The Merits of Scouting

* Your May 10 coverage of the Boy Scouts’ Scout-O-Rama at Mile Square Park predictably focused on the few dozen protesters instead of the tens of thousands of participants happily oblivious (from the protesters’ view) that they were a few degrees shy on their moral compasses.

However, by next spring, I would expect that these protesters, possessing obviously superior intelligence and values in addition to an uncanny ability to draw enormous numbers of supporters, will start their own youth organization and hold a similar gathering.

DON COURSEY

Huntington Beach

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It is a lack of civic responsibility that this group of atheists would protest at an annual Scout gathering.

The participants at Scout-O-Rama were simple groups of children congregating to share crafts and games. It isn’t like they were preaching Christian credos or anti-atheist rhetoric.

No matter how close-minded the Orange County Boy Scouts of America may be, it is their right to be so. There are no compulsory laws requiring anyone to be a Boy Scout, nor are their laws that prevent atheists from practicing Boy Scout activities.

On the other hand, the statement from the chairman and president of the Orange County Boy Scouts Council defending the Scouts’ celebration of diversity and acceptance of other people’s views infuriates me.

This hypocritical liberality is neither reflected in their decision to reject the Randall twins nor is it an example of the Boy Scout belief in honesty.

CHRIS YING

Laguna Niguel