Scout's Honor

I like to think that most of us are well-reasoned and calm individuals.

Of course, I like to think that I am going to lose 170 lbs and ride in next year's Preakness, so there's that.

But when I heard that the Boy Scouts were going to allow girls to join the Cub Scouts and eventually work up to becoming Eagle Scouts, I thought, cool!  Girls and boys even go to school together nowadays, play sports together, work on community projects, even go to the same malls and movies! 

And in school, boys can take home ec if they wish, and girls can take wood shop if that's what they want to learn.

So why not let girls into the Boy Scouts?  The news reports quoted sixteen-year-old Sydney Ireland as saying, "I think girls should have the opportunity to join either program."  Ms Ireland has been trying for some time to join her brother's Boy Scout troop.  

So who would object? Well, the first to fire back were the Girl Scouts, who suddenly felt a draft as they envisioned thousands of their members darting out the exits.

The Girl Scouts told ABC News: "The Boy Scouts' house is on fire. Instead of addressing systemic issues of continuing sexual assault, financial mismanagement and deficient programming, BSA's senior management wants to add an accelerant to the house fire by recruiting girls."

And this brings up the question: are they more interested in seeing that young women have the opportunity to pursue Scouting programs that fit their needs and interests, or in seeing that cookie revenue keep coming in? 

And then came the comments from that most predictable group, the people interested in keeping things The Way They Ought To Be, Consarn It. These people took to their keyboards to predict a tsunami of perverts attending every Camporee and Jamboree and Pinewood Derby. 

These are the people who were very sure that women should not be police officers, firefighters, paramedics, doctors, lawyers, CEOs...all the things that kept adult women from what some saw as their only natural occupation - in a house somewhere, rocking a cradle and ironing sheets. 

So it's my opinion that if girls want to take 50-mile hikes and earn merit badges previously denied them, and boys want to sell cookies door to door and learn skills that will benefit anyone who ever lost a button or wanted to eat a good meal, they should.

And to those who say that evil lurks in every corner - not so. It lurks in some, and always has, and always will, and if and when it does, it will be handled by...you guessed it...men and women!

And for those of you who say that boys and girls will get together...I say, really?