Scouting Dismissal

This letter is in response to the San Diego County Council of Boy Scouts of America’s decision to ban Officer Chuck Merino from Scouting.

I am a deputy sheriff for the county of San Diego. I became involved in the Exploring program with the Boy Scouts in 1979 as a member of the San Diego Sheriffs Explorer program and served in every ranking position in that program during the five years of my involvement. In 1982, I was elected president of the Explorer Assn. and represented more than 5,000 explorers of our county. I served on the executive board of the Boy Scouts at that time.

I have always praised the program and am one of many who know its true value to young people in our country. I cannot, however, tolerate this decision.

I have never met Merino. My sexual preference is my own business, as is Merino’s. I am simply supporting a fellow peace officer in his support of a valuable program and its participants, the young people.

Officer Merino has dedicated his life to service. His past performance is more than enough proof that there is no justification for the absurd decision of Scouting.

The Boy Scouts of America started this fantastic program many years ago to assist young men and women in “exploring” their career and hobby interests.

The reason these programs work is that the people in the respective industries or interests take the time to share their work and teach the young people. The programs may show a young man or woman that a particular career is right, or maybe wrong, for them. It exposes them to the world and its people in a way like no other. Exploring requires the experts to be involved. The experts are the program.

If the Boy Scouts want to start judging all of us out here, they can run their own programs without us. I will not be judged by them, and neither should Officer Merino. The color of my skin, the church I attend, the personal beliefs I have are my concern and no one else’s. All that matters is the quality of my work and how I represent that work and its ethics and standards to those young people interested.

Chuck Merino was fit to wear a badge. He was fit to be an adviser. If he is no longer fit in their eyes to be one now, then none of us are, and the programs’ claims to desire quality and promote education and mature growth in our youth was and is a sham.

DAVID R. KNIGHT, Jamul