US Girl Scouts prepare for war, pestilence

The United States wants to enlist its 3.4 million Girl Scouts in the effort to combat hurricanes, pandemics, terror attacks and other disasters. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched a campaign Tuesday to entice the blue, brown and green-clad multitudes to be even more prepared, with the promise of a new patch if they pitch in.

“This new preparedness patch will increase citizen preparedness and enhance our country’s readiness for disasters,” said DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano in a statement. Girl Scouts of the USA chief executive Kathy Cloninger said the tie up with Citizen Corps “provides an opportunity for our girls to lead the way in ensuring that their families and their communities are prepared for emergencies.”

But this should give you some “comfort”:

It is not the first time the girl guides have been called into action in defense of the homeland. During World War II, Girl Scouts “operated bicycle courier services, invested more than 48,000 hours in Farm Aid projects, collected fat and scrap metal, and grew Victory Gardens,” according to Girl Scouts of the USA.

It’s nice to know that the United States now has its own version of Hitler’s League of German Girls program.

UPDATE: Kathy Grable writes:

I got my daughters out of scouts long ago. Their [the Girls Scouts’] goal is moneymaking above all, and selling cheaply made uniforms and paraphernalia to sucker parents. When I objected to sending my very young daughter door to door I was told that they did not recommend the girls do that, that I could go with her and sell or do what most mothers did and take the order forms and catalogs for overpriced fundraiser crud to work. When I offered to simply donate $ rather than put the bite on co-workers, family, and friends I was told curtly “Then your daughter will not get a badge.” So how the heck are the kids earning badges when their parents are selling the stuff? It’s a scam and promoted endlessly because it is a “group” activity. The mothers were backstabbing snakes, only doing it to promote their kids over other kids. Finally, when the scout leader’s daughter nastily informed my daughter on the school bus that her mother said we didn’t sell enough cookies, we politely dropped out and never looked back. We left that suburban utopia for farm life; my kids rode their own horses, put in hay, were homeschooled (the older one is now attending Grove City College), and have friends of all ages, NICE people—although I’m certain the suburban utopians would not approve of my rusty 10 year old car or ramshackle farmhouse with a woodpile and propane stove outside. 4-H has become statist enough, but at least most of the parents haven’t drunk the kool-aid and try to circumvent the exploitation of the kids.