The struggle is a good thing…

So I am blogging again today.  Looking back, it occurs to me that I have been away a while.  Baseball, tee ball, ballet (not me, the half-pint), teaching, working, scouting – all of those things that I love are taking me in a direction away from something else I love – sharing this little corner of the universe with you.  So it is that there is one thing in particular nudging me back into the electronic study where I can pace around and sort out my feelings. The Boy Scouts of America, yesterday, “affirmed” their stance on discriminating against “avowed and openly” gay scouts and volunteers.

What utter nonsense.  First and foremost, let’s just take a look at the words they use.  They “affirmed” their policy.  How does one “affirm” discrimination?  The juxtaposition of the two words in the same sentence brings to mind the inauguration speech of Alabama Governor George Wallace.  “Segregation now!  Segregation tomorrow!  Segregation forever!”

In that speech, the Governor “affirmed” his state’s policy, didn’t he?  No doubt about it that he “affirmed” his policy of never letting one group of people mix with another group of people.  50 years in our rear-view mirror, I have to ask – how did that affirmation hold up?  Was it the right thing to do?  Was it in keeping with our founding principles?  The answer is certainly “no,” at least for the humane and decent among us, it is.

So you have this “affirmation” from the Boy Scouts of America that they are going to keep discriminating against people.  They say that “a majority of their parents” want this.  Well, wait a sec – no one ever asked me.  I have been in scouting since my Star scout was in the first grade.  Can’t recall ever seeing a questionnaire from BSA mailed to our house or our troop.  How do they know what a majority of the parents want when they never surveyed them? 

I am just a volunteer, working my butt off for this great little Troop so that they can grow into strong, wise, and self-reliant confident men who make up their own minds about such nonsense.  I have no resources to donate to scouts other than my time and my commitment to the principles of scouting.  Principles like this little ditty from Sir Robert Baden-Powell:  “The spirit is there in every boy; it has to be discovered and brought to light. “  Or maybe this one:  “The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others. “  How does any of that involve discrimination based on a person’s sexual preference?

Baden-Powell is, if you didn’t know, the founder of scouting (there is considerable speculation that he himself was a closeted homosexual.  While his sexual preference doesn’t matter a bit to me, I guess since he wasn’t an “avowed” homosexual, scouting’s founder must be ok in the BSA’s eyes, because to date they ain't kicked him out).

And let’s talk a moment about that concept of being an “avowed” person of any sexual orientation.  I missed a lot during puberty, I mean there was just a lot going on with girls, and sports, and school and family life…so I could have been out fishing or playing baseball the day the village elders came around intending to make me swear a vow to be either hetero or homosexual.  I do not remember ever “avowing” to any particular sexual orientation.  I do remember seeing Dawn Wells on TV in those little red shorts on Gilligan’s Island and being pretty well smitten by that, but that is about as close as I get to “avowing” anything in terms of my individual sexuality.  Maybe it’s different for others, I just don’t remember having to swear a vow about my sexual orientation.  Seems I just grew up having the one I got.  

So this topic of the Boy Scouts of America “affirming” their discrimination against “avowed or openly gay” kids and volunteers is nonsense.  Scouting should be open to all.  It diminishes the integrity and credibility of our commitment to the Scout Law to intentionally turn our backs on kids and their parents because of something as absurd as sexuality.  As a committee member and assistant scoutmaster, I find it absolutely inappropriate that I would be expected to engage any of my scouts in a discussion about their sexuality.  Discussin gthis decision, a good friend of mine and scoutmaster pointed out the obvious, "as scout leaders who grants us that license, that charter, that permission to engage kids that way?"  No one.  Yet the scouts have forced that dynamic precisely.  By making a big a deal out of individual sexuality, the BSA has wrongly thrust that issue onto local Troops.

A scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.  Nowhere in there does it reference sexuality.  I will continue to love scouting and maintain my commitment to the kids in my Troop.  And I will keep faith that, at some point, the Boy Scouts of America will embrace the true meaning of their charter and open the doors of scouting to all by abandoning this antique and contradictory obsession with homosexuality.

So, today is a little more pointed than most of my entries.  I suppose that happens when you see something you love making a bad decision or heading off in a wrong direction.  The reality is that scouting, just like the scouts themselves and their volunteers, is not defined by this one issue.  There are millions of us out there who say “let the kids join; let the parents volunteer” regardless of this issue of sexuality.  Don’t mistake my passion for contempt – I love scouting and the opportunities it presents.  I am just a little sad and embarrassed today by the direction BSA is taking here.

Wherever you are today, whatever you are doing, I hope you can take some time to reflect on what is best about scouting in America; the kids. Their decency, their commitment to solid scouting principles, the promises they make, and keep, on a daily basis. I hope you can spend some time being assured that there are a million or so volunteers all pulling hard in the right direction and I hope you can join me by keeping that faith that someday, someday soon, we too shall overcome this.  Until the time that we do, like many things in scouting, the struggle to achieve will in the end serve us well.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Yours in scouting,

Dennis

smalltowndad@hotmail.com