Posted on 05/21/2011 6:04:02 AM PDT by Kaslin
"Chances are, if you're naming your blog after a Taylor Swift album, your judgment's already suspect."
That's Salon dismissing two teen girls, in a piece on the Girl Scouts and its liberal feminist tendencies. And, as it happens, the line itself actually speaks to the heart of the problem.
Think about what the young country star's songs often embody: A rooted goodness, and higher expectations than instant gratification -- for herself and for those she loves. Are those things that should be so scornfully patronized by the liberal chattering class?
Sydney and Tess Volanski, about to be a rising sophomore and high-school freshman, respectively, started the aforementioned Taylor-named website, Speak Now, when they left the Girl Scouts after eight years because of the group's values clash with their own -- namely, its ties to Planned Parenthood.
The rude awakening for the sisters was the reported distribution of a Planned Parenthood brochure, entitled "Healthy, Happy and Hot" -- which dealt with satisfying sexual urges and procuring a "safe abortion" while living with HIV-- at the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts meeting last year. But Volanskis' concerns go beyond that -- to the worldview of the Girl Scouts as a whole.
These girls are bent on reform, rather than destruction, however.
"We were part of a great troop," Sydney says. "We had our Bronze Award and were in the process of planning for our Silver Award. It was a great experience, only marred when we found out that GSUSA is not who they say they are. We were saddened by the fact that we were representing a group in name and financially that had moral viewpoints in direct opposition to ours."
Sydney tells me: "Many Girl Scouts are good, wholesome girls. The problem lies within the national organization's leadership's lack of adherence to their promise of neutrality," on abortion. Further, she adds, girls often need and "should get help, but Planned Parenthood and abortion -- what GSUSA is directing them to -- are not help. Abortion has serious risks for women, including breast cancer, infertility, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide. Does this sound like help?"
"If we had a say," Sydney continues, "we would make it so they were truly neutral about a girl's health and sexuality, abortion and birth control and political affiliations, as they promise to be. We would put the focus where it should be, on character-building and leadership activities."
When I asked them if they were just doing the bidding of their pro-life mom, as Salon accused, Sydney told me: "We have passion for the pro-life cause on our own. We are old enough so that we can form our own opinions. Teenagers are not all as apathetic as society seems to think; we can care enough about something to take action. This is something that we cared about, so we took action and made this website because we wanted to."
Sydney and Tess are finding their voices at a time when they're far from alone among young people, and young women. Tess points to Lila Rose, the 22-year-old who has made an early name for herself doing independent pro-life undercover work: "I am inspired by the many amazing women who fight for life in our culture today. One who stands out is Lila Rose. Her commitment and courage are very motivating. We found in person that Lila is not only bold and courageous, but also very kind and compassionate."
The Volanski sisters' new attitude to the Girl Scouts puts them in a growing crowd. Patti Garibay is the national executive director of American Heritage Girls, which has grown in the years since its 1995 founding from simply an alternative to the Girl Scouts to the more fitting sister group to the Boy Scouts. Just this year, the Boy Scouts joined American Heritage in a joint "memorandum of mutual support." Garibay explains some commonalities between the two groups, "AHG and BSA are both centered on a duty to God, we are 'owned' by our charter partners, thus allowing our programs to serve as a ministry of the church, we are structured the same, AHG leaders use the BSA youth protection and outdoor skills training to name a few."
And, she adds, in response to some of the critics of those concerned about GS mission creep: "Yes, girls need to know about sexuality but why not within a moral framework of faith, family, and church." You can't build character without a moral barometer, Garibay argues.
Anna Halpine, who founded the World Youth Alliance adds: "A lot of good organizations affiliate with (Planned Parenthood) both nationally, (locally) and internationally, since they are the big banner organization that is promoting women and girls, and claiming to advocate their health and healthy lifestyles. I think that many of these groups would find their local and national chapters agitating to form alliances with other groups if those were available to them. In essence; we need an alternative to the current options."
It can be hard to be a good girl in our often over-sexualized culture. But it looks like the girls -- bolstered by parents or church or other prevailing bastions of sanity -- might just blaze the paths themselves.
You go, girls! And like in a Taylor Swift song or two, the guys might just follow -- and appreciate it more than you know.
Good for you!
WTF?
Most Girl Scouts will never even be aware of the Planned Parenthood connection to GSA. I was a GS Leader in Brownies, then later in Senior level. There were books, provided by national GSA, that the girls could read to prepare for badges, but none really got into the subjects of sexuality, and never mentioned abortion, at least the ones that I saw. Most girls join the Scouts for a fun activity, and our group did some fun things. With parents in charge of local groups, we have some control over what the girls do, and in which activities they participate. As in the Boy Scouts, with the Eagle, most Girls don't ever go for the Gold Award, they're just in the group for the fellowship.
As for cookie sales, that only happens for a couple of months, but when the girls are older, and want to do more things, there does have to be a lot of fundraising for those activities. When I took over my daughter's Senior group, the other Senior group had just gotten back from a cruise. Our girls talked about going on a big trip, and I told them that was fine, but I had no intention of spending every weekend fundraising, which is what the girls in the other group had done. When our girls realized the amount of money they'd need, and the amount of time that would have been spent on raising it, they pared down their plans quite a bit. Worked for me.
The Girl Scouts, at the national and international level might be lousy with feminists and lesbians, but parents DO have control over what happens locally, with their daughters' troops. The girls can learn valuable lessons of leadership and service in the Girl Scouts.
Locally the connection between Girl Scouts, Planned Parenthood, and the National Organization for Women is not a well-kept secret at all. These organizations sponsor women's conferences together and are all in the Nevada Women's Lobby, which essentially lobbies for left wing causes and the perpetual raising of taxes under the guise of “helping women and children”. Still, most parents who have their daughters involved in Girl Scouts aren't aware of their organizations heavy ties with Planned Parenthood and NOW.
We trusted the Boy Scouts and could highly recommend that organization, but knowing what we knew about the local Girl Scouts, we refused to allow our daughter to be involved.
Both.
Disgusting headline, what idiot wrote that. sheesh
Drew was certainly a darling looking little girl.
Was that the controversy that involved Pam Smallwood (you can google that name with Texas and Girl Scouts for background info) several years back? Smallwood was an exec with a Central TX PP, and is now a very high mucky muck at one of the most productive abortion clinics in the world in Austin.
Oh?
I thought that was part of it's MISSION statement!
Interesting call -- unfortunately, considering the analogy and its consequent resolution. Worth keeping an eye on.
FWIW, though, I don't think BSA is going anywhere; I doubt they'll break up, and the pseudo-scouts orgs will probably just decay into intake atria for catamitic seraglios and totalitarian paramilitary groups and lose any pretense of actually standing for something.
Vice is pretty reliable that way -- of doing away with the waystations and middlemen and "getting down to it" fairly directly. Those guys won't be out in the woods long.
Bless this healthy, straight young woman. And kudos to her mom -- I guarantee there's a straight backbone in her.
I'd suggest a rephrasing to:
at one of the most prod
destructive abortion clinics in the world in Austin.
Placemark.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.