[17585] in APO-L
BSA discrimintation (WAS Addition to Alcohol Discussion)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Theodore W. Love)
Mon Nov 17 15:19:24 1997
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 15:15:22 -0500
Reply-To: "Theodore W. Love" <love26@ns3.potsdam.edu>
From: "Theodore W. Love" <love26@ns3.potsdam.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
<snip>
>This is an issue I would like to contribute to. In my 4 years with APO
>I've run across many people who blindly assume that APO follows
>Scouting policy. This is most certainly not the case, and I'm very
>glad that it isn't. APO does not discriminate on the basis of gender,
>sexual orientation, or religion (all of which the BSA does). Having
>been on the Scouting Relations committee at Nationals in 1994, I am
>very aware that BSA doesn't want to be like APO and APO doesn't want
>to be like BSA. We share a common heritage and set of ideals, the
>Scout(tm) Oat and Law. What we choose to do with these ideals is up to
>our own organization, not the interpretation of an "outside" entity.
<snip>
Being well versed with BSA policy, I challenge your statement above that
claims that the BSA discriminates on the basis of gender, sexual
orientation, or religion. I feel that I could disprove any of your
misconceptions. If you take things out of prospective it may appear to be
so, but it is not. Even what appears to be obvious discrimination against
not allowing girls into the BSA has not once been overturned in the many
many times it has gone to our legal system.
I feel that any organization, is a collective group of people that give
up certain "RIGHTS" to benefit the group.
I give up the "freedom" to murder by being a citizen of the United States of
America. I give up the "right" to drink alcohol at dry fraternity events.
Further more, I believe that any set of ideals is objective, and it is
absolutely absurd to say that you can say the same thing (such as Scout Law
or Oath) and mean something different! I believe that what you do with
those ideals is neither up to an "outside" entity, nor our organization,
rather it is up to each individual who repeats the Oath and Law accepting it
and choosing to act accordingly.
LFS,
Ted Love
love26@potsdam.edu
Order of the Arrow Section NE5A Region Chief
Seaway Valley Unit Commissioner
Alpha Phi Omega - Mu Omicron
