ACLU on wrong side against Scouts

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Thursday, April 1, 2004 11:25 PM PST ∞

In its ongoing quest to impose conformity in pursuit of diversity, the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking to have the courts evict the Boy Scouts from their longtime quarters in Balboa Park.

The ACLU's argument is that since the Scouts don't allow openly gay men or atheists to serve as leaders, nor such youths to be members, they are violating California's anti-discrimination laws and shouldn't have access to publicly owned facilities.

Perhaps ---- although given that the California government doesn't grant homosexuals all the rights and privileges as the rest of us, it's hard to see why the Scouts should be held to such a standard.

It's harder still to see how kicking the Scouts out of Balboa Park is going to help the kids ---- particularly the many low-income (often minority) boys for whom the Scouts provide desperately needed leadership and growth opportunities. For many of these boys, a Scout camp may be their first interaction with nature ---- their first time walking along a dirt path, being in the woods, sleeping to the sound of crickets. It may be their first chance to be allowed to make decisions in a safe environment ---- to be allowed to make mistakes without any real-world repercussions.

No, the Scouts aren't perfect. Last time I checked, no human endeavor is. But they do provide an overwhelmingly positive experience, especially for those whose futures are most threatened by limited opportunity and low societal expectations.

If the Scouts must go, then the rest of us ---- those of us concerned with the future of Latino and African-American men in our culture ---- ought to demand that the ACLU and its supporters help us provide an acceptable alternative.

Basic decency demands that simply opposing a perceived injustice isn't enough ---- the ACLU ought to step up and help create a positive solution for a change.

But the ACLU's record of championing the cause of black and Latino males isn't a pretty one.

When Latino and black families try to break the grip of gangs on their neighborhoods, their families and their own sons, the ACLU says no, gangs have rights, too.

When schools try to create positive learning environments where the cycles of violence and poverty can be broken for America's minorities, the ACLU says no, the gang members have a right to wear whatever clothes they want as a form of free expression, even if that means staking out their turf on campus.

When the gangs ---- who by all accounts discriminate based on race in recruiting, and are much less welcoming to gays than the Scouts ---- take over publicly owned neighborhood parks, denying their use to others in the community, the ACLU defends the rights of the gangs to do this.

Maybe the Boy Scouts should declare themselves a street gang ---- trade in their neckerchiefs and tasseled socks for some baggy pants and bandanas, swap out "Be Prepared" for "Yo!"

The Boy Scouts may not be perfect, but when it comes to investing in a positive future for minority and low-income boys, they're way ahead of the ACLU.

Jim Trageser is a North County Times staff writer. E-mail: jtrageser@nctimes.com.