New Orleans        Out here in the cheap seats, most of us would think that the US Defense Secretary would be wildly busy, what with Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Israel, the Ukraine, NATO, China, and the list just goes on and on, but I guess we would be wrong.  He’s got plenty of time and energy left over to go after Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America.  He seems to have a bug in his bonnet over the fact that scouts started enlisting girls, changed their name to Scouting America to be more inclusive, and generally in the wake of years of very expensive Catholic-like scandals have embraced the full diversity of the United States.  He made time for this picayune dispute, because he thinks he has leverage over the scouts because of their upcoming quadrennial jamboree in West Virginia this summer.

The scouts should live up to their oath, stand tall, and tell this narcissist bully to go play in traffic and let them stick to their camping without interference.  The partnership with the military has always seemed kind of creepy.  The armed forces and the NRA seemed to see the scouts as fertile recruiting ground.  For Hegseth to claim some intimate knowledge of scouting values by touting his blood and soil version of God and Country is dangerously disturbing.

I’m not ashamed to have been a scout in my youth.  The scouts taught me some skills, and I learned things about nature, camping, solidarity, leadership, and, importantly, myself, that I have stayed with me all my life as part of my core values.  I was an Eagle Scout, as was my brother and son.  For Hegseth and his lot to see the scouts as a target for rebranding as part of their rightwing, conservative shock troops is just wrong.  I can remember getting my Citizenship in County merit badge from the BSA counselor, Ben Smith, a lawyer active in our troop, who was the go-to attorney for the civil rights movement then and later, and a target because of all of the forces of evil because of that.  Scouts don’t just learn how to erect a big army surplus wall tent; they are a big tent for boys and girls who want these experiences.

With my comrades, I was one of 50,000 scouts at the National Jamboree in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in July 1964, standing on my tiptoes to watch excitedly as President Lyndon B. Johnson landed in the middle of us by helicopter, and then spoke about the role of the federal government in protecting freedom and creating opportunity.  Hegseth, Trump, and the team would probably have been uncomfortable being there, but those are “core values” of America and the scouts, whether they like them or not.

Unsurprisingly, Hegseth’s current threats are weaponizing the fact that the national guard and military units have provided security and other services to these jamborees.  Ending the partnership with the scouts would cost them money, perhaps even jeopardizing the jamboree financially after boys and girls have spend months raising money to be able to attend.  Denying access to local scout troops on military facilities would also hurt young people who are part of the scouting movement.

Scouting America claims they are close to an agreement with the Pentagon.  There has been no public reporting about the exact nature of Hegseth’s demands.  If they fold before his bullying, this will be another crippling blow to the organization, its legacy, and values.  If a more than century old institution can’t stand up for its principles, rather than cave into threats about money and support, then it has no values, and needs to close its doors.