Ah, spring. April showers, May flowers, and … Girl Scout cookies. Yes, that time of year when you can gorge yourself on Thin Mints knowing full well that, once the box is gone, you can get back on your weight loss regimen without worrying about that slogan that’s true of Lay’s potato chips and that once-a-year glut …
The Girl Scouts of the America, of which I was a proud member (I made both a Brownie and a Junior) has just completed the latest study out of the Girl Scout Research Institute. I was totally unaware that there even was a Girl Scout Research Institute, but it totally doesn’t surprise me because they’re basically the coolest. They send surveys to
“a panel of girls ages 8 to 17 of diverse backgrounds from over 1,300 households across the nation” to get their opinions on a variety of issues, and the latest one covered all our favorite topics; beauty, body image, and that big bad wolf, the media.
Let’s look at a few of the results:
I am one of those people incapable of winning a verbal argument, even if I am 100% right. There’s some sort of short circuit between my brain and my mouth that renders me useless in a public debate of any sort. However, as one of my high school social studies teachers infamously said to me, “You can write your way out of a sealed cardboard box.” The problem with putting your ideas, opinions, and arguments into writing, though, particularly with the advent of the internet, is that they become a matter of public record.
Hans Zeiger, a Republican running for the Washington State House of Representatives, has recently discovered this very notion.
The 25-year-old Zeiger, a writer and senior fellow at the American Civil Rights Union, is also an Eagle Scout … and a vocal opponent to the apparent feminist breeding ground that is the Girl Scouts of America.
According to Washington’s News Tribune , this is just one excerpt of many Zeiger pieces that have been removed at his request from public viewing:
One might wonder why the Girl Scouts have been spared the painful attacks that have been launched upon the Boy Scouts by the Left in recent years. The reasons are simple: the Girl Scouts allow homosexuals and atheists to join their ranks, and they have become a pro-abortion, feminist training corps. … If the Girl Scouts of America can’t get back to teaching real character, perhaps it will be time to look for our cookies elsewhere.
You know, I was a Girl Scout leader for several years. I don’t recall ever once encouraging my girls to play doctor naked, disavow God in any way, hate men on general principle, or prepare their bodies for multiple abortions.
We focused more on things like community service, personal responsibility for your actions (and I’m talking “don’t hit Susy back just because she hit you,” not “if you find yourself pregnant, go to Planned Parenthood and get an abortion … hell, get two or three”), a sense of girls not feeling oppressed because of their gender, and being …
CNN recently published a moving story about 23-year-old Haitian Joanie Yestin. Like so many people in Haiti, she has experienced tremendous tragedy of late. With her mother, she watched her home collapse during the earthquake. Joanie went back into the rubble to find her father, who did not make it outside in time, and found him dead.
At that point, a lot of folks probably would have found themselves down for the count, but not Yestin. She buried her father, set up shelter for her family, and “thought about what she might do to mend her broken soul, her broken nation.”
She donned her Girl Scout uniform and started participating in the recovery with her Scout troop. Specifically, she helped distribute “essential hygiene products” — like toothpaste and towels — from the humanitarian agency CARE. CNN documented the group breaking into song — “it was the only way to get through life’s tribulations.”
Of course, Yestin now has a lot of concerns for her future: Is college still feasible? And how will her family get by? Sometimes she’s just plain lonely. But those are on the backburner; she’s busy putting the needs of others first:
“I will do my very best to help others because that is what I have been trained to do,” [Yestin] said about her five years in the Scouts. “Up until now, I haven’t really had the opportunity to help others.”
Props to this admirable young woman! We could all do with a little more of her attitude.
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