[GrandMoM]

....I did a search and found this was on FR last year.

I thought it would be OK to run it again, because it sure surprized me and was sure there were others at FR who had no idea this was going on!

[My Identity]

Brownie Bump

[norraad]

"..are these cookies really made from Girl Scouts?"

- the little Adams Family girl -

[Bella_Bru]

I still love the cookies. In fact, I have 4 boxes of Thin Mints and 2 boxes of Samoas left in the freezer. I'm saving them until fall, when I'll realize just how long it is til GS cookie time.

[avg_freeper]

I was in Savanna over the weekend and got to see the birth place of the Girl Scouts of America. A fairly steep fall from the worthy principles they were founded on.

[wattsmag2]

Take those cookies elsewhere.

[FourPeas]

Yup. All the reasons I no longer buy Girl Scout cookies.

[Bigg Red]

This is why I stopped supporting GSA a number of years ago.

[CT]

Matsui? Would she be any relation to Bob Matsui, Rat Rep from CA?

[glory]

Yup, I heard about this stuff as well. Any number of reasons why my daughter won't be part of this organization.

[cardinal4]

Thank you Hillary Clinton. Only she could evil enough to politicize the Girl Scouts.

[ruppertdog]

My sister and wife both worked at a camp in GA for years. My wife tells some stories about the place- drug use and drinking among staff, and an amazingly high percentage of lesbians including the director. I used to tease them about it but it is really not funny. No way in hell is my little girl going there.

[mafree]

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it- an alternative to the Girl/Boy Scouts is AWANA, a Christian-based version of scouting. Their website is www.awana.org

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

Our church pulled out of the Girl Scout program many years ago. When our leaders announced at a council wide meeting that we could no longer support such a program, she received death threats.

I haven't bought a GS cookie since.

Support your local BSA council by purchasing BSA popcorn. It is available every fall.

[MHT]

Having been a Girl Scout 30 years ago, I was shocked and saddened at the decline of the scouting program that my daughter "enjoys". The Boy Scout program is far superior. It is intellectually more challenging; presents more survival, nature, and camping skills; and, demands more real, hands-on activities in its badge requirements.

But follow the money. The cookies are smaller and cost more than inflation would demand. (Berry made a great cookie in the 60's.) A small fraction of the cookie price goes to the troop--most of the profits fuel the council, where according to this article, the lesbians are employed. The troop is required to use up their excess money by the end of the year; ergo, the troop never acquires enough money to make good long-term investments in things like camping equipment. This way, too, the GSA troops do not develop the long-term identity the BSA troops do and the council stays all powerful while the troops remain weak links.

My daughter is still a scout because she needs social contact with a variety of girls. I refuse to sell the cookies and calendars, or whatever the fund-raiser-of-the-month is. After all, I think scouting should be more than on-the-job training for door-to-door sales. However, I can't wait for her to get old enough to join a BSA explorer group and really learn something that matters.

So send the GSA a message--don't buy their darned cookies and tell any parent of any child who asks for the order why they should reconsider the agenda of their parent organization. Without a grassroots movement from the bottom up (or a rapid decline in scouting as a result of demographic changes like a post-boomlet bust), these get-along-go-along spineless mooches will not get it.

[ResistorSister]

About 15 years ago, I was a Brownie Leader. One part of one of the patches that the girls could earn had something to do with racial tolerance; so, the local headquarters had a woman who would go to troop meetings and give the little girls a talk about racial tolerance and after hearing her talk...the troop would be on their way to earning part of their patch.

There were 18 girls (age 8) in our troop, myself, and four mothers all sitting around my family room listening to the woman speak. After a few minutes, she began to speak about Jewish people...I saw her eyes acknowledge a little girl of Syrian heritage...so in my mind I thought (oh...this woman thinks that Kellie is, Jewish). The woman continues to speak about Jewish people...then she asked if there were any Jewish kids in the room...as she once again looked at, Kellie (I guess she expected Kellie to raise her hand.)

A little blonde haired, blue-eyed girl named Summer raised her hand and said, "I'm Jewish."

The woman from headquarters said, "Honey, you're not Jewish, put your hand down."

Summer turned around and said to her mother, "MOM! I am too Jewish."

Her mom confirmed that Summer was Jewish...the woman from headquarters apologized.

Some representative for racial tolerance, hey? She judged the girl's ethnic heritage by their looks.

Idiot.

[RonF]

In 1993, the Girl Scouts made "God" optional in the Girl Scout Promise: "On my honor, I will try: To serve God and my country, to help people at all times and to live by the Girl Scout Law."

Interesting, this. The GSUSA is a member of the WAGGGS, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. If you look over the documentation on the WAGGGS site www.wagggs.org (currently undergoing reorg, with the usual result of bunches of broken links), you'll find that a belief in God is required for all members of organizations that are in turn members of WAGGGS. WAGGGS has accepted the GSUSA's representation that "the fundamental principles" are being upheld. So, while my daughter would say "Duty to God", a Moslem girl might say "Duty to Allah", and this is acceptable to WAGGGS.

So far, so good. There's no intent that WAGGGS membership, or GSUSA membership, be limited to Christians and Jews. However, in practice in the GSUSA, I called up my local Council and asked if they allow atheists. I got something along the lines of "We think that religious belief is a family matter". I asked if a youth or leader came in and announced, "I am an atheist". Same response. WAGGGS says you're not eligible for membership if you're an atheist, but the GSUSA isn't playing it that way as far as I can see.

Understand that membership in WAGGGS's member organizations is about 12 million, and the GSUSA provides 50% of that.

[RonF]

Whoops. My mistake. The WAGGGS web site says they have 10 million members world wide. The GSUSA web site says that they have 2.8 million girls and just under 1 million adults as members.

[Betteboop]

It's so sad....some of my best times were in Girl Scouts...at camp....as a leader, counselor and trainer. Yes, we knew there were lesbians at camp but it never impacted on us. We were having too much fun. I wonder if the kids still have fun now???

[sweetliberty]

This really makes me sick! I was a girl scout and so was my daughter, but I will not support them in any way again, not even to buy cookies and I will be sure to tell them why when I tell them "no".

[Texas Mom]

My son and his wife took their daughters out of Girls Scouts when they started seeing and hearing things they just couldn't go along with. My neighbor took her daughters out for the same reason and put them in another group. Something like Campfire girls.