Howdy, all. I'm back. Sorry for the delay in posting but Monday thoroughly kicked my ass. Typical crap: too much work, broken down cars, sytem crashed. Just another fikkin' Monday!
Anyway, it's Tuesday (thank God!) and I'm feeling a bit more myself today. The weekend was a complete bust from a writing standpoint, I got nothing done at all but I did spend a lot of time with the wife & kid which is always cool. Weekends are pretty much family time at this point so I'm not surprised I didn't get to the writing. I write all during the week (day & night) so I'm not too devastated.
Let's see . . . what did I do so far this week? I got in 2,800 words on "Fish" (with more to go today!) and I edited another 40 or so pages on GS last night. Getting close to the end on that. I think there's only another 80 or so pages left. I'm getting nervous actually. The next step is type-in, which should only take a few days, and then it's out into the cruel light of the publishing world for GS. I am very worried that I am completely fooling myself about my skill level. I'm going to be devastated if I find out I really don't have the talent for this.
I have to stop in over at FM today & check in with the Crit Circle. I stopped in for a moment yesterday and posted a reply to one of my Crits, then my entire system tanked and I was done for the day. I believe Lee and Mel both have posted pieces I need to Crit so I'll have to spend some time on that. Don't want the ladies to think I abandoned them!
Exercise is going well still, I'm getting to it every day & finding that I'm actually enjoying it. My concern at the moment is that I am quickly building muscle but it's under all the fat & I'm afraid I'm beginning to look even more like a beached whale than when I started! Man, I really hope the weight loss catches up to the muscle growth at some point or I'm going to look like a very pale, bald, sumo wrestler! (Yea, like I don't already!)
Just got several e-mails about the ACLU fighting to forbid the BSA from using any and all public facilities. This gets under my skin. The ACLU has a hard-on for the Boy Scouts and is really just harassing them at this point. The latest issue is in San Diego where the local BS Troop has been leasing land in a public park. The land originally belonged to the Scouts, they turned it over to the military in WWII to support the war effort, after which the town voted to lease several acres to the BSA. The Scouts built a meeting building, swimming pool, and a 600 seat ampi-theater -which they made available for public use- all through fundraising and BSA effort. It didn't cost the town a dime. In 1957, the town leased a large portion of the rest of the park to the BSA for $1/year provided they took total charge of the upkeep and care of the land and that it was always available for public use. The BSA has cared for these grounds for over 50 years -without cost to the town- and now the ACLU has just won a court order to have them evicted. The reason? Because this relationship violates the tenets of separation of church & state. The fact that the government had hundreds of thousands of similar arrangements with other religious and civic organizations is not relevant. That the land was originally theirs or that they've kept it open to the public without reserve (last year the site hosted the two-day San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Festival) is not relevant. The Boy Scouts do not allow homosexual leaders among their ranks, so they must be thrown out of every public site in the nation.
Why does the ACLU see separation of church and state as a one way street? Why is the government allowed to apply intense legal pressure to a "religious" organization to change their beliefs and accede to government regulated membership rules? Why is it that the ACLU sees only this single problem (and I agree it is an issue that needs to be looked at, but internally by the BSA!) and disregards the positive things the BSA teaches and the good it does for the community and nation? In a country where kids are shooting each other in schools, doing drugs, and spend more time playing X-Box than doing homework, do we really want to cripple an organization supporting kids that spend their weekends doing service projects? Because the ACLU disagrees with them on one issue? Even after the Supreme Court upheld their right to that stance?
Think about it: how many teenagers do you know (personally) that do community service work on a regular basis? How many of them devote time to food pantries, homeless and battered women's shelters and camps for handicapped children? My boys all do. They put in anywhere from 8-20 hrs./month at those places. Multiply that by the hundreds of thousands of Boy Scouts and think about the good that does for this country and for people who don't have recourse to inexhaustible funds, like the ACLU does. You think the BSA is wrong for not allowing gay leaders? Okay, fine. I have no problem with that. Get involved in the program AND HELP CHANGE IT! Don't destroy a fantastic program for hundred of thousands of children because you disagree with the organization on this one issue.
The ACLU is government funded. They are using (literally) hundreds of millions of your tax dollars to destroy the BSA for the single reason that they do not admit homosexual leaders. This despite the Supreme Court ruling that the BSA had the right to control their own membership. In essence, the ACLU is using financial and political blackmail to destroy and organization they don't approve of, in direct violation of a Supreme Court decision that upheld that organization. Isn't that wonderful?
Okay, done now.
Sorry for the tirade but this get under my skin. It's a misuse of governmental funds & power. It's a shame too. In general I support the ACLU (though they do go way the hell out into left field sometimes) and think that our Civil Liberties need an active organization to protect them. Sadly, the ACLU is suffering from some very misguided leadership right now. I hope they'll think this through a bit more before doing more damage.
Later!
3 comments:
Firstly, I do not condone the actions of the ACLU in this case, but I do want to address the issue of what morals and values the BSA is tacitly approving and explicitly propagating.
They are approving and propagating plain and simple discrimination. That is not a value that I want to instill within my child. True the scouts do instill a certain level of civic mindedness, but it is tainted by this discrimination. The scouts teach that being hetero is right while being homo is wrong.
It is a good organization but.... it is homophobic. That means it is not a good organization.
He is a good person but... he's a bit racist. That means the person is not a good person.
It is easy to say join the organization and change it, but I was in the organization when it made the change, and I wrote to Ben Love (the big Scout at the time) as an Eagle Scout decrying the policy, as well as many of my friends who earned their Eagle as well. We are ALL no longer associated with the BSA.
I ask you, as a current Scout Master, what steps are you taking to end the discrimination? I have done my part; I have already fought the losing battle. I have followed through with my conscience. What are you doing to counteract the teachings filtering in to your boy?
He is learning to tie a square knot and a bowline. He is learning that homosexuals are not worth as much as heterosexuals. He is learning that and how to rub 2 sticks together to make fire. He is learning that it is wrong to be gay in America. He is learning that you should use live leaves on a shelter to keep the rain out. He is learning that it is okay to discriminate.
Now, how did I know I'd be hearing from you on this? :)
I fight the discrimination by teaching that people are people and there is nothing wrong with anyone just because they lead a different lifestle than you. The boys learn from the leaders in their Troop, not from the national BSA executives.
As we've discussed before (and I had a two hour conversation with my wife on this subject last night!) It is very much a case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Most Abrahamic religions treat homosexuality as an immoral act. I don't agree with that, but the fact remains that most of the boys in Scouts adhere to religions where that is a basic tenet of their beliefs. The Boy Scouts are non-denominational but they are still technically a religious organization and they encourage the Abrahamic values. Right, wrong, or otherwise the simple fact of their existence is dependent on the BSA not attempting to alter the religious principles of most of its membership. If they tried, they would lose a large number of their members as well as most of their financial support, which they recieve via religious organizations.
The issue I have is that the ACLU is on a witch hunt against the BSA for adhering to its religious principles and many folk support that. If however, the ACLU attacked the Catholic church or the Jewish communty -who hold similar views on homosexuality- there would be a remmarkable outcry. Our Constitution promises religious tolerance for all creeds but for some reason that does not extend to the BSA because of this one issue.
By applying your logic of "one bad idea ruins it all" every religion on the planet needs to be shut down. There's not one of them that doesn't adhere to some concept you or I would find offensive. Not being a very religious man myself that wouldn't devastate me but I doubt that 90% of the world would agree with that idea.
Sorry, I've just never bought into the concept of "all or nothing". The U.S. military still has -legal-restrictions against homosexuality which I don't agree with either but I am NOT going to support crippling that organization until they accept the viewpoint of an outside agancy. I think most things in life are: "Good, but . . ." It's not a perfect world and it never will be. In my mind the good of this organization outweighs the single negative.
Feel free to disagree. :)
Later!
I am always amazed at how much discussion there is about the BSA position on gays and "god." And the discussion is always outside of BSA. There is no 'teaching' of right and wrong sexual orientation, in fact discussion of sex and orientation is prohibited. That is a topic for the boy and his parents. BSA reserves the right to have leaders who publicly act consistent with the values of the organization. If you are a public figure professing the positives of a sadomasochism orientation you would be asked to leave scouting. As to God, BSA recognizes over 33 religious awards presented by religious organizations. Many are non christian. A belief in the power of nature is a form of worship and acceptable in scouting. Again there is no religious teaching. The oath is stated and Taps is sung. If this is discrimination then why isn't the ACLU going after all the Memorial day ceremonies, the USA Military, The US House and Senate who pray every day, The YMCA and YWCA (C=christian) who receive government surplus property and use of public property and limit their leadership to public figures with similar values. An arm of the ACLU is attacking BSA to push their agenda that has little to do with protection of the bill of Rights (which is taught to scouts). It is a sad day when the world is outraged by a report of a Quran being destroyed but we don't get outraged by the ACLU attacks on BSA
Post a Comment