Free Press –
Sin Coyotes Gay Scouts
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Sin is bad. Look what has happened to poor old, innocent Milford Township. Coyotes is turning the Upper Bucks community into another River City…as in the famous Broadway show, Music Man…as in “There’s trouble right here in River City.”
There’s nearly nude dancing at Coyotes…right on Route 663 next to the turnpike’s entrance. No, the men who frequent the place aren’t performing nearly nude…but female dancers go through their paces wearing nothing but pasties and G strings. Good grief!!
The owners need a liquor license to permit 100 percent nude dancers.
Apparently, the law prohibits nude dancers from performing in a building where patrons can bring their own liquor (BYOL). Being a curious fellow, I wonder why the Liquor Control Board (LCB) makes that distinction?
I’m turning to State Representative Paul Clymer (R-145 District) for the answer. When I get the news, I’ll relay it to you promptly.
Like former President Calvin Coolidge who was known as “Silent Cal,” Paul Clymer’s against sin. He opposes booz, gambling, pornography, and smoking. Paul would have approved of Silent Cal’s answer to his wife when Coolidge returned from church, one Sunday morning. Grace Coolidge asked her husband about the preacher’s sermon.
“What was the sermon about,” she asked?
Known for his brevity, Silent Cal responded, “It was about sin.”
“What did he say about it,” Grace queried?
“He’s against it,” her husband replied.
Paul Clymer is against sin. Me too.
People of pure heart can take comfort in this Philadelphia Inquire story about taxing strip joints. “The concept has been dubbed a “pole tax,” and it could be called an “uncover charge.” Peter Mucha wrote (May 30). “Collect $5 for every strip-club patron in Pennsylvania.
“State Rep. Paul Clymer (R., Bucks) hopes to introduce a bill as early as next week to mandate such a levy,” the article continued.
“After Texas adopted a $5-per-patron tax, Clymer lined up 20 sponsors for similar legislation. Clymer carefully defined which businesses would be affected so the tax wouldn’t apply to movie theaters.
“In addition, Clymer plans to give the tax revenue to the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape to help counter the damage that he [Clymer] said strip clubs did to their communities,” the story added.
Let us draw the curtain of charity on that story and turn to another.
Boy Scouts
all over
The Cradle of Liberty Council is the parent organization for 70,000 scouts in the Philadelphia region (including Bucks County).
For 80 years, the city has leased the handsome building on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway for one dollar per year. Philadelphia believes that the property should command an annual rent of $200,000. As you’d expect, the scouts are fighting tooth and nail.
“We’re not punishing the scouts for not admitting homosexuals,” city Solicitor Shelley Smith said Tuesday. “But they can’t get free rent and violate our [non discrimination] policy.”
“The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the Boy Scouts, as a private group, have a First Amendment right to exclude gays,” the Associated Press reported (May 28). “But the victory proved bittersweet as municipalities, charities and donors across the country moved to withhold [financial] support.”
The Cradle of Liberty Council adopted a more explicit nondiscrimination policy in 2003 to appease the city, but was forced to rescind it when the national organization ordered the local council to conform to its national rules.
So, the Cradle of Liberty Council finds itself on the horns of a dilemma. If it agrees to pay $200,000 in yearly rent to the city, programs for kids across the region will be cut or eliminated. Or…should the local council thumb its nose at the national headquarters, the Cradle of Liberty could lose its charter.
Eric Eckstein is an assistant scoutmaster in Montgomery County. He wrote an interesting op-ed piece in the Inquirer on May 29. “The United Kingdom has the oldest Scouting group in the world and that group doesn’t discriminate against homosexuals,” he wrote. “How ironic.
“All that is being asked of scouting is to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent,” Eckstein concluded with the 12 scout laws, then adding, “regardless of the race, creed, sexuality or religious preference of its members and of society as a whole.”
Quite frankly, I don’t understand why the national boy scout organization doesn’t adapt the U. S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
Many churches like the Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians use the “Don’t Ask…” system. Gay and lesbian pastors are kosher as long as they stay hidden in the closet. Then again, that wouldn’t be telling the truth, would it?
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith