Free Republic

http://www.thebulletin.us/articles/2009/01/26/commentary/editorials/doc4976c02a91af7940488985.txt Boy Scout Troop 358, one of the oldest African-American troops in the county, participated in history as it marched in the Inaugural Parade in Washington, D.C. as the first African-American became President of the United States. Truly an honor for any Scout troop, however have the leaders of this troop taken a close look at an issue that will directly affect the very existence of Boy Scouting in America? The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide family group, is questioning whether they realize President Barack Obama supports the very policies that are targeting their headquarters...

As it prepares to turn 100, the Boy Scouts of America is honing its survival skills for what might be its biggest test yet: drawing Hispanics into its declining -- and mostly white -- ranks. "We either are going to figure out how to make Scouting the most exciting, dynamic organization for Hispanic kids or we're going to be out of business," said Rick Cronk, former national president of the Boy Scouts and chairman of the World Scout Committee. The venerable Scouts remains the United States' largest youth organization, with 2.8 million children and youths, nearly all of them boys....

I read with great appreciation Phil McBride’s article on the Mountain Man Rendezvous recently held by the Boy Scouts of America at Snow Flat on Mount Graham. The article evoked fond memories of the many times I attended what was then the 3G Council’s annual summer camp at Snow Flat. Lessons then learned from the Boy Scouts remain with me today, as do the many friends I made in Scouting. In those days and for many years thereafter, no one believed that the BSA could become the focal point of controversy. But that was then, and this is now. And...

When the six Boy Scouts from suburban Maplewood, N.J., went camping in the Grand Canyon, they expected an adventure they would long talk about, but they did not expect to be clinging to treetops and praying to survive a flash flood. The six Scouts and three adult leaders were eventually guided to safety by American Indians who live in the area, and plucked out of the wilderness by a Black Hawk helicopter. By the time they flew away, the 10-yard-wide canyon next to a stream where they had been camping had become a 300-yard-wide raging river. The scouts and their...

At Qualcomm Stadium, to which thousands of evacuees fled throughout the day Monday to escape approaching fires, the hazy and acrid air pinched the throat. Despite those reminders of the nearby inferno, the stadium seemed an oasis of order.  Hundreds of volunteers and city workers stacked up towers of pizza boxes, water bottles and blankets. Steaming cups of coffee were on offer as well as free massages and reflexology sessions.  A clown twisted balloons for children, several autism specialists were available to give parents of disabled children a break, and an electric guitarist jammed with his speaker turned low. -snip-Carl...

Prompted by opposition to the Boy Scouts' rule disqualifying homosexuals as troop leaders, Philadelphia has forced the city's local chapter to pay fair-market rent of $200,000 a year for its city-owned headquarters. As WND reported in June, Philadelphia's city council voted to renege on a 1928 ordinance allowing the Cradle of Liberty Council to have its headquarters in a building on a parcel of public land "in perpetuity" for $1 a year. The city argues it can't rent public property for a nominal sum to any group that discriminates. City officials in San Francisco and Boston have made similar decisions...

For almost 70 years, Scouts and Guides have savoured their place of peaceful worship under the trees. But no longer. The woodland chapel has been demolished - its wooden pews and rudimentary cross and altar removed. In its place is a campfire circle. The change has been imposed by the Scout Association, which believes the chapel excludes non-Christian Scouts. Locals are dismayed, but the association says it is simply "moving forward". The basic open-air structure in woodland surrounding Belchamps Scout Centre in Hockley, Essex, was built between the wars by volunteers. They used old telegraph poles for pews and built...

THE LOS ANGELES City Council recently paid $593,000 for a report on how to end the city's rising gang violence. The taxpayers didn't get their money's worth. The much-ballyhooed study, directed by civil rights attorney Connie Rice, makes a whopping 100 recommendations yet can't bring itself to mention the most important driver of gang involvement — family breakdown.  "A Call to Action: A Case for a Comprehensive Solution to L.A.'s Gang Violence Epidemic" recycles all the failed nostrums from the war on poverty, such as government-created jobs, "life-skills training," "parenting education and support" and "crisis intervention." Since the 1960s,...

September 11, 2006 House Judiciary Committee Passes Public Expression of Religion ActWashington D.C. - On Friday the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee passed the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA), also known as HR 2679. This bill will go to the full House for a vote. The bill's intent is to eliminate the chilling effect on the constitutionally protected expression of religion by state and local officials that results from the threat that a plaintiff may seek damages and attorney's fees. If the bill passes, advocacy groups like the ACLU would no longer be able to use...

BLACKSBURG, Va. — The gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre was a sullen loner who alarmed professors and classmates with his twisted, blood-drenched creative writing and left a rambling note in his dorm room raging against women and rich kids.  A chilling picture emerged Tuesday of Cho Seung-Hui — a 23-year-old senior majoring in English — a day after the bloodbath that left 33 people dead, including Cho, who killed himself as police closed in. News reports said that he may have been taking medication for depression and that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic. Despite the many warning...

PORTLAND - Two grown brothers sued the Mormon Church and the Boy Scouts of America Monday, claiming they were sexually molested as children by a man who served as a Scout leader and church teacher. The brothers, who are in their early 30s and are identified only by initials in the $6.5 million lawsuit, say they have suffered "severe debilitating physical, mental and emotional injury." The suit, filed in the Oregon state circuit court in Multnomah County, claims the men were molested as boys in the early 1980s by Timur Dykes, a home teacher for the Church of Jesus Christ...

IN MEMORIAMGerald R. Ford38th President of the United StatesJuly 14, 1913 - December 26, 2006 The Boy Scouts of America joins the Ford family and our country in mourning the loss of President Gerald R. Ford. His presidential term coincided with a very difficult time in American history, but he served with grace and dignity. President Ford achieved Eagle Scout, Scouting's highest rank, which is accomplished by only about 4 percent of all Boy Scouts. By dedicating himself to serving the youth and families of his country throughout his life, he left each of us with a shining example...

We're hearing from the family of a young boy, who died after falling off a float at a New Hampshire Christmas Parade. On Monday, Thomas Fogarty's family spoke for the first time about the 9-year-old boy who was celebrating Christmas with his fellow Cub Scouts. The float -- being pulled by a trailer through downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire -- pulled Thomas Fogarty to his tragic death. "At this time, we believe that Thomas somehow fell from the float and was run over by the trailer's double-axle wheels," said Chief Michael Magnant of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Police Department. Thomas' family...

Six years after the Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts could ban gay leaders, the group is fighting and losing legal battles with state and local governments over its discriminatory policies. The latest setback came Monday when the high court without comment refused to take a case out of Berkeley, Calif., in which a Scouts sailing group lost free use of a public marina because the Boy Scouts bar atheists and gays. The action let stand a unanimous California Supreme Court ruling that the city of Berkeley may treat the Berkeley Sea Scouts differently from other nonprofit organizations because of...

Via BSALegal.Org An atheist mother represented by the ACLU complained that allowing Boy Scouts to recruit in public schools on the same basis as other groups discriminated against her atheist son who attends Portland public schools. In today's decision reversing a lower court decision, the Oregon Supreme Court emphatically concluded that "nothing that occurred in any public school program, service, or activity was discriminatory at all." "Giving Boy Scouts equal access is not discrimination," said Scouting spokesperson Robert H. Bork, Jr. "It is the law." "The First Amendment and two federal statues require that Boy Scouts be given the same...

(CNSNews.com) - Frustrated by an unsuccessful campaign to achieve religious recognition from the Boy Scouts of America, a Seattle-based Wicca church has launched its own youth program, which is based on tolerance for different beliefs, including differences in sexual orientation. SpiralScouts founder Pete 'Pathfinder' Davis believes that many of the things the Boy Scouts are doing are "socially inappropriate." He said he created to the SpiralScouts to "fill the void left by prejudicial treatment of other established children's programs." Davis, who serves as the Archpriest of the Wiccan Aquarian Tabernacle Church, said his main argument with the BSA is that...

BOWLING GREEN, Va. -- Four adult Boy Scout leaders were killed Monday afternoon in an electrical accident during the opening day of the organization's 2005 Jamboree. Jamboree spokesman Gregg Shields said the accident occurred between 4:30 and 5 p.m. while the leaders were setting up camp. One other leader and a contract worker were injured, and were hospitalized in stable condition, Shields said. No youth Scouts were seriously hurt, he said. He did not say how many might have sustained minor injuries. Shields did not have additional details about the accident, including the victims' names. "We have an investigation under...

Springville, Utah -- A black bear that bit a sleeping Boy Scout through the wall of his tent was shot after it later returned to the camp, authorities said. Colton Stewart, 14, woke up early Wednesday to a burning sensation in his upper arm, then realized it was a bear biting his arm through the tent, state wildlife officials said. He pulled away and heard the bear run off through the brush. "It wasn't biting viciously. They put their mouth on things to see what they taste like," said Anis Aoude, regional wildlife manager for the state Division of Wildlife...

San Francisco,CA; March 09, 2006: The California Supreme Court today ruled against the Berkeley Sea Scouts in Evans v. Berkeley, and upheld the City of Berkeley’s discriminatory campaign to force the local nonprofit youth group to end its lifelong affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America. "The California Supreme Court’s decision today unfortunately has given the green light to activist city officials to discriminate against groups they disagree with politically," said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Harold Johnson, co-counsel in the case. Johnson also represents Sea Scout Tonatiuh Alvarez, one of the plaintiffs and petitioners before the state Supreme Court. "The...

N.Y. teen performs Heimlich on nurse who gave him CPR years earlier Call it a simple twist of fate — times two: A teenager in western New York state has saved the life of the same woman who years ago saved his life.