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Showing posts with label patriots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label patriots. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Essay: Girl Scouts: liberal or conservative?

Information and comments on the essay:


Girl Scouts: liberal or conservative?

From the book: Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters by David Satterlee

Find out more, including where to buy books and ebooks

Read or download this essay as a PDF file at: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4eNv8KtePyKdjE4dk5wX2s0QVk/edit?usp=sharing

#GSA #GirlScouts

Chum For Thought:
Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters

Girl Scouts: liberal or conservative?


I would like to say a few nice things about the Girl Scouts.

In recent news, Bob “Cookie Monster” Morris, A conservative State Representative from Indiana, made headlines by writing in a letter that the Girl Scouts were “quickly becoming a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood” and were being “subverted in the name of liberal progressive politics and the destruction of the traditional American family values.” There is more, but it starts to get truly ugly.

The fact of the matter is that the Girl Scouts are a fine, conservative, 100-year old organization with the ambition to: “help girls develop self-confidence and good decision-making skills that will help them make wise choices in all areas of their lives.” They believe that girls deserve to be educated, informed, and involved in society – that they should be “given the opportunity to develop physically, mentally, and spiritually.”

Naturally, we have to understand that, 100 years ago, these were all radical, liberal, progressive notions. In America, women weren’t allowed the right to vote until 1920. They were often expected to remain “barefoot and pregnant” or be

Essay: Will the real patriots please stand up?

Information and comments on the essay:


Will the real patriots please stand up?

From the book: Chum for Thought: Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters by David Satterlee

Find out more, including where to buy books and ebooks

Read or download this essay as a PDF file at: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4eNv8KtePyKa1lXMUlGYmJFS1U/edit?usp=sharing

#America #TeaParty #Liberals

Chum For Thought:
Throwing Ideas into Dangerous Waters

Will the real patriots please stand up?


Teachers train students to evaluate ideas by comparing and contrasting. There seem to be several strongly-contrasting ideas about what patriotism is, so let’s compare them.

Everybody seems to agree that waving and saluting a flag is patriotic. So is praising troops, singing certain songs, and setting off fireworks. I’ll agree that all of that is very nice. Symbols stand for things that have real meaning and showing respect for those symbols is not entirely without meaning. But, what else do you stand for? What personal actions and sacrifices are you willing to take as a patriot?

One vision of patriotism is standing together with existing compatriots to fight against a common enemy. Yes, that is always a good idea. We are, by definition of being “us,” inherently good. And, everyone else is an enemy and therefore always bad. Show these patriots an enemy and they will rally together, crying “death to (whomever),” shaking their fists, and even gunning up to go attack someone. Man, now THAT’S real patriotism.

A first priority for this kind of patriot is to protect their country from foreigners – people who surely want to overrun them or just somehow run them into the ground. Let’s see, that could include