Editorials

Scouts' challenge

Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

Even decades later, those words from the Scout's Law are still etched in the minds of former Boy Scouts. And we'll bet most of those former scouts would say that the values, in addition to the words, are deeply etched as well.

The problem is that those 12 ideals don't cover all the quandaries of adult life. That's too bad, because a serious challenge now faces scouting itself as we know it on the East End, and it's grown-ups who must choose a course of action.

A move is afoot to merge the Nassau and Suffolk Boy Scout councils into one with main headquarters in Nassau. There are dozens of issues in play and we won't pretend to have the answers, but we would offer this paraphrase of a remark by Greg Blass of Jamesport, who chairs scouting's East End district: Bigger isn't necessarily better when it comes to volunteer organizations. And more remote is definitely not better.

Already the East End's volunteer scout leaders devote large amounts of time to keep our scouting programs going strong. If district headquarters moves to Nassau, the trek will be too great and even the most devoted leaders will be overburdened. Scouting's top officials pledge a satellite office in Medford, but there's nothing to anchor that pledge once those current officials have retired.

Compared to what we could lose, many East End scout leaders feel we have fairly little to gain in a merger, and so they plan to vote no on May 12. We'd urge all scouting reps to think long and hard before voting in favor.

16 more dead

Is there anything to be learned from a stunning tragedy like the one that hit Littleton, Colorado, Tuesday morning? One thing: how much we have to learn.

Until we figure it out, there will always be outcast children who take revenge on their peers. And the toll of that revenge will continue to grow more and more gruesome. And we'll continue to have weapons in our homes available for them to use.

We'll continue to debate gun control. Right now, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of Mineola has a bill before Congress to stiffen penalties for adult gun owners whose weapons are found in the possession of minors. Ms. McCarthy's husband was one of those killed in another spree of random shooting, that one aboard an LIRR train in 1993.

Gun opponents may argue that the McCarthy bill itself should be stiffened to make adult gun owners punishable for any crime committed by their children with their guns. They may even argue that Charlton Heston should be forced to go to Littleton and sit for a while with the families of the 16 dead students.

Meanwhile, gun owners will keep arguing that it's our right as Americans to own guns. And children will keep dying.