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I can agree with many of the points you, Doodlebob, and others bring up: scouting units at the troop and pack level are still great, positive influences on young men. It also sickens me that FReepers are mocking BSA troops as being loaded with pedos and victims. What a flippant, stupid thing to say.

But I also resent the mis-characterization you make of us who have left the BSA. After seven years of Cub Scout leadership I decided to take my two boys and leave for a newly formed Trail Life troop. I was tired of funding a national and regional leadership whose values no longer reflected mine. While our church-sponsored pack and attached troop could exclude gay leaders, it was clear we would be around them at district events and council campgrounds. No thanks.

The straw that broke the camel's back for me was the enthusiastic welcome of girls into the BSA and the dishonest way it was brought about. Now every piece of literature for scouting clearly shows that BSA scouting is for girls. It perfectly fits National's “progressive” notion that boys and girls are interchangeable. Recruiting boys and male leaders for my pack was hard enough, as cultural headwinds favor sports or other activities. Now I also had to fight the damage that National has done to perception of the BSA brand.

We live in a free society where people can make their own choices. I don't berate conservatives who want to leave California schools and taxes for better states elsewhere. I also don't consider BSA parents and leaders to be pussies for finding other scouting organizations. The battle is to develop young boys into good men, not to save the BSA from its own failings. So don't tell me to “suck it up” and keep supporting this disaster with my time and money.

So don't tell me to “suck it up” and keep supporting this disaster with my time and money.

To be fair to what I said, I wasn't speaking of anyone but my son. I tell him to suck it up and not get caught up in what girls are doing, or what some other troop over the horizon is doing. My point, to which some mistakenly take as celebrating what has become of BSA, is that my troop is damned good. We have good male leaders. Good boys. And a good program. I don't feel compelled to ditch all this good stuff simply because of problems with the national organization. I harbor no ill-will to those who've left, and I'd leave, too, if my troop, in my neighborhood, was run like the national organization. On the flipside, and this is the fault of national 100%, Scouts now has a broken reputation as feminist and leftist-ruined place for weak boys to get taken advantage of. Pictures of smiling scouts are seen as evidence of being gay. That mischaracterization and belittlement of young men currently in the program is what angers me the most.

To your final point, I don't think anyone can save the national BSA organization. Donations are going to dry up now that they've filed for bankruptcy to pay out all their claims. In a few years my son will be out and I'll never give them another cent, though I'll keep supporting the local boys in our troop.

Perhaps the BEST statement on this topic I've read is:

It has to be faced that they have won at the national level.

In some ways, there is a parallel with the BSA National organization to the NRA leadership. Both groups were amongst the most steadfast defenders of the underpinnings of the country - strong leadership and natural rights. Nobody could take them down, either. Somewhere along the way, they took their eye off the prize/let their guard down. Their contemporary shenanigans (bordering on being criminally negligent) combined with the attacks from the left, resulted in fallout that is stunning...and heartbreaking. Meanwhile, the enemies of American culture dance in the streets in delight.

Also in parallel, the sprit of developing tomorrow's leaders and defending the right to KABA is not vested with HQ...that spirit cannot be snuffed with a Chapter 11 filing nor revelations about Wayne's wardrobe expenses. Indeed, those painful actions MAY help usher in a cleaning of the Agean Stables.

Until then, we rebels, scattered throughout the nation but without a national office we trust, hold onto our ways and traditions...and an almost genetic predisposition to carry on. The question is: how shall we best meet our predisposition? Do we make a clean break and either form or join new substitute organizations, or do we become a sort of Scouting sedevancantist lot?

I've come to learn through our discourse that we are not enemies, but we sure talk like we are. Maybe it is passion...maybe we are peeved that National let us down...or perhaps, just maybe...this is what the left wants. Well, if that's the case, and at the risk of violating the Clean part of The Scout Law, I say...

If we can agree that whether we stay with BSA via local Troops (my preference) or start anew (others' preferences) that there is legitimacy in each others' chosen path, and that our anger should be directed stage left and not at my fellow actor, then our spirited posts shall not have been in vain.

Thank you, FRiends.