Posted on 05/29/2002 7:10:54 AM PDT by GrandMoM
I haven't bought a GS cookie since.
Support your local BSA council by purchasing BSA popcorn. It is available every fall.
Pioneer clubs is another option.
But follow the money. The cookies are smaller and cost more than inflation would demand. (Berry made a great cookie in the 60's.) A small fraction of the cookie price goes to the troop--most of the profits fuel the council, where according to this article, the lesbians are employed. The troop is required to use up their excess money by the end of the year; ergo, the troop never acquires enough money to make good long-term investments in things like camping equipment. This way, too, the GSA troops do not develop the long-term identity the BSA troops do and the council stays all powerful while the troops remain weak links.
My daughter is still a scout because she needs social contact with a variety of girls. I refuse to sell the cookies and calendars, or whatever the fund-raiser-of-the-month is. After all, I think scouting should be more than on-the-job training for door-to-door sales. However, I can't wait for her to get old enough to join a BSA explorer group and really learn something that matters.
So send the GSA a message--don't buy their darned cookies and tell any parent of any child who asks for the order why they should reconsider the agenda of their parent organization. Without a grassroots movement from the bottom up (or a rapid decline in scouting as a result of demographic changes like a post-boomlet bust), these get-along-go-along spineless mooches will not get it.
There were 18 girls (age 8) in our troop, myself, and four mothers all sitting around my family room listening to the woman speak. After a few minutes, she began to speak about Jewish people...I saw her eyes acknowledge a little girl of Syrian heritage...so in my mind I thought (oh...this woman thinks that Kellie is, Jewish). The woman continues to speak about Jewish people...then she asked if there were any Jewish kids in the room...as she once again looked at, Kellie (I guess she expected Kellie to raise her hand.)
A little blonde haired, blue-eyed girl named Summer raised her hand and said, "I'm Jewish."
The woman from headquarters said, "Honey, you're not Jewish, put your hand down."
Summer turned around and said to her mother, "MOM! I am too Jewish."
Her mom confirmed that Summer was Jewish...the woman from headquarters apologized.
Some representative for racial tolerance, hey? She judged the girl's ethnic heritage by their looks.
Idiot.
....one gets the feeling that you really, really, really don't like her
Interesting, this. The GSUSA is a member of the WAGGGS, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. If you look over the documentation on the WAGGGS site www.wagggs.org (currently undergoing reorg, with the usual result of bunches of broken links), you'll find that a belief in God is required for all members of organizations that are in turn members of WAGGGS. WAGGGS has accepted the GSUSA's representation that "the fundamental principles" are being upheld. So, while my daughter would say "Duty to God", a Moslem girl might say "Duty to Allah", and this is acceptable to WAGGGS.
So far, so good. There's no intent that WAGGGS membership, or GSUSA membership, be limited to Christians and Jews. However, in practice in the GSUSA, I called up my local Council and asked if they allow atheists. I got something along the lines of "We think that religious belief is a family matter". I asked if a youth or leader came in and announced, "I am an atheist". Same response. WAGGGS says you're not eligible for membership if you're an atheist, but the GSUSA isn't playing it that way as far as I can see.
Understand that membership in WAGGGS's member organizations is about 12 million, and the GSUSA provides 50% of that.
While I viewed some of the leaders less then feminine,I never thought about them being GAY! ....I guess I was really naive back then.
Who cares what they do as long as the Thin Mints run on time...;-)
Love the cookies too. But if I had daughters, they wouldn't be Girl Scouts.
I stopped buying the cookies 20 years ago.
The cookies are good, but they're waaaaaay too expensive, an very little goes to actually fund Girl Scout activiities. For whatever reason, the Boy Scouts seem to do a better job of providing for the kids. IMHO, GSA is more about raising funds to support the GSA corporate bureaucracy by exploiting child labor to sell cookies.
BTW, I don't flatly refuse to donate. I just don't buy the cookies. Whenever I'm approaced by somebody wanting to sell cookies to me, I make a $5 or $10 cash donation instead. The local troop gets full benefit from my donation without having to fork over 99% to the national GSA and cookie manufacturers.
....I totally beieve God will get her as well as her red nosed husband.
....I just hope I will live to see it happen!!!!!
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