Posted on 12/23/2007 7:45:02 PM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past
The war on the Boy Scouts
By Al Knight
Article Last Updated: 12/18/2007 07:45:49 PM MST
Some topics are best left both out of sight and out of mind. The American Civil Liberties Union's war on the Boy Scouts is not one of them.
The ACLU, in a rational world, might well have been expected to champion the First Amendment rights of an organization like the Boy Scouts. After all, the First Amendment to the Constitution (so dear to the ACLU) protects both speech and the right to associate.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 upheld the right of the Boy Scouts to select members and leaders without regard to state laws that bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.
That ruling hasn't stopped the ACLU. It has simply shifted tactics away from the courts and focused its energies on local and often mean-spirited campaigns to deny the Scouts places to meet and the ability to raise funds.
Sadly, the campaign appears to be working. Earlier this year, the Philadelphia City Council caved to pressure from the ACLU and gay and lesbian groups to end a 75-year-old, $1-a-year lease on the Boy Scouts headquarters. The lease was originally granted to run "in perpetuity."
But now, the Scouts will have to pay almost $200,000 a year in rent. Not only that, but the city's Cradle of Liberty Boy Scout Council, after years of resistance, gave in to pressure and essentially agreed to the demands of gay and lesbian groups. And more bad news: The left-leaning Pew Charitable Trusts and the United Way in Philadelphia have stopped funding the Boy Scouts.
The youth of Philadelphia need the Boy Scouts as much as ever, but the City Council is too cowardly to stand up to the unreasonable and vindictive demands of special interest groups.
These campaigns against the Scouts can no longer be disguised as efforts to end discrimination. They have only one purpose: to punish an organization that has performed countless good turns for a century.
At this point, it is unclear what can be done to convince the American public that actions like those taken by the Philadelphia City Council pose a risk to the nation and to the common good. Today, the Boy Scouts may be the target, but tomorrow the same shabby tactics could be aimed at the Rotary Club or any other private civic group.
Those who care about traditional notions of diversity and tolerance might consider joining the battle by showing support for the American Civil Rights Union. The ACRU, which was founded in 1998 as a response to the ACLU, is a champion of the First Amendment and conservative causes, including support for the enforcement of existing immigration laws, opposition to the Fairness Doctrine and support for the principle of executive privilege. Contact them at theacru.org.
Al Knight of Fairplay (alknight@mindspring.com) is a former member of The Post's editorial-page staff. His column appears twice a month.
BTW WHY are you bringing Giuliani into this anyway????
Interesting. But I thought oral agreements can be binding too.
I must have a strong stomach, then, because I wasn't particularly bothered by the repeated statements that private organizations aren't automatically entitled to government subsidies.
The Scouts built and paid for the building. They donated the building to the city with the understanding that they would be able to rent it for $1. I hardly call that a gov’t subsidy. Shame on the city for trying to force little boys to accept homosexuality as normal. SHAME SHAME SHAME...... What that gov’t is subsidizing is perversity and its resulting human tragedies.
Ah. In that case I think the Scouts should get their building back. I'm still not disturbed by the comments.
Hmm, I’m rechecking the article and looking at a few others, and so far I don’t see anything about the Scouts having donated the building to the city. Do you have a source for that?
I'm not the poster you addressed, but the stated goal of The Stonewall Veterans Association, and what separates them from Act Up, is a desire to eliminate age of consent laws and integrate groups like NAMBLA into the larger homosexual community. It dovetails exactly with the thread topic.
“Approximately 15 years ago I stopped donating to the United Way. My employer was upset...”
Same experience here. My employer wanted me to act as a UW coordinator for my company. I told him I wouldn’t and politely explained my differences with the organization. I could read his dissappointment because I wasn’t willing to play along.
Doris Lessing is a British writer who won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Doris Lessing on political correctness: ““Political correctness is the natural continuum from the party line. What we are seeing once again is a self-appointed group of vigilantes imposing their views on others. It is a heritage of communism, but they don’t seem to see this.”
Those commenting on the article frequently cite discrimination against homosexuals, and don’t understand why society traditionally discourages this behavior. According to a PDF file (a62375_eng.pdf) from the World Health Organization, “Sex between men frequenly involves anal intercourse, which carries a very high risk of HIV transmission for the receptive partner, and a significant risk, though a lesser one, for the insertive partner...” I fear that we will be finding out through practical experience that it is healthy for society to stigmatize this behavior.
In addition, according to the US Centers for Disease Control at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/msm/ , in a 2004 ‘Dear Colleague’ letter, “Men who have sex with men (MSM) are at increased risk for multiple sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, hepatitis B and hepatitis A.”
Left-wing people will claim that all of this shows why we need gay marriage without considering that homosexuals are not interested in supporting monogamy. They deny that Boy Scouts would be at increased risk for molestation. I’m wondering what would change their point of view. How do you get through to them?
The last phrase of the Scout Oath is the scout will keep himself “morally straight”. Pretty clear cut.
I'm a scoutmaster and support the BSA in this policy. But for the record, no adults in Boy Scouts sleeps in tents with little boys (other than their own sons). In fact, the adult section is separate from the boys' tent area on campouts.
An adult is never alone with one or more boys. We insist on two or more adults at all times.
Right, We have to stop taking the bait and missing the real point--This is not about homosexual rights or tolerance or diversity or any of that verbal diarrhea. This is an agenda to undermine and discredit any voluntary association of citizens which does not depend on government support and/or authorization (read control).
The essence of the leftwing project is to atomize society and allow only those associations which advance the cause of the totalitarian rulers. We watched it in action for seventy years in the USSR. I don't know why it is hard to see it here and now.
And I stopped funding United Way. Every decent human with a conscience should stop funding United Way.
bump
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