Cookie Boycott?

[Jerr Conner]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...cookie_boycott

Some Texans Boycott Girl Scout Cookies
Wed Mar 3, 2:21 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!


By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer

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 Troop 7527 is down to just two members after the other girls were withdrawn by their parents.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


AP Photo


Related Links
• Girl Scout Group Severs Ties With Planned Parenthood After Boycott (LifeNews.com)
• Program's advocates say boycotters have muddied waters (Waco Tribune)



Why are folks in this conservative Texas town where President Bush (news - web sites) has his ranch so mad at the Girl Scout organization?


Planned Parenthood (news - web sites) 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."

___

On the Net:

Girl Scouts of the USA: http://www.girlscouts.org

[The Hierophant]

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

Well, thank goodness I don't have THAT poor bastard's sex-life... Can you imagine it? "No no honey. Not tonight. Please put it away, it makes me embarrassed".

Personally I'm glad that I received sex-ed at a young age and that the lessons learned were made habit by continued practice I'm all the wiser for it now. But if some people can't cope with learning about their bodies and the way they work, then that's fine too, they can go swim in the ocean with the rest of the cold fish.

[ 03-03-2004, 11:38 PM: Message edited by: The Hierophant ]

[Jerr Conner]

Well, thank goodness I don't have THAT poor bastard's sex-life... Can you imagine it? "No no honey. Not tonight. Please put it away, it makes me embarrassed".

On the forum I found the link on, someone said something similiar:

""Seriously. I was just pondering the things I'd say to this lady. "Oh, so, then, your kids must have been immaculatly conceved, because if you're embarresed looking at naked pictures, I can't imagine how embarresed you'd be being next to a naked person, let alone having sex with one! Oh, and showers must be so difficult with clothes on..."""

[The Hierophant]

Originally posted by Jerr Conner: ""Seriously. I was just pondering the things I'd say to this lady. "Oh, so, then, your kids must have been immaculatly conceved, because if you're embarresed looking at naked pictures, I can't imagine how embarresed you'd be being next to a naked person, let alone having sex with one! Oh, and showers must be so difficult with clothes on..."""

haha! Priceless!

[InjaYew]

I am not a bit surprised. For some reason I expect people in Crawford to be stupid. It's probably a survival technique there. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[wellard]

Originally posted by InjaYew: I am not a bit surprised. For some reason I expect people in Crawford to be stupid. It's probably a survival technique there. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

LOL A classic [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[Thoran]

Originally posted by InjaYew: I am not a bit surprised. For some reason I expect people in Crawford to be stupid. It's probably a survival technique there. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I think you've got it backwards. Liberals support rampant sex education of our kids because they think parents are too stupid to do the job adequately. The people in Crawford probably have lots of different reasons for being upset, for me as a parent I'd be pissed because it's not the job of the Girl Scouts to do my job. I find it amazing how many parents sit by and let P.C. groups like Planned Parenthood basically tell them they're too stupid to do their job. Perhaps the fact that it doesn't bother them indicates the accuracy of the assessment.

[Night Stalker]

RTA! It doesn't say that the Girl Scouts was giving sex ed, it says it was contributing money to Planned Parenthood.

[Jerr Conner]

Originally posted by Thoran: quote: Originally posted by InjaYew: I am not a bit surprised. For some reason I expect people in Crawford to be stupid. It's probably a survival technique there. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I think you've got it backwards. Liberals support rampant sex education of our kids because they think parents are too stupid to do the job adequately. The people in Crawford probably have lots of different reasons for being upset, for me as a parent I'd be pissed because it's not the job of the Girl Scouts to do my job. I find it amazing how many parents sit by and let P.C. groups like Planned Parenthood basically tell them they're too stupid to do their job. Perhaps the fact that it doesn't bother them indicates the accuracy of the assessment. [/QUOTE]People describe me as Liberal, but I don't think parents are too stupid to teach their kids of the birds and the bees.

Same with my liberal friends.

I just think sex ed should be an option when parents are too embarrassed to teach their kids about anything to do with sex, especially about STDs.

[Thoran]

Originally posted by Jerr Conner: People describe me as Liberal, but I don't think parents are too stupid to teach their kids of the birds and the bees. Same with my liberal friends. I just think sex ed should be an option when parents are too embarrassed to teach their kids about anything to do with sex, especially about STDs.

That I can agree with, the problem is that when it's taught in school it's not provided as an "option". Planned Parenthood does not endorse sex education as an "option" in school, they want it ALL covered, including all the controversial stuff (abortion, homosexuality, etc). They specifically attempt to exclude the wishes of the parents. IMO they want it taught in school specifically to get around parents who disagree with them... so asking permission is something they're not going to ever want to do.

N.S. - The article indicated that the girl scout group in question did not teach those subjects... so you're right - except for the fact that supporting P.P. is supporting the mentality that SOME liberals (I don't mean to be overly broad... I understand that not all Liberals subscribe to these ideas) have regarding a willingness to tell everyone else how to live their lives and raise their children. FWIW I find the same annoying attitude in conservatives, just pushing in the other direction. I personally would not have supported that particular Girl Scout group because by celebrating the Planned Parenthood people they're pushing into a political area that I would certainly not want my kids associated with.

For me, conservatives call me liberal and liberals call me conservative. I think both groups are composed 90% of idiots so I call myself a radical moderate. It seems libertarian is closest of all the accepted ideologies to my ideas... but they get stupid about individual liberties, so I don't think they've got the right balance either. [img]smile.gif[/img]