Governor Perry will appear on The Charles Brennan Show on April 10, 2008 at 10:20 a.m. Central. The program is broadcast on one of the largest stations in the country, KMOX-AM in Saint Louis, MO.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry will be in Lubbock next week presenting Texas Tech with grant money and signing copies of his book.
The governor is scheduled to appear at 2 p.m., April 2 at Tech’s Student Union Building. The Tech College of Engineering has received a $9 million package, including $2 million from the state’s Emerging Technology Fund.
At 5:30 p.m., Perry will be at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 6707 Slide Road, to sign copies of his book, “On My Honor.” The governor will sign one copy per person.
Governor Perry will appear on The 700 Club on the Christian Broadcasting Network on Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 8:15 a.m. Central Time.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
An award-winning documentary on the life of the Christian British lawmaker famous for his role in helping end the British Empire’s slave trade is currently airing on public television across the US.
“The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce” is a one-hour documentary produced to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 1807-1808 abolition of the British and American slave trade.
“Every school boy knows the name of William Wilberforce,” former president Abraham Lincoln had said a quarter-century after Wilberforce’s death.
But today “few Americans understand why, or even know Wilberforce’s name”, noted Cullen Schippe, executive producer of “The Better Hour”, in a statement.
”The Better Hour” seeks to reestablish Wilberforce in American history and put him alongside American abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, who once said, “Let no man forget the name of William Wilberforce.”
“We would like to restore William Wilberforce to his rightful place in history,” Sheila Weber, vice president of communications at “The Better Hour”, told Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink. “It has been a largely lost story. This documentary is going to be available for use in social studies and history classes.”
Wilberforce was a British parliamentarian who led the fight for the abolition of the slave trade, which legally ended in 1807 in England and 1808 in the United States. 2007 marked the 200th anniversary of the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
”The Better Hour” highlights Wilberforce’s determination and love for humanity and shows how he and his colleagues worked tirelessly to end the slave trade, even though it assumed a large portion of the British economy.
“We want to inspire and mobilise people, today, to follow in his footsteps because it’s a remarkable story of faith,” Weber commented. “Wilberforce had a dramatic conversion. It was because he was compelled by his newfound Christian faith that he undertook such an arduous task to end the evil of human trafficking.
“He spent many hours every morning in private prayer and Bible reading and devotions with his family,” Weber added. “This is, in large part, what gave him the strength to persevere.”
Although best known as a Christian abolitionist, Wilberforce was also a prolific philanthropist, establishing 69 philanthropies during his lifetime.
He also spearheaded efforts to set up education for indigent children, child labour laws, prison reform, the first society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, Bible societies, and mandatory small pox inoculation.
“Our world needs a new generation of people like Wilberforce,” wrote Rick Warren, best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life, in the foreword to “Creating The Better Hour: Lessons from William Wilberforce”, a related study guide for small groups.
“I hope Wilberforce’s example will compel people to work together with others to defeat the evil giants that loom over the twenty-first century,” Warren added.
”The Better Hour” builds on the popularity of last year’s movie Amazing Grace which is also about William Wilberforce. The film took in nearly £15 million worldwide.
“Wilberforce puts a new face on what it means to be a Christian – that we can be true to the tenets of the faith and yet show forth compassion to the world,” Weber of “The Better Hour” said.
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An award-winning documentary on the life of the Christian British lawmaker famous for his role in helping end the British Empire’s slave trade is currently airing on public television across the nation.
“The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce” is a one-hour documentary produced to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 1807-1808 abolition of the British and American slave trade.
“Every school boy knows the name of William Wilberforce,” former president Abraham Lincoln had said a quarter-century after Wilberforce’s death.
But today “few Americans understand why, or even know Wilberforce’s name,” noted Cullen Schippe, executive producer of “The Better Hour,” in a statement.
”The Better Hour” seeks to reestablish Wilberforce in American history and put him alongside other American abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, who once said, “Let no man forget the name of William Wilberforce.”
“We would like to restore William Wilberforce to his rightful place in history,” Sheila Weber, vice president of communications at “The Better Hour,” told Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink. “It has been a largely lost story. This documentary is going to be available for use in social studies and history classes.”
Wilberforce was a parliamentarian in England who led the fight for the abolition of the slave trade, which legally ended in 1807 in England and 1808 in the United States. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the end of the trans-Atlantic salve trade.
”The Better Hour” highlights Wilberforce’s determination and love for humanity and shows how he and his colleagues worked tirelessly to end the slave trade, even though it had represented a large portion of the British economy.
“We want to inspire and mobilize people, today, to follow in his footsteps because it’s a remarkable story of faith,” Weber commented. “Wilberforce had a dramatic conversion. It was because he was compelled by his newfound Christian faith that he undertook such an arduous task to end the evil of human trafficking.
“He spent many hours every morning in private prayer and Bible reading and devotions with his family,” Weber added. “This is, in large part, what gave him the strength to persevere.”
Although best known as a Christian abolitionist, Wilberforce was also a prolific philanthropist, establishing 69 philanthropies during his lifetime.
He also spearheaded efforts to set up education for indigent children, child labor laws, prison reform, the first society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, Bible societies, and mandatory small pox inoculation, among many others.
“Our world needs a new generation of people like Wilberforce,” wrote Rick Warren, best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life, in the foreword to “Creating The Better Hour: Lessons from William Wilberforce,” a related study guide for small groups.
“I hope Wilberforce’s example will compel people to work together with others to defeat the evil giants that loom over the twenty-first century,” Warren added.
”The Better Hour” builds on the popularity of last year’s movie Amazing Grace which is also about William Wilberforce. The film took in nearly $30 million worldwide.
“Wilberforce puts a new face on what it means to be a Christian – that we can be true to the tenets of the faith and yet show forth compassion to the world,” Weber of “The Better Hour” said.
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Rick Perry’s new book, On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For, is portrayed as a tribute. Actually, it’s the latest attack on a great American institution.
Perry praises the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) as a paragon of “traditional American values” then co-opts scouting to vilify those he and like-minded politicians and talk-show hosts consider political enemies.
This group invented the “culture war” and casts liberals as the religion-bashing, authority-hating, character-deficient bad guys in it who would create a world “where moral relativism reigns and individualism runs amok.”
If the governor understood scouting’s history, he would know it uses many concepts championed by liberal and progressive leaders among its founders.
Scouting and several other movements evolved to alleviate poor social, public health and educational conditions created by the Industrial Revolution in England and America, as young people left their rural homes for cities with low-paying factory jobs and dissolute pursuits far from moderating family relationships.
Victorian and Edwardian reformers responded by helping people improve their lives, promoting the idea that hard work brings rewards, among other principles. Although Perry suggests that industriousness and faith are not liberal values, Scouting’s liberal and progressive founders embraced them.
In 1902, liberal American naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton established the Woodcraft Movement, based on camping and American Indian life, to enrich modern leisure time.
He incorporated educational principles described by liberal educator John Dewey, who advocated children working together in social situations where the child would “emerge from his original narrowness of action and feeling to conceive of himself from the standpoint of the welfare of the group.” BSA later named Seton its first chief Scout.
In 1908, British general R.S.S. Baden-Powell published the book that popularized the Boy Scouts, Scouting for Boys. He incorporated concepts then considered liberal perfected during his army years: encouraging noncommissioned officers to exercise leadership, personally training soldiers in military scouting and providing them with wholesome entertainment.
The principle was the same for both soldiers and Scouts — make the individual responsible for a task, then give him the freedom to accomplish it.
When Scouting came to America, liberals and progressives immediately supported it, including Theodore Roosevelt and James E. West, BSA’s first chief Scout executive. West began his progressive activism as a teenager in a Washington, D.C., orphanage, fighting for the children to have a library and attend public school.
These leaders used liberal social principles to build the Boy Scouts. Unfortunately, Perry uses Scouting to build support for his particular social principles.
For example, Perry considers public prayer an important part of religion, and by extension, Scouting. However, Baden-Powell held that beyond a personal belief in God, religion was about helping people. When people asked if he prayed, he was tempted to reply, “Not often: I am far too busy giving thanks.”
Yes, the Boy Scouts’ values are worth fighting for, but Perry picks a fight with his fellow Americans and misrepresents this institution by claiming it is at odds with liberalism.
Liberalism then and now recognizes that people realize their greatest potential in exercising personal freedom, and that such freedom comes with responsibility to the society that supports it.
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When politicians have talked about the Boy Scouts in recent years, it hasn’t always been favorable. Former Washington Gov. Gary Locke told the Seattle Gay News the Scouts were “doing a great disservice to young people.”
Former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening called the Scouts’ policy excluding homosexuals from leadership “just as outrageous and divisive” as racism, anti-Semitism or Islamophobia.
Both houses of the California Legislature passed a resolution a few years ago condemning the Scouts’ membership code because it “causes harm” to “innumerable boys and men.”
But now Gov. Rick Perry has done something that no other politician has ever done. He’s written a book: On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts are Worth Fighting For.
As the title implies, unlike those other governors, Perry is enthusiastic for the Boy Scouts’ ethical code. That code is under attack by the secular left, particularly by the American Civil Liberties Union. While the Boy Scouts’ policies excluding homosexuals and atheists from membership have attracted most of the recent controversy, the entire Scouting values system is opposed by its liberal alternative.
What Perry calls the “vices of license” are incompatible with “the virtues of liberty.” Though the “culture war” is much larger than the Scouting controversies, the attacks on Scouting serve Perry as a potent symbol of what’s at stake.
The 2000 Supreme Court ruling that the Scouts have the right to determine their own membership hasn’t stopped the ACLU from suing to end the Scouts’ partnerships with government.
As a result of ACLU attacks, the Scouts face eviction from two San Diego camps, and they were nearly forced to end their longtime tradition of holding the Boy Scout Jamboree on federal property.
Meanwhile, many local United Way chapters have withdrawn allocated funding from the Boy Scouts. And the Philadelphia City Council recently decided to evict the Scouts from their headquarters building — which the city gave to the Scouts “in perpetuity” 80 years ago — unless the Scouts scrap their membership policy.
“Can Scouting survive this onslaught?” Perry asks. “Yes, as long as Scouting remains what it is and doesn’t try to bend to the winds of political correctness.”
After all, Scouting is strong today, with over 4.6 million youth participants and over 1 million adult volunteers. To give in to liberal demands and abandon “the virtues of liberty” would destroy Scouting instead of preserving it for a new age.
To change or delude the Scout Oath and Law would be to part ways with a century of successes in Scouting. Perry cites the examples of his boyhood Scouting pals, several fellow Eagle Scouts including Defense Secretary Robert Gates and astronaut James Lovell, and recent statistics that demonstrate the outstanding character of America’s Scouts.
Perry’s book is a call to celebrate Scouting. If the ACLU and its allies happen to ignore that call, there is another equally strong message: Instead of the old Texas advertising slogan, “Don’t mess with Texas,” it is — don’t mess with the Boy Scouts.
Hans Zeiger, an Eagle Scout and assistant Scoutmaster, is author of Get Off My Honor: The Assault on the Boy Scouts of America and a senior fellow at the American Civil Rights Union.
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He wasn’t about to miss the meeting.
Not yet a teenager, short and barely able to see over the steering wheel, Rick Perry would put his father’s truck in gear and hit the backroads of Paint Creek in search of his all-important destination.
Perry, now Texas governor, loved being a Boy Scout that much.
“He lived probably three miles from us,” said Wallar Overton, whose father served as Perry’s scout master.
“His father would actually let him have the pickup, even at the age of 11 or 12. He always got here,” the 68-year-old Overton said.
Overton’s memories come as Perry, 58, promotes his recently released book—“On My Honor: Why American Values of the Boy Scouts are Worth Fighting For.”
For nearly 100 years, scouting has “planted the values of our founding fathers in the next generation of Boy Scouts,” Perry said in a statement.
The program has helped form men like astronaut James Lovell, Ross Perot, Michael Dukakis, Gerald Ford, James Stewart, William Bennett and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who were “all Eagle Scouts long before they were prominent, successful public figures,” he said.
Even so, Perry said the organization has been under attack for nearly 30 years because it has refused to “bend to the winds of political correctness.” He said he wrote the book for two main reasons: “To espouse the virtues of a movement that has positively shaped the lives of millions of young men, and to expose the virus of secularism that endangers institutions that teach traditional values.”
Sadly, Perry said, opponents have “refined their tactics and begun to prevail in courts of law even as their actions are largely seen as appalling in the court of public opinion.”
Perry said “the secularists on the left” have focused on shutting the Boy Scouts down on three fronts: That the organization requires a belief in God, that it limits adult scout leadership on the basis of sexuality, and that it limits the participation in troops to boys.
“Scouting teaches young men the responsibilities of freedom,” Perry said. “It teaches them the traits of leadership. It instills courage and character. And it guides its subjects along the path to proper citizenship.
“I hope and pray, in telling the story of the Boy Scouts, I might bring greater awareness to the virtues of the scouting movement, and the battle it must win in order to preserve its primacy in the lives of millions of young men.”
Concurring with Perry is Abilene Mayor Norm Archibald, who supported a Perry-backed, pro-Boy Scout resolution at a Republican Party precinct convention after Tuesday’s primary.
“Boy Scouts, to me, are one of America’s greatest organizations,” said Archibald, who became an Eagle Scout in 1966.
Archibald said the Boy Scouts have been attacked by groups who attempt to “take God out of it” and who want to admit homosexual leaders. He said he commends Perry for taking a strong position and the Boy Scout organization for remaining “true to their principles.”
“I have great memories,” Archibald said, saying he’s grateful that he was around “great leaders” who believed in saluting the flag and who loved being outdoors.
Currently, the Texas Trails Council—of the Boy Scouts of America—has about 4,000 youth participating in a 17-county area that includes Taylor County.
“The Boy Scouts of America in 2010 will be 100 years old, and the mission and purpose of the Boy Scouts of America has not changed in that 100 years,” said Alan Eggleston, district director.
“An Eagle Scout of 1910 is an Eagle Scout of 2010. It’s the same rigorous advancement program, and it still meets the same quality standard 100 years later,” Eggleston said.
Meanwhile, Overton said, he’s proud that Perry wrote the book because Boy Scouts “meant so much to him.”
“Ricky took full advantage of the scouting program,” Overton said. “He set a goal to be an Eagle Scout—like he’s done everything in his life—and he achieved it.”
Overton said he and about five others traveled to Austin to be interviewed by Perry for the book.
After the interview, Overton said, he sat with Perry on the front porch of the governor’s mansion and continued to recall fond memories from their days in the Boy Scouts.
One of those memories was when members of their troop registered a dog named Tramp as a scout.
“We registered him as a Tenderfoot Scout,” he said, referring to the lowest ranking Boy Scout level.
Another memory was when his father, Gene, took the troop to College Station once a year to act as ushers and then, after finishing, troop members were allowed to find vacant seats and watch Texas A&M; play.
Some of the members, including Perry, ultimately attended Texas A&M.;
“It was just a beautiful time in my life,” Overton said.
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Gov. Rick Perry was right to champion the mission of the Boy Scouts (Deborah Solomon, Feb. 24). It’s not about sex. It’s about helping young men become productive, contributing citizens. And perhaps having some fun on the way. The scouts require merit badges in citizenship in the world, citizenship in the nation and citizenship in the community to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. And a significant community-service project.
As the proud father of a scout who has earned merit badges in shotgun shooting and rifle shooting, I understand the requirements for both are all about learning to handle firearms safely. Take note Ms. Solomon — that’s two gun-control merit badges.
CARTER L. CRUME
Dallas
Solomon suggests that the Boy Scouts should introduce a child-care merit badge. In fact, child care can be featured in another required badge known as family life.
JOHNNY CHECTON
Eagle Scout
Rumson, N.J.
My partner of 13 monogamous years was an Eagle Scout, and if we were interested in encouraging our 6-year-old son to join scouting, he would make a great leader, exemplifying the highest character traits (including tolerance, a trait that Rick Perry doesn’t seem to find important). During the 10 hours a week he works and volunteers at our son’s elementary school and my full-time position as a preschool special-education teacher, we manage quite easily to make our interactions with students, staff, parents and colleagues about character and not about sex.
AARON SAUBERAN
Chico, Calif.
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Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he thinks Congress should spend its time “securing our border” rather than investigating whether Roger Clemens lied about his steroid use.
Yeas & Nays chatted with Perry by phone late last week as Congress considers whether to go after Clemens, the former Houston Astro and Texas native, for perjury. “That’s a tough one for us down here,” he said. “I understand having rules and following rules, but it seems to me that Congress has more important things to deal with than whether somebody took a substance so they could heal quicker or whatever.”
Perry has been making the media rounds promoting his new book on the Boy Scouts, “On My Honor.”
Inspired by the “rash of lawsuits” the Boy Scouts have been subjected to in recent years, the Eagle Scout said he thinks it’s time “to espouse the virtues of this movement, and to expose the virus of human secularism.”
“Trustworthiness,” he responded, when asked what politicians can learn from the Scouts. “If you can’t trust someone, then nothing else really matters,” he said. “If you trust, then you have faith.” He added that everyone should follow the 12 elements of the Boy Scout Law (being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, etc.) “whether they’re in public office or the guy you’re buying your doughnuts from.”
Speaking of public office, we couldn’t resist asking Perry whether bad-boy rocker Ted Nugent should play at John McCain’s inauguration (should he win) in 2009, just as he did at Perry’s inauguration a year ago.
“If it turns his crank,” replied the governor, although “he might cause a little controversy.”
Perry called Nugent “one of the more intellectually stimulating individuals I’ve ever had a conversation with. I’m not sure the guy’s not a genius.”
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Our Q&A with Gov. Rick Perry, Eagle Scout and author of “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.”
Why do you think the Boy Scouts are correct to exclude homosexuals and atheists?
The starting point for this conversation is more correctly located in the notion of a private organization’s right to determine its core beliefs and apply them as criteria for membership. No one would question a church’s right to espouse a belief in Jesus or Buddha or a fan club limiting its membership to those who follow the Dallas Cowboys.
By the same token, the Scouts should be free to apply their core values as a threshold for membership.
You write that news media coverage biases public discussion of this issue. Explain.
Well, in my experience, the basic American freedom of association, guaranteed in our Constitution, is seemingly suspended in the majority of stories on this issue. For reasons I can only suspect, many reporters want to hold the Scouts to a different standard. I’m all for a higher standard – that’s what the Scouts are about – but applying this different standard is tacitly unfair.
How can a youth organization with such old-fashioned values be relevant today?
You describe Scout values as “old-fashioned,” but I would describe them as “time-tested.” By your standard, I suspect you’d consider the Ten Commandments “outdated” and the Constitution as “showing its age.”
Scouting is a rare institution in today’s society because it teaches young men that there are causes greater than self, that there is value in hard work and sacrifice, that it is more important to do what is right instead of what is easy, and that there are obligations and responsibilities shared by members of a free society.
Most parents, employers and teachers I know would not hang the tag “old-fashioned” on the 12 attributes listed in the Scout law: “A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.”
When cultivated, these values can transform an individual into a trustworthy, principled leader. I hope the American people will rally to the Scout’s defense as the left-leaning forces of moral ambiguity and intolerance continue their campaign against this important organization.
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When I was growing up on Long Island, I was no Boy Scout.
That’s not a confession about my behavior. I literally was not a member of the Boy Scouts of America. That was my loss.
But my two sons are Scouts. The older is a Boy Scout with Troop 29, and the younger is in Cub Scout Pack 625 - each in Suffolk County. My wife deserves all the credit for getting them active in Scouting.
It has opened up new interests and adventures for the boys - and for me. “Klondike camping,” for example, meant sleeping in a tent for two nights with the wind whipping and the temperature dipping below 20 degrees.
That was definitely a new experience for me.
Most important, Scouting reinforces lessons we try to teach about hard work, respecting others, responsibility, faith and love of country.
Unfortunately, the Boy Scouts have been assaulted in recent times by left-wingers who don’t like the group’s values. But rising in defense is Texas Gov. Rick Perry, with his new book, “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.”
Perry told me recently why he wrote the book: “I want to espouse the values of an institution that has been developing and promoting and positively shaping millions of young Americans’ lives for almost a hundred years. And secondly, I wanted to expose the virus of these secular humanists who are endangering institutions like the Boy Scouts, which teach traditional values.”
In addition to providing a comprehensive account on the benefits of Scouting, the book details 30-plus years of legal actions against the Scouts. Perry said the Scouts are forced to spend “just north of a million dollars a year” defending against “frivolous lawsuits.”
What’s the beef? Atheists don’t like that the Scout oath includes a “duty to God,” and gay activists disapprove of Scouting’s position on homosexuality.
On religion, Perry wrote, “From its earliest days, Scouting has welcomed boys of varying religious faiths.” He also pointed out that the Scout bylaws state that “no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation to God.”
As for homosexuality, Perry wrote, “The BSA’s position is that a homosexual who makes his sex life a public matter is not an appropriate role model of the Scout Oath and Law for adolescent boys.” He added, “Scouting is not intended to advance a discussion about sexual activity, whether of the heterosexual form or the homosexual form.”
For these views, the intolerant left has relentlessly attacked Scouting, trying to force the group to change its policies and to get the group booted from public facilities.
Fortunately, in 2000 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Boy Scouts’ right to set membership rules - though in a disturbingly narrow 5-4 decision. And in 2001 Congress passed, and President George W. Bush signed into law, a measure ensuring that the Scouts could not be discriminated against in terms of access to public-school facilities.
But the anti-Scouting zealots push ahead. Last week, Gov. Perry offered words of encouragement for when the Boy Scouts are under attack: “Look back at that long distinguished list of young men who, before they wore astronauts’ uniforms, before they wore generals’ uniforms, before they were the captains of industry, before they were fathers and good brothers and good young men, they wore the uniform of Scouting…. Frankly, I think it’s the soul of America, and it’s a soul that’s worth fighting for, it’s a soul worth dying for, and it’s a soul worth saving.”
Perry’s book profits will go to Scouting’s legal defense. The Boy Scouts have a staunch defender in the governor, and it’s a group well worth defending.
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Governor Perry will appear on “Hot Talk” with host Scott Hennon on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 11:07 a.m. Central Time. The show is broadcast on WDAY-AM in Fargo, North Dakota.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will appear on the “Friday Encounter with Jim Jenkins on Friday, March 21 at 2:00 p.m. Central Time. The show will broadcast on the Bott Radio Network.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will appear on The Michael Medved Show on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. Central Time. The show is nationally syndicated.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will appear on The Mancow Show with host Erich “Mancow” Muller on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 7:10 a.m. Central Time. The show is nationally syndicated.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Governor Perry will appear on The Lynn Wooley Show on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 9:35 a.m Central Time. The show will be broadcast on KTEM-AM in Temple, TX.
To see more media appearances by Governor Perry, click here.
Columnist Ray Keating will interview Rick Perry for a column to appear in New York Newsday. Publication date to be determined.
To see all of Governor Perry’s media appearances, click here.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is determined not to let the Boy Scouts of America become the latest casualty of what he calls the ongoing cultural battle between traditional American values and the secular left.
In his new book, “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For,” Mr. Perry outlines the legal challenges over the Boy Scouts’ refusal to abandon positions on gays and religion. He said the organization should not succumb to pressure to change.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations have been filing lawsuits against the Boy Scouts for more than 30 years, seeking to ban the organization from public facilities based on its exclusion of atheists, agnostics and openly gay scoutmasters.
“If the ACLU and their kind are successful in blocking public facilities for use by Scouts, then we’re going to have very few places that Scouting is going to be able to conduct their meetings,” said Mr. Perry, who is an Eagle Scout. “The secular left will have won in defeating an institution that has for 100 years trained our young men to be leaders, to be patriots, to be individuals who have characteristics that the vast majority of the people in this country want their young men to express and to exhibit.”
Mr. Perry, a Republican, cited David Park, national general counsel of the Boy Scouts, as saying that the lawsuits cost more than 100 years and millions of dollars in litigation.
The governor wants Scouts to be able to use public facilities, but the ACLU is trying to apply anti-discriminatory legislation, said Arthur B. Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU’s National Capital Area chapter.
“I think most Americans agree that an organization that discriminates shouldn’t get special benefits,” Mr. Spitzer said.
The ACLU has said that two of the Boy Scout rules promote discrimination: One states that Scouts and scoutmasters must affirm a belief in God and live out their faith; the other states that the organization prohibits open or activist gay scoutmasters.
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The Boy Scouts of America is praising Texas Gov. Rick Perry for his new book supporting the Scouts and their values.
Bob Bork Jr., a spokesman for the Scouts, said he is pleased Perry took such a public stance in defending the Scouts in On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For. Perry also came to the defense of the Scouts’ policy that prohibits homosexuals from scouting or serving as Scout leaders, OneNewsNow.com reported.
Scouting is about camping out and having fun, Bork said, and not the appropriate place to delve into the issue of sexuality.
“Since its inception in 1910, the Boy Scouts has believed that open homosexuality is inconsistent with the values it wants to communicate through its leaders,” Bork notes.
Perry also documented the 30-year history of litigation against the Scouts by pro-homosexual organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lambda Legal has asked Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo to honor the city’s nondiscrimination policies and cut ties with a Boy Scouts of America affiliate that administers youth programs for the Los Angeles Police and Fire Departments.
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Bill Bennett spoke with Newt Gingrich about the two Democratic candidates; Michael Medved discussed the New York Times’ attempt to broadside Senator McCain; Dennis Prager spoke with Texas Governor Rick Perry about his new book out titled “On My Honor: Why The American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.” All this and more.
Presidential candidate John McCain wasn’t the first choice, or even the second, third or fourth choice, of many of the 500 or so die-hard Republicans gathered Saturday night for the Dallas County party’s annual Reagan Day Dinner.
“I sort of liken it to a grieving process. You come to acceptance,” said U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, ticking off the conventionally accepted stages of mourning. But “on every issue I care about, and you care about, John McCain is head and shoulders above Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.”
Mr. Cornyn endorsed Mr. McCain on Feb. 7. Gov. Rick Perry, meanwhile, first endorsed former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose candidacy took off about as well as a jet with its engines pointed backward. Mr. Perry has since endorsed Mr. McCain, who is closing in on enough of the delegates necessary to clinch the Republican presidential nomination.
Dismissing Mr. Obama as a “silver-tongued senator from Illinois” and Mrs. Clinton as powerless to provide much more political substance than “screeching rebuttals,” Mr. Perry urged those gathered this year to fight for conservative principles and against the “leftist forces of secular humanism ... disrespect for our president and the disposable nature of the unborn.”
A Democratic president, he added, could lead to the advent of a “socialist regime” in the United States.
Local Democrats dismissed those remarks.
“The governor is totally off base,” said Pauline Medrano, a Dallas City Council member and Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter. “Any Democrat we have in the White House will do a great job – and we will have a Democrat.”
During his speech, Mr. Perry mentioned numerous Texas politicians, the Boy Scouts and GOP ideals such as freedom and traditional values. He did not mention Mr. McCain by name.
Mr. McCain will be in Texas Monday and Tuesday, including an election-night party in Dallas.
Naming no one in particular, former Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams said some GOP candidates are only 90, 80, 70 or even 60 percent as conservative as many people gathered at Dallas’ Westin Park Central.
He quickly noted, however, that “it’s higher than what the other side is, because they’re zero percent conservative,” Mr. Williams said.
“Maybe your guy didn’t get in the race. Maybe your guy did, but your guy’s gone,” Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams said before swiping at Mr. Obama’s campaign slogan by saying, “you cannot stop al-Qaeda with hope.”
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The battle for the Democratic presidential nomination between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may be front-page news in Texas, but in some areas of the state, local legislative races are now getting just as much attention because they’ve gotten downright nasty.
Thank or blame Big Money. This year, most of the media attention is focused on House districts in Arlington, Austin, Bulverde, Edinburg, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Palmview, Waco and Weatherford, to name a few.
Those races are not just nasty, they are expensive, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
San Antonio mega donor James Leininger, who gave $500,000 to Van Wilson to try to unseat Delwin Jones as District 83 representative two years ago, has contributed $50,000 to some Republican incumbents in those districts because they are fending off well-funded challengers.
Another reason those races are getting lots of attention is because Big Money is helping allies as well as foes of Craddick. And though Leininger is a late-comer this year - but once again the most generous contributor - Gov. Rick Perry also has drawn lots of attention.
Perry took the unusual step of helping some Craddick supporters, all Republicans, who need help. They are Phil King of Weatherford, Charles “Doc” Anderson of Waco and Bill Zedler of Arlington.
Perry also is supporting El Paso businessman Dee Margo, who is challenging incumbent Pat Haggerty, a maverick Republican, and Mark Shelton, a Fort Worth physician trying to unseat Dan Barrett, a Democrat who last year won a heavily Republican district in a special election.
And last but not least, Reps. Kevin Bailey of Houston, Dawnna Dukes of Austin, Ismael “Kino” Flores of Palmview, and Aaron Pena of Edinburg, four of 15 Craddick D’s, Democrats who helped Craddick survive two Republican-led efforts to oust him last year, also are fending off well-funded challengers. And except for Dukes, each received $50,000 from a political action committee linked to Craddick and now their opponents are making the most of it.
To be elected or re-elected as speaker, a House member needs 76 votes, including his or her own and each vote is critical for Craddick - currently there are 79 Republicans and 71 Democrats in the 150-member House. However, at least a half-dozen Republicans, including Jones and Haggerty, oppose Craddick so he’ll need some Democrats to be chosen speaker again.
So, the stakes are high not just for Clinton and Obama but for Craddick and some of his allies and foes. It’s going to be a long night for them as well.
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Forty miles and a political time warp away from Sen. Barack Obama’s Fort Worth rally, aspiring author Gov. Rick Perry addressed a much cozier Dallas crowd Thursday night.
At a signing party for his new Boy Scout book, On My Honor, Perry told about 300 book shoppers that he wants to defend the Scouts’ honor, morality and virtue against those who would reduce the Scouts’ principles to a “shapeless form of relativity.”
Afterward, he frowned at Obama’s message.
“Hope?” he said, rolling his eyes. “I’m for hope.”
The crowds lining up for Obama are “going to his rock concert,” Perry said, calling Obama a “socialist.”
I asked whether he’d ever seen anything comparable to crowds Obama was drawing.
“Sure,” he said, grinning.
“The Beatles. The Rolling Stones. The Who.”
He frowned again.
“I just don’t want anybody like that running my country.”
His father, former Democratic Haskell County Commissioner J.R. Perry, was among the guests at the north Dallas bookstore.
I asked him about Obama.
The father didn’t look up.
“I’m gettin’ tired of hearin’ his name,” he drawled.
Although his son initially backed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the father said he had supported former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee.
Now, they’re united behind Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and Rick Perry’s name is often mentioned as a candidate for vice president.
(No, not of the Boy Scouts. The whole country.)
“John McCain is the only one runnin’ who will protect this country from the terrorists,” J.R. Perry said, in a response ready for a campaign TV ad.
His son said McCain will “keep the border secure, be a strong fiscal conservative and continue to fight the war on terror.”
Perry was signing a book for a Scout’s mother. At McCain’s name, she shook her head and blurted, “He’s not one of my favorite people.”
Perry looked up. “Well,” he said, “he’s our nominee.”
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Dallas has also been mentioned for the McCain ticket. But she said recently that she doesn’t want the job. She said before that she might run for governor in 2010.
Perry praised one of her decisions.
“She’s a smart lady about that vice president thing,” he said.
Perry might say now that he doesn’t want anybody with Obama’s views running the country. But last election, 61 percent of voters didn’t want Perry running Texas. He won a four-way race.
With his book hitting No. 1 in Washington bookstores, he must have felt bold enough to drop some big campaign dollars.
He donated a total of $60,000 in three local Texas House races to back Reps. Phil King and Bill Zedler and second-try candidate Mark Shelton.
King and Zedler will have the extra cash to spend against former Weatherford Mayor Joe Tison and Fort Worth police officer Lee Jackson, respectively. Shelton is in a four-way race that also involves former state Rep. Bob Leonard.
That’s campaign money, not Perry’s book profits.
He has promised the book profits to a legal fund that will guard the Boy Scouts against civil-rights lawsuits involving Scouts’ and Scoutmasters’ religion or sexual orientation.
His book’s message, he said in Dallas, is that the Scouts “play an invincible role in the development of strong character” and “shape tomorrow’s fathers, husbands and the next leaders of our world.”
Perry might become one of those leaders.
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It is this reporter’s opinion that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is unneccessarily attacking American institutions.
It is the Boy Scouts that the ACLU now has in its crosshairs. The Scouts, it is claimed by adversaries, excludes children or adult volunteers based on their sexual orientation.
One can only ask, Why does the ACLU with so many other problems in the world that we face, take a destructive stance against the Boy Scouts? Why attack an organization that relies on the very values our Founding Fathers espoused?
Furthermore, the exclusion based on sexual orientation is a false claim. The scouts are against overt sexual conduct or statement by anyone — homosexual or heterosexual. Sexuality has no place in the Boy Scouts organization.
There has been plenty of backlash: The book “On My Honor Why the Values of the Boy Scouts are Worth Fighting For” by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is putting the Boys Scouts and the ACLU’s position of homosexuality into the forefront of renewed discussion. The book explores the depths to which liberal organizations sink when they condemn values-oriented organizations.
As a lifelong member of the scouting movement, from 10-year-old prescout activity to being named the youngest member of the National Council of the Boys Scouts of America, I feel well qualified to speak against those who attack the scouting movement.
How better to stop youth gang activity and violence than for boys to spend their adolescence as members of the Boy Scouts? The effort begins in the family, at home, and in the community.
What better way to learn values and ideals than as a member of the Boy Scouts?
Since scouting’s humble beginnings in 1908, Boy Scouts have epitomized the ideals of community service. What a wonderful way to stop youth gang activities than to introduce these kids when they are young to scouting.
That is the way to stop gangs from proliferating. The numbers are staggering: In America, youth gangs are taking over and may number as high as 30,000 violent street gangs with 800,000 members.
In Los Angeles alone, the birthplace of notorious gangs such as MS-13, the Bloods, and the Crips, there are 700 street gangs comprised of 40,000 gang members.
Incredible that to be a Boy Scout in the 21st century entails strange consequences. It means you may not get funding from the United Way, that you cannot have summer camp in the city park, that your troop cannot be sponsored by a public school, that you may even be booed at a national political convention.
It even has meant you will be compared with the Taliban which is exactly what the Philadelphia Daily News did a few years ago.
Recently, in Philadelphia, home of the liberty bell symbolizing our freedom, being a Boy Scout means a $200,000 rent increase on the headquarters building. This increase followed the decision by the city of Philadelphia to penalize the scouts for the organization’s long-term policy excluding homosexual members and leaders.
Now the scouts in Philadelphia must make a tough decision in order to come up with a fair-market rent of $200,000 annually — $199,999 more than the previous annual rate of $1.
What this means is that Philadelphia is cutting off one of its most valuable partners, the Boy Scouts, because of their gay ban. And regardless of how one stands on the Boy Scout policy on homosexuals, there is no question the Boy Scouts benefit America’s communities.
This following a U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 that the Boy Scout organization has the right to establish its own membership standards.
No one in Philadelphia is forced to accept the Boy Scout policies. What the public must accept is a partnership in benefiting from the thousands upon thousands of volunteer hours generated by members. The countless “good turns” the boys do undoubtedly make Philadelphia a better place to live.
All scouts, since the days of the birth of the movement by Lord Robert Baden-Powell share in one common oath: “On my honor I will do my best; to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”
That is the statement that appears to upset the ACLU. It is a statement that has inspired millions of young men from puberty to adulthood for nearly 100 years to live lives of service and leadership.
But apparently there are consequences for choosing honor these days. Being a Boy Scout is not as publicly admirable as it was years ago. But that should not stop decent people from doing the right thing.
It is time America says we have had enough and springs to the support of efforts of thousands of scout leaders and parents who are making a day-to-day positive difference in the lives of our youth.
That is one reporter’s opinion. I welcome yours!
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