It's all over the news that in order to payoff their penalty to having traumatized (to say the least) boys for many, many years, The Boy Scouts are tasked to sell-off property, camps specifically. In Connecticut as I am sure throughout the US, the property they are selling is beautiful well maintained forests and lakes. Worth millions of dollars, these properties can help relieve just a smidgeon of the damage by years of bad governance and oversight by Scout boards and abuse by Scout leaders.
What is also true is that these properties are likely major Developer opportunities that will reduce the already diminishing amount of land that is preserved for precisely what the Scouting organization has used them for. Lawyers have stated that their job is to get the largest amount of financial compensation they can get for their survivors. Conservationists say that bidding for this type of property can only result in a significant reduction in precious environmental resources. And then there are those who say the Scouting organization should be preserved - that "there are good people too" involved in Scouting. And perhaps so but there are others who, rightly in my opinion, ask "where have been those good people" while abuse was allowed to go on for decades?
Nope, no easy answer but I would argue that for sure, what has been the Scouting organization board to date, failed to live up to their fiduciary duty and the organization at minimum should pay the price by being put to rest, permanently. I agree while noting that even to this date, there has been no apology by current or former board members - a sign that they do not believe they own the situation and want an easy out. I also agree that if the Scouting principles are worth retrieving, start over. But haven't these principles given permission not to be responsible for bad acts?
For what I believe to be a good read on this story go here.