom line is, the guy was a Communist in the 1930's. A lot of people were Communists in the 30's, before Stalin really started his reign of terror, or at least before the rest of the world knew about it. You know what? At least one of my grandfathers was a Communist, or at least a Socialist, in the 1930's, or at least I'm pretty sure he was. It didn't mean the same thing then as it does to us today. It didn't mean you were anti-American, it just meant you favored a different economic system and didn't think the Soviet Union was so bad, because at that point the Soviet Union really hadn't done anything so bad, that we knew

[NJCubScouter]

of.

[packsaddle]

johndaigler, I also agree. The bill, however, may serve as a successful distraction from some very real problems that are not being addressed by Mr. Frist and congress. So in addition to your argument, we also shouldn't let congress off the hook by diverting our attention from those larger problems.

[JimmyD]

If we have a congressional charter (i think thats what it is called) military units and the Dod should be allowed to sponsor scouting units. Would we probably be able to get a charter passed now? no, but i'm sure you can apply 200 some year old documents also to that category with delcaration, bill of rights, and other stuff.