Boy Scouts of America salute during a “camporee” in Sea Girt, N.J., on Saturday morning, May 21, 2011. On Wednesday, October 11, 2017 Boy Scouts of America announced it would admit girls throughout its ranks, a move that will transform what has been a mostly cordial relationship between the two iconic youth groups since the Girl Scouts of the USA was founded in 1912, two years after the Boy Scouts. (Photo: AP)
This may sound cheesy to some, but as a very young teenager I remember the end of Boy Scout summer camp being a very big deal. The event was the “ordeal” for the Order of the Arrow, a rite-of-passage of sorts in the marshlands off Savannah, Georgia.
Towards the end of the camp week, we sat around the campfire deep into the night and discussed what it meant to be a man. The drums beat and the massive flames licked the dark sky, probably twenty boys in all and our adult leaders.
Then, someone unexpectedly came from behind and placed a blindfold around my eyes, stood me up, and led me quietly out into the forest. After walking for some time, being led from behind, I was placed on the ground. I didn’t know where I was but knew they would come and get me in the morning.
Everything was done in complete silence, of course. I was young, alone, and scared.
However, as I took off the blindfold and looked up through a hole in the trees and saw the bright stars looking down on me, I realize I could do this.
I didn’t sleep much that night as the noises of the forest were all around me. But as dawn broke over the horizon I had changed in no small way. I was closer to being a man.
Boy Scouts meant something to me.
It was camaraderie with other boys and men. It was a time you could do things without girls around.
The decision by the Boy Scouts of America to admit girls is vile. It represents nothing less than the destruction of an organization that has helped millions of boys throughout the last century. Lord Baden-Powell must be turning over in his grave. Leftists will stop at nothing to destroy the culture of America.
The BSA submitting to the feminist, culturally Marxist agenda is sickening. How are you doing to do the same type of ceremony with girls among the boys? The possibility for sexual exploitation is too great to do this type of thing. The leaders of the BSA must care only about money and their jobs, not the basic values and tenets of helping boys become men and future leaders of our country.
If the Girl Scouts don’t provide what girls need, then fix the Girl Scouts, don’t destroy the Boy Scouts to appease leftist lawyers and neo-Bolsheviks.
I am extremely saddened by this development as future boys will not get the same type of experience I had the good fortune to enjoy. This is a dark day for our country, one that will have consequences down the road.
Scouting taught me many things that still are with me today. I hope this decision can be stopped in its tracks.
If you feel as I do, please make your rage known to the Boy Scouts of America. Their phone number is 972-580-2000.
This article first appeared on The Washington Times.
