Newspaper Page Text
OPINION
THURSDAY, JUNE 7 - 13, 2018 • Page 7
Starbucks seeks to brew more than perfect cup of coffee
The closure of some 8,000
company owned Starbucks stores
on May 29 for four hours of racial
bias training has evoked much
praise and much criticism.
The coffee giant’s leaders
scheduled the training in response
to an ugly incident in April when
two Black men were arrested
for trespassing while waiting in
a Philadelphia Starbucks for a
colleague, not making a purchase
and asking to use the restroom. A
Starbucks employee called police.
The company’s chairman
Howard Schultz was quick to
apologize, called the incident
“reprehensible” and said it never
should have happened. The racial
bias training was a result of the
Gale Horton Gay
fastgale@hotmail.com
humiliating encounter and public
relations nightmare.
While some observers are
praising Starbucks for its swift
action addressing the matter,
others question whether their
attempts to address such a large
and complex issue will make a
difference.
I applaud the company for
not bobbing and weaving. At
a time when many companies
take a “We’ll review the situation
and report back at a later time”
approach to internal problems,
Starbucks’ immediate actions were
refreshing and came across to me
as sincere.
Bias exists in many ways—
racial, educational, economic,
appearance, abilities/disabilities,
age, etc. We often don’t realize
when we’re making positive
and negative judgments about
people but we all do. Attitudes
and behavior involving bias isn’t
likely to be changed overnight
but shining a spotlight on the
subject can be the start of making
individuals aware of their thought
process and the manner in which
they treat others due to bias.
A company such as Starbucks
sends a powerful message to its
employees, customers and other
companies about how seriously
it takes this matter and the
importance of conveying its vision.
It has sparked dialogue across this
country that obviously needs to be
continued. Starbucks leaders have
said this is “just the beginning”
in transforming its business and
educating its people.
I applaud Starbucks for the
way it has handled this crisis in
such a forthright manner and with
unflinching honesty. Others would
be wise to follow their lead.
“Throughout my life and career,
I have continually been impressed
with the importance of integrity -
whether it was growing up as a Boy
Scout, working in one of my first jobs
as a university janitor, or being a
leader in a Fortune 500 company,”
Rex Tiller son, former U.S. secretary
of state and longtime CEO of Exxon
Mobil as well as lifelong volunteer in
the Boy Scouts.
There are few things considered
more American than apple pie,
the Fourth of July, Boy Scouts and
Girl Scouts. Starting with YMCA
Indian Guides, then Cub Scouts
and later the Boy Scouts, scouting
gave me some of the most lasting
memories and life experiences of
my childhood. One of my few life
regrets was not completing my
scouting work and reaching full
Eagle Scout status. Both of my
sisters were Brownies, and later
Girl Scouts, and our mother Lynn
Crane was an active den mother in
both organizations.
Boy Scouts of America (BSA)
was founded in 1910, and since
that time more than 110 million
Americans have been a part of the
Boy Scouts. BSA has 2.4 million
active scouts and nearly 1 million
active adult volunteers.
An equally impressive history
and record of accomplishment
belongs to the Girl Scouts of
America (GSA), launched in
Savannah in 1912 after founder
Juliette Gordon Lowe met
Scouting for trouble?
‘One Man's
Opinion 9
Bill Crane
bill.csicrane@gmail.com
Scouting founder Robert Baden-
Powell in 1911. And every year
thousands of Girl Scouts and
Brownies still make a pilgrimage to
Lowe’s home in Savannah. The GSA
organization describes itself as “the
world’s preeminent organization
dedicated solely to girls.”
Herein lies the rub. In May
of this year, the Boy Scouts
organization began admitting girls
into the Cub Scouts. During 2019,
BSA will be renamed Scouts, BSA,
and the organization will become
co-ed.
Boys and girls belong together in
school, church and any number of
other academic and social settings.
But the two sexes are different-
even at a young age—and there is
plenty of research, which I won’t
restate here, about their different
paces of maturation, hormonal and
body changes, etc. There is also still
a place and benefit in single sex
organizations.
I well remember my own Cub
Scout and later scouting days. A
major highlight were our camping
trips. Adolescent boys often engage
in sophomoric and body humor,
and benefit from older role models
and Scout masters. Add girls to
the tent or the cabins and this pre-
pubescent mix would likely take on
an entirely different focus and bent.
Don’t get me wrong here, as a
13-year-old Boy Scout, I would have
loved to have had girls along with
us camping; though I can also admit
my energies would not have been
focused on learning to forage or start
a camp fire, or earn another merit
badge.
I was precocious enough in
those days and that would have
put my pre-teen sex drive into
overdrive. Girl chasing was nearly
the sole reason that I attended 4-H
summer camps from fifth grade
through the end of high school. The
dance at the end of a week away at
Rock Eagle in Eatonton, was the
highlight of each camp.
With today’s sexual activity
among middle school aged children
well documented, I’m afraid that
blending scouting movements, in
addition to potentially harming
the membership of the Girl Scouts,
could rob both organizations of their
high-minded focuses of becoming
solid citizens, role models in their
communities assisting and helping
others, and in effect always being
prepared.
A battle over allowing openly
gay Scout masters to remain
scouting volunteers cost the BSA
organization access to national and
state parks more than a decade
ago. The scouting movement wisely
reconsidered that ban and opened
its mind and its leadership to gay
adult volunteers during the past few
years. I think BSA made the correct
move here, but they now appear
more concerned with external
perceptions and public opinion than
on delivering the more than one-
century-old, valued experience of
scouting.
Having two daughters, one age
10 and in the recruitment window
for the Brownies and later Girl
Scouts, and the second and older
daughter teaching the second
grade, I will hope that each chooses
the Girl Scouts, and that the GSA
organization does not give in to
this politically correct pressure to
become all things to all people.
I can also assure you that further
bending and scouting blending will
almost certainly result in at least one
significant and lasting unintended
consequence-baby scouts.
Bill Crane also serves as a political
analyst and commentator for Channel
2 s Action News, WSB-AM News/Talk
750 and now 95.5 EM, as well as a
columnist for The Champion, DeKalb
Free Press and Georgia Trend. Crane
is a DeKalb native and business owner,
living in Scottdale. You can reach
him or comment on a column at bill.
csicrane@gmail.com.