More Girl Scout Cookies for the rest of us..

[SirFozzie]

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — Some families are boycotting Thin Mints and Do-Si-Dos and other Girl Scout cookies. Troop 7527 is down to just two members after the other girls were withdrawn by their parents. And Brownie Troop 7087 is no more.

Why are folks in this conservative Texas town where President Bush has his ranch so mad at the Girl Scout organization?

Planned Parenthood and sex education.

The furor was started a few weeks ago by the leader of the anti-abortion group Pro-Life Waco, who sent out e-mails and ran ads on a Christian radio station urging people to boycott Girl Scout cookies because of the "cozy relationship" between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood.

Parents were upset to learn that the local Girl Scout organization had given a "woman of distinction award" last year to a Planned Parenthood executive. And they were disturbed to find out that the Girl Scout organization has been giving its endorsement for years to a Planned Parenthood sex-ed program in which girls and boys are given literature on homosexuality, masturbation and condoms.

"It's not that we're a bunch of activists. We're just a bunch of moms who care about their kids," said Lisa Aguilar, who took her 10-year-old daughter out of her eight-member Girl Scout troop. "For us, it's the morality. Where is Girl Scouts going?"

The two troops in Crawford, population 700, decided not to deliver the cookie orders that they had already taken.

But cookie sales have skyrocketed this year as many people bought cases just to show their support for the Girl Scouts, said Becky Parker, a troop leader who is the cookie distributor for Waco-area troops.

"People thought the boycott was ridiculous and was one man's extremist views," Parker said.

While the cookie boycott may have backfired, the furor prompted the parent leaders of the two Crawford troops to quit.

"You're telling these girls to raise their fingers up to pledge to honor God and country, and yet you're handing out materials saying homosexuality is OK," said Brownie leader Donna Coody, who disbanded her five-member troop.

Because of the uproar, the Bluebonnet Council of Girl Scouts, which oversees troops in the Waco area and 13 other counties, announced last week that it would not be affiliated with Planned Parenthood sex-education programs this year.

In an editorial in Friday's Waco Tribune-Herald, Pam Smallwood, the Planned Parenthood of Central Texas executive director who was honored by the Girl Scouts last year, complained that Girl Scouts had thereby demonstrated that "bullying tactics are more effective than an informed democracy."

The Waco-area Girl Scout organization has been putting its name and logo on brochures for the Planned Parenthood sex-education programs but said it does not contribute any money and does not send girls to attend.

Some 400 to 700 fifth- through ninth-graders attend the half-day Nobody's Fool conference in Waco each July. The program never mentions abortion, according to Planned Parenthood. The youngsters receive a book with chapters on homosexuality and masturbation, as well as illustrations of couples having sex, people examining their naked bodies and a boy putting on a condom.

Some Girl Scout mothers called it soft-core porn.

"It embarrassed me to look at it with my husband," said parent Shannon Donaldson.

Pro-Life Waco director John Pisciotta, an economics professor at Baylor, the world's largest Baptist university, said his call for a cookie boycott "was a way to bring attention to the issue and wasn't really about cookies."

The Girl Scouts national organization, which is based in New York and has 2.9 million girl members and 986,000 adult members, takes no position on sex education or abortion and has no national relationship with Planned Parenthood, according to the Bluebonnet Council.

The Crawford mothers are forming their own girls organization and will use a Christian-based curriculum. Beth Vivio, director of the Bluebonnett Council, declined to say if parents in any other troops had taken their daughters out.

Some parents decided to explain abortion to their girls. Others gave only a vague explanation about the uproar.

"Our girls have been through a lot these past three weeks," said Jennifer Smith, who quit as leader of Girl Scout Troop 7527 and removed her daughter. "After I told my 10-year-old daughter that they are supporting some things that are not morally right, she understood."

[Fritz]

Why the frownie faces?

[judicial clerk]

I got kicked out of the cub scouts because I ate a brownie.




Thank you, thank you very much. i will be here all week.

[CamEdwards]

people aren't allowed to be offended without prior approval from the PC Police these days.

[vex]

Good.

[Cuckoo]

And three Oklahomans in a row to say "Good."

[Fritz]

the last time that happend they had to put a bull to sleep.

[stevew]

Hrm....I definately dont support Abortion, which I know is a small part of what planned parenthood does, but I cant see why the parents would be so pissed about this. You can preach abstinence all you want, but realistically it doesnt always work. Safe sex education prevents pregnancy too. And by preventing pregnancy, lowers abortion rates.

[BigJohn&TheLions]

I don't support abortion.
I don't happen to tell women that they shouldn't have them either.
I do order many, many boxes of girl scout cookies... (Only 7 this year)

[Draft Dodger]

I guess I can't really bitch about this too much. When the time comes, I will not be encouraging my son to join the Boy Scouts, primarily because of their anti-homosexual stance.

I don't agree with these peoples' opinion, but I respect that they are doing what they think is right. My only worry is that it should still be the choice of the kids if they stay in or drop out, and I'm guessing some of them didn't really get to make that choice.

[famatu]

Originally Posted by stevew

Hrm....I definately dont support Abortion, which I know is a small part of what planned parenthood does, but I cant see why the parents would be so pissed about this. You can preach abstinence all you want, but realistically it doesnt always work. Safe sex education prevents pregnancy too. And by preventing pregnancy, lowers abortion rates.

a "small" part of what they do? Do you know they made over $200 million in profits from abortions last year - and you don't think that is their "business"?

[Fritz]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

My only worry is that it should still be the choice of the kids if they stay in or drop out, and I'm guessing some of them didn't really get to make that choice.

Haven't we (not you and I, the big FOFC we) established that children can not make adult decisions? If indeed the issues on the table here are considered great, what makes you think a child has the ability to make the right choice? They could be lured by fun and then corrupted, which is not very different than the guy with a full sized van and a bag full of candy.

I am not talking about any specific political issue here, so don't flip out FOFC.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by stevew

Hrm....I definately dont support Abortion, which I know is a small part of what planned parenthood does, but I cant see why the parents would be so pissed about this. You can preach abstinence all you want, but realistically it doesnt always work. Safe sex education prevents pregnancy too. And by preventing pregnancy, lowers abortion rates.

Some people who want to impose their moral values on everyone see no problem being against birth control, abortion and welfare. They were born without the logic gene.

[Ajaxab]

'Imposing the moral values' line just doesn't work for me. It gets casually tossed around whenever anyone has a moral objection to someone else's practices. The question is not about imposing moral values on others, but who's moral values will be imposed. Being against birth control, abortion and welfare might be seen to be imposing moral values on others. Being for birth control, abortion and welfare is equally imposing. Somebody's moral values are going to be imposed.

[CamEdwards]

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

'Imposing the moral values' line just doesn't work for me. It gets casually tossed around whenever anyone has a moral objection to someone else's practices. The question is not about imposing moral values on others, but who's moral values will be imposed. Being against birth control, abortion and welfare might be seen to be imposing moral values on others. Being for birth control, abortion and welfare is equally imposing. Somebody's moral values are going to be imposed.

Excellent point, ajaxab.

[Cuckoo]

Originally Posted by Fritz

the last time that happend they had to put a bull to sleep.

I'm impressed Fritz.

[clintl]

Certainly, parents have the right to approve or disapprove of their kids' memberships in organizations, and while I disagree with these parents on the issues involved, if they feel this strongly about it, I don't see anything wrong with what they have done. However, it seems to me that they could have taught their kids a better lesson by trying to change the policies they objected to first, instead of bailing out as soon as they found out something was going on that they didn't approve of.

[rkmsuf]

Waco...there's always a problem over there...

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by Fritz

Haven't we (not you and I, the big FOFC we) established that children can not make adult decisions? If indeed the issues on the table here are considered great, what makes you think a child has the ability to make the right choice? They could be lured by fun and then corrupted, which is not very different than the guy with a full sized van and a bag full of candy.

I am not talking about any specific political issue here, so don't flip out FOFC.

if we did establish it, I missed it. but then again, I usually stay far, far away from these types of threads.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

"It embarrassed me to look at it with my husband," said parent Shannon Donaldson.

What the hell!! How the hell do you think your daughter was born!!

Sorry, this annoys the hell out of me, when they try to act all innocent like this. Her kids being born the only time her and her hubby have sex? Do they do it with their eyes closed and the lights off?

BAH!

(P.S. Also a shitty day here, and I'm feeling saucy)

[tucker342]

Instead of pretending those things don't exist, why don't the parents help their children understand those other choices? But if the parents really feel strongly enough to take their daughters out of girl scouts, then hey whatever, their choice...

[tucker342]

dola-

I doubt that many people actually support abortion. It's that they support the women's right to choose if they want to have an abortion.

[Ksyrup]

"...as well as illustrations of couples having sex, people examining their naked bodies and a boy putting on a condom."

Pictures of "boys" putting on condoms is permissible? Is there some sort of "educational" exemption from the child pornography laws? Seems like you could achieve the same results by showing an adult without using a child. This just strikes me as weird.

[stkelly52]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

"...as well as illustrations of couples having sex, people examining their naked bodies and a boy putting on a condom."

Pictures of "boys" putting on condoms is permissible? Is there some sort of "educational" exemption from the child pornography laws? Seems like you could achieve the same results by showing an adult without using a child. This just strikes me as weird.

Well it is an illustration, so child pornography laws don't apply.

[Fritz]

Originally Posted by stkelly52

Well it is an illustration, so child pornography laws don't apply.

in most/many/some (not sure which) illustrations can be considered kiddy porn.

this is just a factoid and not part of any opinion.

[EagleFan]

I say boycott those little nazi troops that are always standing outside of area stores hawking their cookies, just so that the local kids can get about a 25-30 cent donation per box (might not even be that high). The only people really making out are the people who run the girl scouts on a national level.

[Fritz]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

I say boycott those little nazi troops that are always standing outside of area stores hawking their cookies, just so that the local kids can get about a 25-30 cent donation per box (might not even be that high). The only people really making out are the people who run the girl scouts on a national level.

here here!