Scouting isn't what it used to be.
Boy Scouts of America not only has lost 25 percent of its membership since 2000, but is losing big-buck lawsuits for failing to curb pedophiles in its organization.
BSA is fighting back by offering a merit badge appealing to today's younger generation: video-gaming.
That's right. Now couch-bound Scouts can get exercise--and a brownie point--by manipulating electronic gizmos.
Scouts used to emphasize physical life skills like fire-starting, shelter-building, wilderness-trekking and learning teamwork.
They even helped little old ladies across the street, for pete's sake.
Scouting used to be the last opportunity for fitness training, the answer to young bodies growing obese without regular physical education in America's schools.
Digital creep has doomed typewriters, sunk newspapers and magazines, defunded the postal service and sharply abbreviated communications.
Now it threatens America's muscle mass. (9 MAY 2010)
