Political correctness and the Boy Scouts

To the Editor: I would like to address Emil Martinec's concerns (Letters, June) about ASME's Board on Pre-College Education (BPC) activities with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and possible gender discrimination or preferential consideration.

ASME has active partnerships with both Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) and BSA. Our agreement of affiliation with GSUSA predates the BSA agreement by almost three years. BPC helped GSUSA publish its engineering-related Interest Patch for senior Girl Scouts in 1997. The patch provided the impetus for our recent contributions to revise the outdated Engineering Merit Badge Guide for BSA.

BPC's mission is to help improve the math and science literacy of all students. We must have the help of outside organizations to accomplish our mission. Our partnerships focus strictly on that mission. BSA and GSUSA are unparalleled in reaching millions of youths worldwide. Many do not have access to modern technology.

Our affiliations with BSA, GSA, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and others offer our members opportunities to reach students, parents and teachers in ways that cannot be accomplished within ASME alone.

ASME International is a diverse society with affiliations in many countries and cultures. The aims of our affiliations include focusing on common goals and offering opportunities to our members to work with youth. Unanimity of agreement on approach is neither realistic nor necessary.

ASME has no position on BSA policies, or on the recent Supreme Court decision that upheld them. There are diverse opinions among ASME members on this issue. Personally, I do not agree with BSA policy. However, scouting does provide, in my opinion, a very valuable service to youth around the world. I think it would be a mistake to make youth suffer the loss of this opportunity to learn about engineering because of the current issues.

I encourage ASME members to support K-12 education through the schools and organizations with whom they can work most effectively. Starting this fall, the BPC's K-12 Grant Program, modeled on the Board on Minority and Women's successful Diversity Action Grant program, will expand our members' capacity to do so.

For more information on ASME Pre-College Education activities and resources for members and teachers, please visit the ASME Pre-College Web site at www.asme.org/k12.

Willard Nott, P.E.
Vice president, Pre-College Education

To the Editor: I just read the letter in ASME NEWS questioning the support of the Boy Scouts of America. If ASME jumps on the politically correct bandwagon and will only support organizations that meet the tough standards of the socialist left, then I do not want to be a part of it.

The comment about the Girl Scouts has merit and ASME should do everything possible to work with that organization.

After five years of engineering school and 10 years in industry, I would love to see more women in the field. In general, the women I have worked with have been superior as a group to the men.

But if we become PC and our test for support is going to be that an organization ... [is politically correct] ... then ASME is drifting away from its usefulness to me as a member.

John S. Simmons
Willis, Texas

To the Editor: I read with dismay the letter from Emil L. Martinec, past vice president, proposing that ASME cease to support the Boy Scouts of America.

His opinions and recommendations are in direct conflict with mine. ASME is not a socially oriented organization. Its primary goal, in case he has forgotten, is to promote the mechanical engineering profession.

One way that can be done is by supporting those youth activities most likely to produce future engineers. Is that discrimination? Of course it is, because all decisions are discriminatory. Is the ASME decision discriminatory because of sex or color? No. It's simple (return on investment) and should be accepted as such.

C. S. Williams Jr.
Knightdale, N.C.

To the Editor: I strongly disagree with the letter in the June ASME NEWS by Emil Martinec regarding ASME support of the Boy Scouts. While BSA has received a significant amount of bad press in today's society of tolerance, I fully support the BSA and believe they should be commended for maintaining their high standards and not giving in to political pressure.

BSA has an outstanding record of providing a time-tested set of activities that have produced fine citizens, strong family members and community leaders for more than 90 years. ASME should keep out of the political fray and support all youth organizations that encourage young people to pursue engineering.

Charles Hutchison
Papillion, Neb.

To the Editor: I was distressed at the negative tone expressed in a letter from Emil Martinec, past vice president of ASME, in the June issue of ASME NEWS.

My understanding of the purpose for ASME support of youth organizations is to promote the practice of engineering and to support youth.

Martinec's letter damns the Boy Scout Engineering Merit Badge program and suggests that ASME should instead be supporting the Girl Scouts. A joint educational effort between ASME and the Girl Scouts is underway, and this publication carried an article on the topic last year. The BSA merit badge program specifically targets illiteracy and unemployment.

Martinec's attack on ASME support of the BSA implies that the Scouts are the only youth organization supported by ASME. Society-supported youth activities are frequently highlighted in this publication.

I disagree with Martinec's characterization of BSA policy. BSA is a volunteer-led youth service organization that promotes reverence, morality and character. It should be pointed out that it is the leadership of BSA, not the membership, that is held to a higher moral standard than is the general public.

Americans as a people indicate that morality is a topic to be kept out of public schools. We as a people expect morality to be taught by families, religious groups or youth organizations. Is it shocking that there are members of the general public who are inappropriate role models to lead a youth group that promotes reverence, morality and character? Look at the difficulty our religious organizations or the U.S. military have with this issue.

I also find unusual Martinec's timing of his outrage. Now that he is a past vice president, he has developed a sense of outrage. Where was this moral outrage when he was vice president (or on the Council on Education or as Scoutmaster)?

Leave the soapbox and politics for social hour. ASME should support all youth organizations to promote the practice of engineering and to support youth.

Steve Bederian
Glens Falls, N.Y.

To the Editor: As the editors of ASME NEWS, you have dishonored the Society and its members by publishing Emil Martinec's petty social grievance letter.

While he is entitled to his opinion, the letter does nothing to promote useful discussion of a professional issue. Instead, the author has used his ASME credentials as a Life Member and Fellow, past vice president, former member of the Council on Education, and former member of the Board on Minorities and Women to add credibility to his accusations of gender and sexual orientation discrimination by ASME.

I sincerely doubt that ASME is denying any request for funding by the Girl Scouts or actively engaging in any form of gender and orientation discrimination. If there is no truth to his allegations against ASME, I cannot understand why you have given him a forum to besmirch the Society in front of the mechanical engineering world.

Regarding the peripheral issue of Martinec's low opinion of the Boy Scouts of America, he repeats the lie that many organizations are shunning the Scouts (originally part of a front page smear campaign launched during the BSA vs. Dale Supreme Court case that The New York Times had to retract). I actually believe the Engineering Merit Badge could possibly enhance the understanding and reputation of the engineering profession without risking an invasion of our ranks by BSA-brainwashed, homophobic women-haters.

If funding for the revision of the Engineering Merit Badge is sexual orientation discrimination, then printing a technical paper from the PRC must be an endorsment of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. I am sure that some people could look at the Advertiser's Index in Mechanical Engineering magazine and see an industrial cabal of war-mongering, human rights-abusing, ozone layer-popping rainforest despoilers.

Since ASME cannot appease every social grievance, please stick to issues of professional interest and protect the Society from slanderous accusations by our own honored Fellows. Martinec should have used his considerable credentials to lobby for a Girl Scout Engineering Merit Badge (assuming they want one) and you should let the New York Times sling the mud.

Richard Nemec
Columbus, Ohio

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