Democrats: We need you and your sons in the Boy Scouts

Look, I know the temptation is strong after Donald Trump's embarrassingly partisan speech to the Boy Scout national jamboree to condemn the organization and pull your sons out of the Boy Scouts. But now more than ever we need you in the Boy Scouts.

One of the greats links among the Boy Scouts is the Boy Scout Law. Let me review some of the points of that law. A Scout is friendly. A Scout is courteous. A Scout is kind. The Boy Scouts is a brotherhood of different types of young man from all across this country. In fact, when I was a scout I remember going to camp and having the opportunity to meet scouts from all over the world. The scouts teach tolerance and diversity. When we gather for a scouting event, we know we are in a room full of friends. It doesn't matter if they're a Democrat or Republican a Libertarian or a member the Green Party. We all believe in doing our duty to God in our country, and helping other people at all times.

And we need this diversity. Sadly, politics in our nations capital has become poisonous.  Members of both major parties are more interested in securing power, than they are in securing good governance. If we as a nation are to continue to be strong, then our leaders need to reach across the aisle, put aside petty differences and do what is best for the American people.

Scouting helps us to this. At a gathering like the national jamboree, young men have the opportunity to meet and interact with other young men who come from different parts of the country, and who have different ideas and backgrounds from them.  Scouts learn from different points of view. Scouts learn to share ideas. Scouts learn what it means to be friendly, courteous and kind while working together to build a greater future for our country.

So resist the temptation. We need you and your boys, so we can show that it is possible to have a dialogue from different points of view, and still consider ourselves brothers. That is truly what Scouting is about. And that is our hope for the future of this great nation of ours.

William J. Kovatch, Jr.