Either the Boy Scouts are bad:
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The city has decided that the Boy Scouts chapter here must pay fair-market rent of $200,000 a year for its city-owned headquarters because it refuses to permit gay Scouts.
or they’re good:
READING, Pa. — A Boy Scout troop came to the rescue of a hiker who had fallen and hit her head on the Appalachian Trail, building a stretcher from scratch and carrying her 3 miles to help.
Jane B. Scholl of Mohnton was hiking on Blue Mountain in northern Berks County with a friend Saturday. As the two reached the Pinnacle, a popular overlook, Scholl was looking for a good spot to take pictures when she fell about 5 feet.
“I landed right on my eye,” she said Sunday. “I was cut and bleeding and felt really woozy.”
Scholl, 41, and the friend started down the mountain, but Scholl began to feel worse. That’s when they ran into Boy Scout Troop 226 from Rockledge in Montgomery County.
“As we were hiking back down we caught up to her and that’s when we saw that she was bleeding,” scoutmaster Christopher J. Gallagher said.
The eight Scouts built a stretcher from tree branches and their sweat shirts.
“We took sticks, shoved them into each sleeve and made it long enough for her body to fit on. We carried her three miles,” Eagle Scout Andrew Swartz Jr. said.
Gallagher had called for help on his cell phone and the troop was met by medics who began treatment. Scholl was then taken to a helicopter waiting to fly her to Reading Hospital, where she was treated for a concussion and cuts and bruises and released Sunday.
When Troop 226 returned Sunday, members were met by a cheering crowd and a band featuring drummers and bagpipes.
“I feel really good. It’s nice to know I helped someone out in their time of need,” scout Bill Bowman said.
Make up your fucking minds, Pennsylvania. You need the Boy Scouts more than they need you.
Full text of “bad” article below the break.
Boy Scouts’ Rent Hiked Over Gay Ban
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The city has decided that the Boy Scouts chapter here must pay fair-market rent of $200,000 a year for its city-owned headquarters because it refuses to permit gay Scouts.
The organization’s Cradle of Liberty Council, which currently pays $1 a year in rent, must pay the increased amount to remain in its downtown building past May 31, Fairmount Park Commission president Robert N.C. Nix said Wednesday.
City officials say they cannot legally rent taxpayer-owned property for a nominal sum to a private organization that discriminates. The city owns the land and the Beaux Arts building constructed by the Scouts in 1928.
Scouting officials will ask the city solicitor for details on the appraisals that yielded the $200,000 figure, said Jeff Jubelirer, spokesman for the Cradle of Liberty Council.
The higher rent money “would have to come from programs. That’s 30 new Cub Scout packs, or 800 needy kids going to our summer camp,” Jubelirer said. “It’s disappointing, and it’s certainly a threat.”
The Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that Scouts, as a private group, have a First Amendment right to bar gays from membership.
The council adopted a nondiscrimination policy in 2003 but was ordered to revoke it by the National Council, which said local chapters cannot deviate from national rules barring participation by anyone who is openly gay.
The Cradle of Liberty Council serves about 64,000 scouts in Philadelphia and its suburbs.