Horizon

Kinda like those of us who support gay rights have been demonized on this very site? Told that my faith (Presbyterian Church USA) is a fringe one? Told that by allowing my son to go to youth group a with a gay minister made me an unfit parent? Then we can add in glossing over gay bashing, gay murder, and the long list of states that still have laws that allow someone to be fired for being gay? A man knifed 6 people in Israel at a gay pride parade, one teenage girl is dead. On Monday of this week, a guy assaulted a gay couple in New York. His mistake was that one of the couple is West Point

The unit I serve is majority minority, reflecting my city (in Orange County) and state (California). Looking at the pictures from summer camp, we are at most 25% anglo. The rest is Persian, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. This is reflected in the Troop Committee and adult leaders. I used to have a Jewish patrol from the local Temple, but they all aged out and were not replaced. I currently have 3 Chaplain Aides - a Protestant Christian, a Hindu and a Muslim. Those 3 do a great job of following the 12th Law. The conflict with academics and other activities is there for all of my Scouts, not

Nah - you can embrace a myth, and then also acknowledge that all heroes have issues. If people actually started researching the real history of the Native tribes, they might find themselves going down a similar rathole. I support the OA in all that it does, but I personally do not like the Native symbolism that we have adopted. Several of my friends in different Nations like that the OA honors them, but they wish that the boys would not wear their ceremonial garb or talk in a stilted accent as well.

I would prefer to rebuild it based on the American Frontierman / Explorer. We could have Lewis & Clark, Daniel Boone, Crocket, etc. as our mythical images to use in ceremonies (allow OA members to be allowed the "oversized" Bowie knife at Scout camp).

Its interesting, in that I am on the Council MB list and have contacted exactly once (Backpacking MB).

Bad Wolf - any idea if their CO is a church or not? Too bad about the leadership. I hope they find a unit tied to their faith where they can follow the local option and continue in Scouting. Personally, I expect my CO to hold the line, which I will respect. Once my son is 14, I will look into working with our church to charter a Crew for our small youth group under the options. Prior to this our church was not willing to sponsor due to the restrictions (our prior youth minister is gay). We won't have the massive numbers, but I think I can build a successful Crew over time.

http://www.ghostbusters.com/

This fits into the high schools with mandatory service hours, so an entire generation is being trained to see service like taxes - do what is required, understand that it is needed, and move on.

Your reductio ad absurdum was delivered in an insulting manner, and you know it. The equivolent would be me saying that I assume that all who are anti-inclusion would rather just tie all the gays to fence, torture and and kill them (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard), or bludgeon and kill them (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/dad-killed-daughter-lesbian-lover-gay-mom-article-1.1722103)or some other means of showing your displeasure at their lifestyle. That is the problem with reductio ad absurdum used in an online forum - it overlays with Poe's law (https://en.wikiped

I am pro-inclusion, and I do not think that Scouts should be at the types of gay pride parades you are posting photos from. In fact, I mentioned this thread to the lesbian staying with us for the summer, as she headed out the door to the San Diego Pride. Her response? "NOBODY should be bringing children to a Pride parade. Anyone who does is an idiot." So you will find that there is at least one person in the LGBT community that agrees with me - kids don't belong at Pride parades. I also do not think that Scouts should be at Hooters, Tilted Kilt, or any other Breastaurant franchise either i

[whoops - wrote this after the request to not comment on sanity - leaving it, but if the mods want to delete - go ahead] If you run a business - you are required to follow the applicable laws. That means black people get to sit at the counter, women are allowed without being escorted by men, etc. So if anyone is in a governmental identified protected class, you are not allowed to discriminate against them. If the various churches would stop allowing money changers in, then there would not be a problem. The only change has been the addition of gays and lesbians to the protected class, joini

It happened, and we all knew it was coming. I have wanted local control ever since I learned how this all worked from the inside (i.e. once I went from a unit only volunteer to volunteering at higher levels). My church is open, I just wanted my faith respected. Now I would like to request that those of you who think that you need to leave - reconsider. I will fight just as hard for your right to choose your own leaders as I did to let my unit choose its leaders. It is your right. I also treasure and need your input. Please stay, please contribute, please assist. We need you, and the bo

I guess I have always put Scouting at higher than other extra curriculars - closer to faith for me as Scouting WAS my church growing up. Buts lets think about that comparison some more: I don't accept less than 100% on the field when I coach, why should expect anything less than 100% from Scouting. I KNOW that the boy is capable of more - so how much do I leave him alone?

It is an interesting question. How much choice and freedom to give a son, a Scout, a child. So you back off, let them miss the Eagle. OK How about homework? Do you let them get the D, the F, the C? Even though you know the impact it will have if they try to go to college? Wherefore faith? Do you let them choose their faith, don't require church? Health - they will feel the impact of obesity. Do you just let them make the choice? If everyone is spending the same amount for dinner, and the fat one goes for the worst food - do you intervene? I am not trying to equate all of these - jus

Grant was 21 out of 39. Ranking does not always mean what we think it means.

We get more than we can take - due to great relationships with a few Packs. We get walk-ins that we sometimes have to push to other units. Our reason for existence is that boys seem to like our Troop, and inertia. Another Troop could compete, and there is one in the area that pulls from one of our Packs as well. We welcome boys looking at more than one location. We also get a lot of boys due to expats in our area (Chinese and Korean). There is a large community of these folks, and our troop is known as one where we welcome the boys, and the boys get a little more of that All American experienc

Have to find them in my son's Jambo stash from 2010. He came back with a set of patches using the battle flag as their main design element.

A few years ago I recommended on this forum that the BSA adopt the online application similar to the AYSO. It does everything we need, tracks training as well, and is updated annually. I was jumped hard by the old guard here, who screamed at me that if I wasn't willing to spend the extra time filling out another adult application, I was not worthy of service. Glad to hear that people are coming around. 1 online site. Have an annual update requirement. Allow for all positions to be verified. For those of us with roles in multiple units (a Pack, a Crew, a Troop, and Ship in my case), we

That is fair - bad move on my part re: age. I had read a piece recently on the Republican party's incompetent tech strategy, and how there were some Young Turks who wanted to help and show how it could be done, but were regularly shoved to the side. Older article on the subject here: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/the-gop-talent-gap/265333/ Last year the challenge the Republicans have: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/technology/republicans-are-wooing-the-wired.html?ref=us&_r=0 I still think that making a BSA site that is full of various resources based aroun

I think this is a great concept, but instead of making money on this we should be making this free content to bring boys into Scouting. If the Camping Merit Badge site went through the requirements, had the links to great external resources (like meritbadge.com has), allowed some curated advertising from REI, Bass Pro Shops, etc. it would be great. Boys could use the site to learn, BSA could get revenue from the ads, and others might start seeing us as a resource for learning on certain topics. The more people go to the BSA for information, the more we get public exposure in a positive fa

Who made fun of country folk?

You asked if I lived in a small town, I answered. I don't know your specific town, I freely admit. I know my small town in Oklahoma, and I know the small town where I own land in Montana. Finally, I know the small community of a fraternity house. Those are anecdotal bits of information. What I find interesting is to then apply various scientific methods to the concept of what is happening, even in the smallest of towns where everyone supposedly knows each other. All I was stating is that statistically, there is probably one gay person in your town of 300. They might not be public with it,

I have lived in a small town. I also lived in a 50 man fraternity house for 4 years. Funny how decades later we find things out. Who is it that said "Denial ain't just a river in Egypt"?

So if your Montana town fits the self reported rate from this survey: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/21/and-the-state-with-the-highest-proportion-of-openly-gay-residents-is/ 2.6% of 300 is 7.8 gay people in your town. You just don't know who!

Any economic analysis showing the share of income and wealth across quintiles shows that the current income redistribution is going from the stagnant middle class to the top 1%. That is then compounded by wealth accumulation that freezes out the lower classes as well. If one is concerned re-distribution, look to the tax code (and a flat tax such as that proposed by Hall and Rabushka). I will say again that this education program was a waste, but a lot of continuing education for teachers (and other professions) is a waste. The creation of continuing education programs for various profe