On My Honor - Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts are worth fighting for
by Perry, Rick (Governor of Texas).
pub. by Stroud and Hall Publishers PO Box 27210, Macon, GA 31221, 2008     isbn - 978-0-9796462-2-5 - - 226 p. - Index - black and white photos, Appendix = Scholarships for Scouts
This is a book about what has come to be called the culture wars and is mostly focused on how this phenomenon affects the Boy Scouts of America. It savages the American Civil Liberties Union as an organization which seems to have its sights set on the destruction of the Boy Scouts. The 7 pages of the Introduction sets this out very clearly. Chapter 1 gives some of Rick Perrys autobiography. Chapter 2 discusses Scouting and Public Service, including an unlikely positive quote from Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. In Chapter 3 he introduces a number of luninaries who he interviewed about Scouting. Chapter 4 entitled Scouting How it began How it works, gives a concise and very good outline of the beginning of Boy Scouting in America, including some discussion of early competing organizations. The section on how Scouting works gives a very good view of the organization and how it is organized into sub groups by age group, then how each functions. Chapter 5 - The Culture War comes to Scouting - begins to get to the meat of this book. It covers the basics of the challenges to Boy Scouting... (a) Girls seeking membership (b) duty to God (c) Scouts duty to be morally straight (d) Scoutings access to government forums. It lists the court challenges (lawsuits) against the Boy Scouts challenging each of the above mentioned issues. The Boy Scouts almost always won on appeal, sometimes second appeal. The US Supreme Court decided in June 2000 that the Boy Scouts was a private organization and under the First Ammendment to the US Constitution had the right of freedom of association and was not a public accomodation, thereby not bound by anti-discrimination laws, in short BSA was not required to allow openly homosexual people to be leaders. Chapter 5 Pressure and Intimidation vs. the First Ammendment, discusses attempts (some successful) to limit or deny the Boy Scouts use of public parks, lands and buildings. Chapter 7 Individualism run amok, is not really about challenges to Scouting. It is about what the author considers the ultra left agenda and that individualism ranks above duty to serve. Chapter 8 Is Scouting Relevant Today?, discusses the need for role models and ADD (attention deficit disorder) and hyperactivity. Perry calls this ants in the pants and largely decries the very common usage of drugs. He does think that the use of the paddle will cure some of this problem. (I personally think that Gov. Perry has never encountered first hand a severe case of ADD. A few hours in a Kinder or Pre-K class with 2 or 3 affected children, over a 2 week period might cure him of his lack of understanding.) This chapter goes on to discuss trust and positive character traits which Scouting can foster. It also warns that we as a culture must be strong within or we will collapse from within. Chapter 9 Scouting Heroes - Values in Action, contains a number of stories of Scouts who used their training, often in emergency situations to save life. It shows what concrete positive things can happen when the training and values come together to make a very satisfying result. Chapter 10 Scouting in a Changing World takes on the ACLU for its seeming war against religion. He also discusses the National Association of Man-Boy Love of America and its criminal leanings and advice to members to infiltrate youth organizations to get access to children. Later in this chapter a number of results from a Harris pole on the effects of Scouting during youth are listed. Having had some experience with poles of this sort I expect that they are of some interest but not really statistically significant to prove anything concretely. Chapter 11 Taking Inventory of Society, notes that those who did not have the freedom or opportunities offered to citizens of USA are not as hungry or driven as native born citizens who take things for granted. It ends with a warning that we need to deal with these issues with humility lest those who identify themselves as conservatives find themselves in "hyprocritical hot water." Chapter 12 The Road Ahead - can Scouting survive, discusses secular humanism (a term defined by the religious ultra right and in my mind often abused). After, in previous chapters, Perry states that Boy Scouts duty to God is not sectarian, is not tied to any particular religion, and includes non-Christian religions, he ends with a strong statement about Christian religion and quotes C.S. Lewis broadly. There is nothing particularly wrong about that, but as relates to Scouting, the official view of the organization is much broader and inclusive than being limited to Christianity or even the Judeo - Christian tradition. Scouting is comfortable with Islam, Janism, and even simple Deism. The Afterward gives the address where to assist legal defense fund BSA and a web address where to share information on what is discussed in this book.
This book is not totally angry or bitter. Perry shows charity to the liberal cause, but he condemns it for its inflexibility and lack to being able to live with people who have more conservative views and lifestyle.
~ 2010-02-01 ~

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