Scouts represent America

[howarthe]

63% of US adults agree with Scouts for Equality. Why do we care what people think of scouting if they are not participating, and they don't plan on participating one way or the other? I've been thinking about this a lot. I've come up with an answer. The Boy Scouts of America is an iconic institution in America. Scout has come to be synonymous with honesty and integrity. I will use film as one example. I love movies. When the bad guy wants to make fun of the good guy for being so inflexible in his morality, he ridicules him by calling him a boy scout. Scouting has come to belong to all Americans. What we do reflects on our entire country. And so when we do something that most Americans feel is "unAmerican," they are entitled to their unease. We have a duty to our country as an organization to represent them well.

[Scouter99]

As it happens, 63% of Americans are obese, and as such I believe that we should remove "physical strong" from the oath, and make Personal Fitness, Cycling, Hiking, and Swimming merit badges optional rather than Eagle-required.

[King Ding Dong]

As it happens, 63% of Americans are obese, and as such I believe that we should remove "physical strong" from the oath, and make Personal Fitness, Cycling, Hiking, and Swimming merit badges optional rather than Eagle-required.

Ha. Good one.

[AZMike]

As it happens, 63% of Americans also reject the theory of evolution (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090212005934AA61hDa), so we should probably encourage Scouts to rip off all those Darwin fish trunk ornaments and set fire to the offending vehicles in a jihad of Intelligent Design triumphalism. We have a duty to our country as an organization to reflect their beliefs..

[AZMike]

63% of all Americans also oppose new taxes (http://weaselzippers.us/2013/04/11/shock-poll-63-of-americans-say-no-new-taxes/), 63% of Americans own an answering machine (http://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/Probability-and-statistics/Probability-and-statistics.faq.question.130786.html), 63% of Americans support Israel over any other middle-eastern nation (http://www.gallup.com/poll/126155/support-israel-near-record-high.aspx), 63% of Americans oppose the war in Afghanistan (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/30/63-percent-of-american-public-opposes-war-afghanistan_n_802765.html), 63% support capital punishment (http://www.gallup.com/poll/159770/death-penalty-support-stable.aspx), 63% of Americans think the Bible is literally true (http://www.wnd.com/2005/04/30001/), and 63% of Americans think obese passengers should have to purchase a second seat on an air flight (http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2013/apr/23/fat-chance-63-percent-americans-say-obese-airline-/), and 63% of Americans aren't sure what "fracking" means.(http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2012/06/63-americans-arent-sure-what-fracking/53756/).

 

Accordingly, the BSA should adopt a no-new-taxes policy, purchase cassette-based answering machines and dump voice mail at headquarters, fly the Israeli flag next to the U.S. flag at National, demand that all (any?) remaining troops come home from southwest Asia, offer to supply a Scout color guard for any public executions, adopt the Holy Bible as the Supreme Law of the Land, protest outside the home of big-boned people with too many frequent-flier miles, and sell the petroleum rights to the land under our council headquarters.

 

[DigitalScout]

I think you missed the point of the OP. 63% of Americans think the BSA policy is unfair and gay people are being treated with inequality. We, Americans, strongly believe that everyone should get a fair chance. I don't understand what that has to do with installing answering machines at National.

[AZMike]

So if 63% of Americans thought we should, as an organization, jump of a cliff, would we be obligated to do that to?

 

'Cause we may be about to....

 

[Krampus]

63% of US adults agree with Scouts for Equality. Why do we care what people think of scouting if they are not participating' date=' and they don't plan on participating one way or the other? I've been thinking about this a lot. I've come up with an answer. The Boy Scouts of America is an iconic institution in America. Scout has come to be synonymous with honesty and integrity. I will use film as one example. I love movies. When the bad guy wants to make fun of the good guy for being so inflexible in his morality, he ridicules him by calling him a boy scout. Scouting has come to belong to all Americans. What we do reflects on our entire country. And so when we do something that most Americans feel is "unAmerican," they are entitled to their unease. We have a duty to our country as an organization to represent them well.[/quote']

 

Just out of curiosity, who did the survey and how big was the sample?

 

Having worked in politics I have actually worked with pollsters. It is amazing how they could get an arab to say the existence of an independent Jewish state in the middle east is a good idea if you phrase the questions just right. ;-)

 

Given the political polarization in this country based on the last election, I find it very hard to believe that 63% of the country support such a polarizing topic. Now, if you said 63% liked vanilla ice cream I might buy it, but not on this issue.

[walk in the woods]

What! Vanilla! You got to be kiddng! What kind of pinko commie eats vanilla ice cream!

[packsaddle]

What! Vanilla! You got to be kiddng! What kind of pinko commie eats vanilla ice cream!

Well, there's this:

http://emergingusa.org/2012/04/13/a-tale-of-fidel-and-the-ice-cream-2/

and this:

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTiGddf5nPxFIS8Y8Mufl59TxWG-6HoiIjiMxPpwj6KfeL0YYNipA

Sure as heck looks vanilla to me!

[King Ding Dong]

What! Vanilla! You got to be kiddng! What kind of pinko commie eats vanilla ice cream!

So who is responsible for putting the gluten in all our ice cream. Is it the Communists or the Capitalists ?

[EmberMike]

Just making assumptions here, but if 63% of all Americans favor letting gays into the BSA, I'd suspect that the percentage of people currently within the BSA who also favor this is far lower. Not basing this on anything scientific, just a gut feeling that we won't see that high of a number in the vote next week in favor of changing the policy. I'd be surprised to see anything other than numbers in the 50s.

 

I guess if you really think about it, this all does represent America very well. We rarely decide anything by large margins. We pick out presidents typically by 51% to 49%, give or take a point or two.

 

[Krampus]

Just making assumptions here, but if 63% of all Americans favor letting gays into the BSA, I'd suspect that the percentage of people currently within the BSA who also favor this is far lower. Not basing this on anything scientific, just a gut feeling that we won't see that high of a number in the vote next week in favor of changing the policy. I'd be surprised to see anything other than numbers in the 50s.

 

I guess if you really think about it, this all does represent America very well. We rarely decide anything by large margins. We pick out presidents typically by 51% to 49%, give or take a point or two.

Right. But presidents win by a few % points BUT the number of people eligible to vote that actually vote is even LOWER than that. So what you have is a president that 30% of the voting population voted for which is an even smaller percentage of the overall population. In essence, we have minority rule...and look that that has done for us all these years.

 

I'd rather let private organizations be just that. If 65% of the population hates shot guns does that mean they have the right to dictate the membership policies of the NRA? Thankfully, no.

[walk in the woods]

Not sure I'm buying the premise that scouting belongs to America. I think before all this blew up if you'd asked the average man on the street about scouting the response would have been something along the line of "I didn't even know scouts still existed" or "I haven't thought about scouts since I was a boy" or "yeah, I get the fliers in my son's bookbag but we don't have time for that." I mean if we're throwing around numbers we're 1,000,000 out of a population of 350,000,000. Much less than 1%. Double or triple our numbers by including alumni and relations and we're still talking what, 1% or 2% with a direct relationship to scouting? Hardly the stuff of America's Youth Program. I think it's more likely people are passionate about the cause and the BSA happens to be the most opportune target. A few years ago it was the Augusta National Golf Club (still is at some level but that's not nearly as juicy as the BSA).