Endangered Species, Boy Scouts Edition

Cool thing about the illustration to the left: the Boy Scouts have carefully included a Latino, an Asian, an African (American?), and a couple of random white kids, all assembled on a field of red, white, and blue, holding the Scout Law in one hand and making the Scout sign with the other.

This is America and American Values, and, until now, without The Gay.

Today, BSA was going to announce whether, as far as I could tell from the pre-releases, it was going to make Gay discrimination optional, with the choice left up to sponsors. Ostensibly, a Mormon or a Roman Catholic chapter might choose to continue to discriminate, whereas Fresno Auto Body or the Kensington Unitarian Church might say what the hell let's go Gay.

Instead, BSA decided they couldn't decide today.  Okay, great. Let's check out the Boy Scout Pledge:

On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

 Next, let's look at the Scout Law:

A Scout is:
Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful,
Friendly, Courteous, Kind,
Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty,
Brave, Clean, Reverent

There you go. I draw from this a few points:

• The Boy Scouts of America is both a religious and patriotic group that likes to camp and do camp stuff.
• The Boy Scouts of America is "morally straight," which I imagine prevents them from being morally gay.
• They're not Brave, despite the Law -- they can't deal with gays, so they choke in front of the world -- but they are Clean.
• Until now they think gays can't be -- or shouldn't be allowed to be -- Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind,  Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, or Reverent.
• The BSA is, as of now, hopelessly out of touch with America as it's currently constituted, and will be even more so as our American culture evolves.

Therefore, the Boy Scouts of America are irrelevant and should be treated as such. Maybe they can cast their lot with the NRA. America is better off without either of them. I'd throw in the Republican Party, but that would be piling on.

Wait, why not pile on? We could call them the National Republican Boy Scouts and Rifle Association Party of America. Hey, if their particular chapter decides to go gay, we can then call them the National Log Cabin Republican Boy Scouts and Rifle Association Party of America. Perfect! (They'd be still increasingly irrelevant, sorry to say.)

Rick Perry, Eagle Scout (I shit you not.)