His fellow Republicans immediately threw him under the bus. He was ridiculed on local radio stations and in the Indianapolis Star. The story quickly went viral. He was lampooned in the national press and even got slammed by Dave Letterman.
It's awfully easy to jump on the bandwagon and poke fun at a man who disses the Girl Scouts.
It takes a little bit of thought and effort to examine the facts and get some perspective on the reasons for his decision.
Like most Americans, I have always held the Girls Scouts in high esteem. I was a sucker for all those annual Girl Scout fundraisers. How could you turn down a sales pitch by one of those cute little cookie-pushers?
What could be more American, more wholesome, more unassailable than the Girl Scouts?
There are millions of American women who cherish fond memories of the scouting days of their youth; women who are proud of their association with the Girl Scouts, and rightly so.
So I decided to poke around and check out some of the anti-Girl Scout sites on the web. I regret to report that there seems to be a huge difference between the Girl Scouts of yesterday and the Girl Scouts of today.
Before you tolerant liberals start sending me nasty hate mail, please indulge me in two requests for objectivity and rationality.
1) Don't go off like the morons who have posted sarcastic comments about "commie pinko leftist" Girl Scouts selling cookies at the mall. My dispute is with the agenda of the national leadership, and certainly not with any of the local Girl Scouts who are being exploited.
2) Do a little research. The most persuasive site I visited is hosted by two teen-age girls who spent eight years together in the same local scout troop. They became uneasy with some of the aspects of their scouting experience, so they made the difficult decision to resign from the Girl Scouts.
They now host a website called Speak Now Girl Scouts that exposes the broad influence of left-wing advocacy groups, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL, with today's national Girl Scout leadership.
I'd ask you to visit a couple of other sites established by former Girl Scout supporters. Keep in mind when you visit these sites that they are hosted by young women who felt compelled to leave the local Girl Scout troops that they loved because they felt their convictions were being betrayed. Check out Honest Girl Scouts and 100 Questions for the Girl Scouts.
And if you are the parent of a teen-age girl, download the Happy, Healthy and Hot brochure that Planned Parenthood produced for teens and then tell me if this is the kind of message you want inculcated into your daughter's impressionable young mind. Did you really sign her up for the Girl Scouts so that she could learn more about homosexuality, masturbation and condoms?
(*These discussion topics don't seem to square with the stated purposes in the national charter of Girl Scouts of America, as foot-noted at the end of this blog.)
Now there are many fine local Girl Scout chapters that would never intentionally support this kind of garbage. However, they DO unintentionally support this agenda by retaining their affiliation with the national Girls Scouts organization -- and 50 cents of every box of cookies they sell goes to the national headquarters.
That's right, headquarters gets a bigger slice of the pie than the local chapter, which only gets to keep 10%.
The Girl Scouts have historically enjoyed great support from church groups. For decades, many Christians have been involved with scouting because it re-affirmed the traditional moral values that parents taught at home. Sadly, that no longer seems to be the case.
I've got to stand with Bob Morris on this one. I admire what the Girl Scouts of America used to be. I am disgusted over what the national leadership has done to undermine it's founding principles.
So instead of being angry at Bob Morris for having the courage of his convictions, why aren't more people angry at the sleazy left-wingers who have hi-jacked what was once a great organization and turned it into just another avenue for indoctrinating young girls into a sexualized, amoral, humanist world-view?
This is a perfect example of well-worn radical-left strategy: Gain control of a reputable organization; politicize it with your agenda; and if anyone dares to object, then you ridicule your opponents and accuse them of playing politics.
So far, that con-game is working flawlessly.
Just ask Bob Morris, the man who had the temerity to refuse to endorse the defilement of an iconic American tradition.
[*Footnote -- from the "Purpose" section of the Girl Scouts' National Charter]
-CITE-
36 USC Sec. 80302 01/07/2011
-EXPCITE-
TITLE 36 - PATRIOTIC AND NATIONAL OBSERVANCES, CEREMONIES, AND
ORGANIZATIONS
Subtitle II - Patriotic and National Organizations
Part B - Organizations
CHAPTER 803 - GIRL SCOUTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
-HEAD-
Sec. 80302. Purposes
-STATUTE-
The purposes of the corporation are -
(1) to promote the qualities of truth, loyalty, helpfulness,
friendliness, courtesy, purity, kindness, obedience,
cheerfulness, thriftiness, and kindred virtues among girls, as a
preparation for their responsibilities in the home and for
service to the community;
(2) to direct and coordinate the Girl Scout movement in the
United States and territories and possessions of the United
States; and
(3) to fix and maintain standards for the movement that will
inspire the rising generation with the highest ideals of
character, patriotism, conduct, and attainment.
