Comments
by Java Mann...
I
was never a Boy Scout, though I did date one. Before you get your boxers
in a bunch, I was 15 and he was 16 and it was all rather innocent, thank
you very much. I was however, in the local Explorer post band all through
high school. Obviously the Boy Scout moral code wasn’t enforced, as I violated
it on two separate counts; as a homosexual and an atheist. Actually, I
don’t recall the Boy Scout moral code ever being mentioned.
My brighter readers have
already figured out where this is going. On April 26 2000, the Supreme
Court of the United States heard the case of James Dale vs. the Boy Scouts
of America. The BSA (sore losers) are appealing the case they lost in New
Jersey’s Supreme Court. James Dale claimed (and proved) that the BSA is
a public group, and that he was expelled from that group (as a troop leader)
because he is a homosexual. The Boy Scouts are claiming they are a private
group, and as such may exclude membership based on any undiscerning criteria
they so choose.
OK folks, I may be a bit
obtuse here, but I just don’t get it. Congress charters the BSA. The President
of the US is, if only ceremonially, the president of the BSA. Though the
BSA receives no direct financial support from the government,
they do receive free access to federal government property and equipment,
and full support from all branches of the U.S. armed forces. In one
year the U.S Navy alone donated $967,796.00 worth of equipment to the BSA.
And
yet they claim to be a private club?
At the local level the BSA
frequently are permitted free use of public school buildings and other
facilities. Scout Leaders are given free access to schools for recruitment
purposes. Police and Fire stations, which are supported with tax dollars,
host Explorer posts. The leaders of these Explorer posts are paid with
tax dollars. Again, they claim to be a private club?
There is another aspect of
the discrimination being practiced here. Becoming an Eagle Scout is one
of the highest honors the BSA can bestow. If the BSA were the private club
they claim, being an Eagle Scout would mean nothing (or very little) out-side
the organization. But upon enlisting in the U.S. Army, an Eagle Scout will
receive the pay grade of E3, $832.00 a month, compared to the $762.00 a
month any other new recruit receives. If the BSA were truly a private
club, why does the U.S. government reward accomplishment in this
private group? And what about the recruit whose education and experience
exceed
the Eagle Scout, but he was denied the opportunity to become
an Eagle Scout, because he was an atheist or gay?
Federal law requires that
any group, organization, school or whatever that accepts federal funding
to be open to all. This means, that though the BSA do not take cash from
the government, they accept an awful lot of freebies, and for this they
must be open to homosexuals, atheists, Jews, Gentiles, blacks, whites and
every other variation of people you might care to name.
Granted folks, the BSA might
be the most benign of evils. They do a great deal of good and teach young
people responsibility and self-confidence. Unfortunately, as it stands
now, they are teaching discrimination. The Supreme Court of New Jersey
saw that. Let’s hope the U.S. Supreme Court sees it as well.
I have no problem with the
BSA claiming to be a private group, and I’ll feel no remorse if they choose
to exclude anyone. I just want to see them make recompense for all the
government support they have received first.
|
 
 
Hey,
we know!
.
Allegedly
Art's
Link Letters
Below
The Fold
Crazy
Talk
Dept.
Of Huh?
Eye2Eye
Fool4Love
Full
Disclosure
Get
Over It
Homoerrectus
New
World Hors Doeuvres
O-T-R
Patriarch's
Planet
Scene
& Herd
Strange
Bedfellow
Technophobia
|
