Michael Clara, a community activist and Scout leader, got himself in hot water with local Scout brass because his troop of Latino Scouts served as color guard, passed out fliers and posters and solicited American flags for last week's marches in Salt Lake City.
The Scouts' participation earned Clara a reprimand from Scout higher-ups, who said that uniformed Scouts have to be careful not to appear to endorse political candidates or positions.
It is understandable that Scouting would take this position. The Boy Scouts are a nonprofit institution that must be careful not to jeopardize its tax-exempt status by advocating for political parties or candidates.
It's also good business to stay away from hot-button political causes like immigration reform. When you rely on volunteers and donations to make your budget, it doesn't pay to offend anyone.
Clara has a point when he argues that if it is OK for the Scouts to present the colors at the state Republican Convention, it should be OK for them to do the same at the nonpartisan Latino rally.
Scout spokesman Kay Godfrey told The Tribune that if that's all the Scouts had done for the Latino demonstrations, that would have been fine. But participation in the demonstrations beyond color-guard duty went too far. We assume he meant that the Scouts appeared to cross the line into advocacy for a political cause. He's right about that.
Still, Scouting's Vision Statement says that a goal is to "train young people in citizenship, service and leadership," and we can't think of an activity that would be more relevant or vital to Latino Scouts than participation in last week's rallies. Those demonstrations represented one point of view in a political debate that is polarizing the nation around issues that go to the heart of what it means to be an American. The debate touches on citizenship, immigration, national security, the rule of law, race and economics.
Clara overstepped a Scouting policy, but he gave his young Scouts a real-life lesson in people-power democracy and politics that they will never forget.
