No, The BSA Did Not Apologize

Ben Pulver
Jul 28, 2017 · 5 min read

You’re getting closer, Boy Scouts of America, but you still aren’t quite there. We are watching a classic example of PR escapism. The executive leadership has been making tentative steps toward saying all the right things that will assuage critics but are just shy of actually owning up to any problem.

Let’s walk through it. Monday night, President Trump spoke at the Boy Scout National Jamboree, as is customary for sitting US Presidents. Presidents have been speaking at Jamborees for the past 80 years, whenever they’ve been held. But President Trump prides himself in being “unconventional”. So President Trump gave what has become a pretty standard Trump speech, full of vitriol, obscenities, and basically the kinds of things one wouldn’t want kids to hear. Remember the Clinton campaign commercial that just showed children watching glowing screens while candidate Trump shouted racist epithets, cursed, mocked a disabled reporter, and hurled insults at women? Yeah, that’s the Trump who showed up to talk to thousands of youth from around the country.

Typically a President gives a very brief and generic speech about patriotism, citizenship, bright futures, and so on. Trump spoke for over half an hour. In between curses, he got caught in tangents about tales of lechery. He encouraged the youthful crowd to boo and jeer our former President and Secretary of State, as well as journalists. He started in on some of the Boy Scout Laws, stopping at “Loyal” to complain that he wasn’t feeling enough personal political loyalty. Basically, none of the things anyone in his office should be doing in any setting, and particularly not at Scout camp.

My mom, who often served as an adult leader when my brother and I were in Scouts, pointed out that if we were at the campfire bowl and were putting on a skit, and we said anything like what the President said, the leaders would step in and cut us short. The President! The President has a lower bar to clear than potty-mouthed teenage boys!

Everyone, like literally everyone who heard the statements, was rightfully disgusted and demanded a response from the Boy Scouts of America. So the BSA sent out their boiler plate statement proclaiming that they aren’t a partisan organization, they don’t get into politics, yadda yadda. So, basically, they just dismissed that anything happened.

That’s the first step that every public person takes — deny. If you can’t actually deny that something happened, you deny any responsibility, knowledge, or intent. Done best, that PR move doesn’t address the concern or criticism at all. It’s just a brief, blanket statement that says we acknowledge that some people are upset but we hold the strong belief that we don’t want people to be upset.

A smaller blip in the public radar can get by with denial. Just dodge and wait a day and the news cycle will move on. This was big, so the BSA moved on to the next PR move, a classic non-apology apology. It’s a little more nuanced. You have to make it sound like a true apology while still avoiding any blame. The offending party uses words like “sincere”, “sorry”, and “regret”, so that we get the general impression that we’re receiving an actual apology. The Boy Scouts used the most traditional non-apology, and it’s the one that I actually find the most offensive. They put the burden on the very people they are pretending to apologize to: “I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent.”

That was the apology offered by the Chief Scout Executive. And if you try to google anything having to do with Trump’s speech, the trending results will tell you something to the effect of “Boy Scouts apologize…” But did they? Really? What exactly did the official apology apologize for? “I’m sorry you are offended” is not an apology. It puts the blame on everyone else for the act of being offended. “I’m sorry you felt pain when your face met a fist.”

The executive goes on to gripe about how nobody paid any attention to all the positive things they offered the youth for the week and a half they were there. He went on about tense political times, differences of opinion, ziplining, the history of Presidents speaking at jamborees, patches, and the organization’s avoidance of politics. Look over here. Look over here. I’m distracting you from the issue you’re concerned about. When he addressed the actual concern, it was in the passive tense: “politics were inserted”. Yeah, and the vase “was broken”. The Boy Scouts didn’t even say they disagreed with Donald Trump’s dark, authoritarian, salacious comments, or that the values he espoused or his actions, abusing crowd mentality to encourage booing his political foes. The wording doesn’t even acknowledge who was speaking. They went as far as to say that things were said that they regret some person saying. And they vaguely expressed that we shouldn’t interpret anything as an endorsement.

It’s the worst form of apology because I want to accept it. It sounds nice. They even use the word “sincere”. But really, their statement tells me that it’s my fault for being offended. It was never their intention for me to be offended and they want very much for me to no longer be offended. They also want very much for me to forget why I am offended. Can’t I just accept that they’re sorry for absolutely nothing and move on? No.

No, because I wouldn’t accept that dodge from my kids, and I certainly won’t accept it from adult leaders responsible for setting the example for the youth they serve. When my kids commit an offense the expectation is a sincere apology, explaining what they did wrong, and what they will do next time. “I’m sorry I hit you. Next time, I’ll use my words.” I tell the kids to make things right, and they know they should get an ice pack, or give a hug or fix a broken toy. The BSA gave me, “I’m sorry that you feel hurt. It is never our intention that people get hurt. But remember that time we went canoeing? Lets’ focus on that.”

No, the sitting President of the United States treated the youth under your watch as his personal political propaganda camp, complete with khaki uniforms. Throw in an arm band and it’s Trump Youth, zieg heil. And all you can say in defense is that you don’t like to get into politics. You let it happen. You let him go on. You didn’t stop him when he tried to indoctrinate the minors in your charge. You haven’t called out the actions. You haven’t articulated how the values Trump expressed are contrary to the values the BSA proclaims to promote. You just want everyone to get along. Nobody should take stances, and most importantly, nobody should place any blame on your leadership.

You haven’t even begun to make things right. And you could have avoided all of this by the leaders at the event exercising some of the Boy Scout Laws. Friendly, courteous, kind, cheerful, brave, clean, and reverent come to mind. Where was the grownup to cut the President’s mic when his skit went off the rails? For over half an hour, he carried on, abusing his bully pulpit, without interruption. And all that we’re offered is a fake apology, and a great desire for us not to pay attention.

But no, the BSA has not apologized. Not yet.

Ben Pulver

Written by

Stay-At-Home Dad, Personal Chef/Personal Trainer, Politician’s Spouse

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