Boy Scouts and Gay Rights

     Boy Scouts of America has decided to renew the fervor of which to carry out their membership policies. Homosexuals have been focused by this decision primarily and are debating the Boy Scouts decision on the grounds of good, honest mentors being turned away because of sexual orientation that has nothing to do with the Boy Scouts at face value.                                                                                                                                                                                  Writing a paper on how an organization wrongly discriminates homosexuals has its difficulties in that now, during the presidential election, the issue is not a major topic for news organizations. The information is limited to piece quotes since no one wants to risk losing credibility by taking a stance when entering the argument except for those intimately involved. The Boy Scouts of America have their policy on membership and can say that they have only just began strictly enforcing the policy. But then again, people like Jennifer Tyrrell and the homosexual support groups backing her can say that homosexuals that embody the Boy Scouts' work ethic should be allowed to stay. Both have thier bias for understandable reasons. My paper will not get its hard hitting evidence from well know writers or speakers, but from concrete factual proof showing how the Boy Scout's decision is folly and contrary to the modern Boy Scouting experience.
     

BSA Banning "Gay" Scouts

    As an adorned Eagle Scout, the decision of the BSA, Boy Scouts of America, bothers me. The BSA taught me that boys of this age need to know certain fields to be relevant in this fluctuating time of war and economic distress. Not allowing a boy to join because he proclaims himself to be gay and not allowing gay den masters is just unethical. The BSA offers camaraderie, widely applicable knowledge, and most important, serves as a parental figure.

•    The BSA boasts the many activities it has for boys to work together and grow as a troop, or group. Excluding boys from this no different than the juveniles schools demonizing and harassing gay students in schools. The BSA is ironically degrading itself by reverting itself into that school yard bully. The BSA does realizes that its standing in the way of young men coming together and learning social skills, learning to interact, and learning to disregard differences to achieve a common goal.
•    The BSA offers knowledge in a wide range of fields and topics. They offer badges which one gets through showing proficient knowledge of the field or topic the badge relates to as a task/reward system. The aim of every scout is to earn enough badges to become an Eagle Scout. The knowledge available has been enough for young men to choose their college majors so they don't enter as undecided. In learning the information, you learn how to study and you are off the streets. The vast range of knowledge spreads from crafts like leather working to technological advances. Denying a boy this treasure trove of information as comparable to a school neglecting children math and sciences just because they answered wrong on what ice cream flavor they liked.    
•      When you deny a willing mentor a chance to influence a young life, it is harmful for everyone. In the case of Jennifer Tyrrell in a story by NBC News, she was ousted from her role as the troop den leader because she is a lesbian. Jennifer joined when her son joined his pack and was a productive member. She had her suspicions about the BSA's policy but the scout master told her,"Locally, we have no problem." When people who want to contribute to enriching young people are turned away, their experience, wisdom, and knowledge is turned away as well. The BSA is promoting a counter-intuitive policy by turning away leaders.                                

RE: Birmingham Jail Letter

Martin Luther King's letter is a call to action from the southern churches. His famous quote "Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere" put the issue of segregation and racism into the lap of every southern church. He states in the letter how he could not just look from Atlanta and be idle. He had to go out and talk to the other communities. He spoke to leaders and figure heads of several different communities from economical to public services. He figured the only way to build the argument against segregation was to build the ties between those against it.
Not only does Martin Luther King write why the communities must band together, but he also writes how they may protest. He discusses how the use of sit-ins and blatant disregard for some laws are needed to cause "tension" besides the speeches. King regarded laws that promoted segregation, the Jim Crow laws, as unjust and therefore reasoned that they must not be followed if the fight for god given rights was to make any headway. The tension ,as he stated, is necessary to dramatize the aim for equality, to help drive the point to lawmakers. King is so certain he alludes to Socrates, the ancient Greek and father of rational thinking and one of history's iconic characters which symbolizes the price one pays for knowledge. He relates the plight for equality as the construction of rational thinking. King portrays Socrates like a tragic hero. Socrates forced death is relative to Jim Crow dehumanizing and degradation of the American Negro.
King asks for immediate action from the churches. His critic on their past lack of action is not one of hate but one constructive means. King wanted to jump start more pro-activity from the Negro community. So what about the people of today? King's message rings true for minorities of not only his time but for the future as well. Communities must be on the forefront to combat inequality and injustice, not sitting by healing the wounds of their personal members to only have those wounds reopened. Today's problems, crime, education, government corruption, need the attention of whole communities coming together to put a great, cumulative voice against these problems. It's what King would have wanted.

Bass Players

     Whether new or old to the bass playing game, we all have stories of those fun mishaps or tragic occurrences whenever we play a gig. For example, when i played a gig out in Collierville, a suburb of Memphis,TN, the pianist learned the charts in a different key by listening to recordings that he liked. Now I on the other hand was given sheet music to read and interpret which happened to be in a different key than the pianist had learned his pieces in. So instead of going on stage and sounding awful and not wanting to make the pianist change all his fingerings to fit the sheet music, I manned up and learned the pieces in the new keys in around 15 minutes. Crazy I know, and there are more stories like this all over the map. Send your stories to me and let's share in the funnier side of bass playing. And remember, keep it thumping.