Let’s say, for example, that right now you’re looking at the new vote by the Boy Scouts of America that allows Scouting to all boys, regardless of sexual preference.ย ย And you’re not happy.
You’re feeling that the recent vote goes against everything you believed in as a Scout.ย You feel betrayed.ย You feel like your core beliefs are shaken.
And you want to do something about it.
Let me help you out.
You’re looking right now at all your old merit badges, all your achievement awards, all the old patches that your mother hand-stitched onto your Scouting uniforms.ย The kerchiefs.ย The wooden neck-slides.ย The “Totin’ Chip.”ย That Order of the Arrow patch.ย And you feel that you can’t in good faith keep these medals and awards in your possession any more.
Let me help you out.
If you’re feeling that you can no longer represent Scouting because the national board voted to knock down one final remaining wall of discrimination, to offer a chance for young men to learn about tolerance and acceptance, to learn that it doesn’t take any difference in ideology to tie a knot or to start a fire with sticks and flint… if you can’t get past the concept that Scouting today is no longer a place that restricts “gays, girls and the Godless” from their troops…
Let me help you out.
Go get a shipping box, and place all your old medals, patches, merit badges and achievement awards in that box.ย Tape the box up securely, you don’t want anything jostling around.
Write the following address on the box:
Chuck Millerc/o Albany Times Union
645 Albany-Shaker Road
Albany NY 12211
I don’t care how you ship it. You can send it by UPS, or regular postal mail, if you want them out of your house quickly you can ship them by FedEx.
And once I receive them, I will contact any and all Scouting groups in the Capital District to see who will take these medals and awards, and who will give them to worthy Scouts who want nothing more in their lives but to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.
If you feel that you can no longer keep those treasures of yesterday’s Scouting…
Then let me help get those awards to Scouts who WILL keep and honor what Scouting is today.
They deserve these awards in this modern world, to take Scouting to the 21st century and beyond.
Let Lord Baden-Powell’s legacy of Scouting continue.
Even if you don’t want to be part of it any more.
Chuck The Writer 
Let me help you out.
The Boy Scouts of America just destroyed their organization. All those medals and awards you’re trying to be snarky about are now meaningless. Anyone with an ounce of decency in them will drop the Scouts like a bad habit. And there are plenty of families that meet that qualification.
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I’m glad that the Boy Scouts are finally stepping into the 21st century. It’ll take a while for some Americans to get it, but it took some time for racism to become socially unacceptable too.
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So Chuck where does it end? I mean you state โbecause the national board voted to knock down one final remaining wall of discrimination,โ Really? is this the FINAL WALL OF DISCRIMINATON? What fringe group is next up clamoring for acceptance for their alternative lifestyle? When as a society do we take a stand? When as a society is it ok to say NO? Do we have to accept every choice everyone makes? Slippery slope for sure that all those demanding inclusion for everyone never ever want to talk about where to draw the line.
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Stephen: What is wrong with being gay? The behavior is not illegal. From a religious POV, Jesus never said anything about it in the gospels. Why does an innocent expression of attraction between two people offend you so much?
Everyone knows Baden-Powel was a raging homoerotic with suppressed homosexual desires, right? That’s what makes this whole debate ironic.
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I read more about the decision, and understand why Tom and Stephen were so upset. Apparently, only gay children will be allowed in Boy Scouts. Gay adults are forbidden to hold leadership positions. Tom and Stephen must have been distressed by the disconnect in logic.
I do, however, get some historical flashbacks when reading Stephen’s comments. They could have been written when African Americans and women were allowed to vote in the United States. Or when Christianity was declared the official religion of the Roman Empire.
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Ah yes Dave way to throw the Ol’ straw man in there. So Dave where is the line? NAMBLA ok with you Dave? How about those that want to have sex with animals? Wheres the line Dave?
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In strict terms of logic Stephen, you are making a false analogy.
Aside from being incredibly offensive, your comparative elements are not equal. A consenting legal sexual experience between two people is not equal to an illegal sexual relationship between and adult and a child or, and I shudder to think how any rational mind can even think of this as analogous, sex between a human and an animal.
As a result, in strictly interested Aristotelian logic a false analogy is invalid and therefore also your statement.
And in reference to David’s comment, he did not make a straw man fallacy, at least in regards to Tom since he merely repeated what Tom said. In that case, the logical fallacy was committed by Tom, not David.
If you wish to go to school Stephen I think I can fit you into my summer gene pool swim class. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to swim, it has a shallow end.
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Incidents of openly gay men abusing children are very rare. Scouting has been plagued by sexual abuse commited by predators who pass themselves off as straight.
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I read more about the decision, and understand why Tom and Stephen were so upset. Apparently, only gay children will be allowed in Boy Scouts.
Wow, THAT would be a reversal. The way homophobes are reacting, you’d think this is actually what happened. You have to be gay to be a scout now! They added a line to the oath: “…to like pee-pees instead of hoo-has”. Or maybe the “honor my country” part only means “honor the part of my county that’s straight”.
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Wonder if they’ll be taking “How To Build A Closet” out of the scout manual.
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Chuck-I respect your position…Half-right is still all-wrong. However, I’m holding onto to my BSA stuff. Now that the tide is beginning to turn the BSA needs more people like us who supporting the goals of scouting and pushing it into the 21st century.
As you have read some of the comments by those who are opposed to allowing any gay scouts in, they are abandoning the organizing, and they should go, but I think those who support a more open involvement by all boys should continue to stay involved and/or support BSA for making the change they did, and continue to push for adult gay leaders to be recognized.
If both those who are bigoted leave scouting AND those who support gay-oriented scouts leave because gay adult leaders aren’t allowed, where does that leave those boys (gay and straight) who are left?
Yes, half-right is still all-wrong…but at this point, I think engagement is required so the BSA nationwide knows who is on their side, who really supports scouting, and who should be trusted with the reigns of leadership in the future…and it won’t be Tom or Stephen… thank God almighty.
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