:: The S.I.C.L.E. Cell ::

:: Thursday, March 04, 2004 ::

Hello, this is SOOOO yesterday's news and yet, here it is cropping up in the biased, biased media. I'm going to include the entire article here with bold print added for areas of significance:

"Some Texans Boycott Girl Scout Cookies
By ANGELA K. BROWN, AP

CRAWFORD, Texas (March 3) - 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 Troop 7527 is down to just two members after the other girls were withdrawn by their parents.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."

End of article.
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First, it seems parents were not aware of the PP/Girl Scout association that PP-supporting board members decided to involve their children in. It seems that this association only came to light when a "pro-lifer" informed parents, something PP-supporters within the organization failed to do over a long period of time. Of course, in the media, the "pro-lifer" is credited for starting all of this controversy and trouble. That is insanity. The "pro-lifer" is the person who should be credited for informing parents of the deception and ENDING the controversy that the board members chose to involve children in.

The recurring theme is that parents found out about the PP association, parents found out about the award given to a PP executive by an organization that pledges an oath referencing God, parents found out, parents found out and parents were mad. Parents were mad at the association not the revelation.

The author of the above article reports that cookie sales have been up this year BECAUSE of the controversy and case-buying supporters of the PP/Girl Scout association. She claims the boycott backfired. If it is even true that sales have been up in direct relation to the boycott, that has no bearing on success. The boycott was tremendously successful as the goal was not to wound the Girl Scouts but to end the contradictory association.

This is another way the media uses bias. In one sentence the author attempts to convey the idea that the purpose of the boycott was to rob the Girl Scouts of cookie sales. Subtle, powerful deception. Like chumming the water, this is where the fence-sitters go into a frenzy. "Well, I'm not 100% sold on abortion, but those damn Christians trying to rob adolescent girls of their scouting money really PISSES ME OFF!"

Becky Parker, one troop leader, tells readers that people viewed the boycott as "ridiculous" and "one man's extremist views". What people? How many? Because again, over and over, you see concerned parents receiving new information and yanking their kids right out of there. They don't give their reason as "One man has extreme views." They don't like the association between Girl Scouts and PP. If what Becky Parker said was true, the boycott would not have been so ultimately effective.

Personally, I would like to know why the Girl Scout organization was putting its name and logo on PP's written materials but not giving money or anything else. What was the purpose of this association then? It seems the purpose was just to use the Girl Scout name to bottle abortion and sexual immorality and slap a beloved picture of a sweet little cookie-selling girl on it.

While the media complains that one "pro-life nut" ruined the Girl Scouts for pulled troop members, the rest of us focused in on their resourceful parents who decided to start a new, Christian-based scouting program for their children. Perhaps Keepers At Home or something of that nature. This is a much better idea for little girls than making them the poster children for abortion and sexual depravity.

One "pro-life nutbag" didn't start all this controversy and hurt the little girls. He ended it when he turned the light on and PP and other abortion-supporters scattered like roaches.

:: ashli 9:03 AM # ::
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