Ernie Gonzalez Jr

@ErnieGonzalezJr

Lead a consulting firm in San Antonio, Texas. Focus areas: Business Development, Nonproft Organization, Goverenment Relations and Campaign Management.

San Antonio, TX

Joined September 2009

2.1K Following

382 Followers

471 Posts

ErnieGonzalezJr retweeted

AGuyinTexas

@a_guyin

11 months ago

I just sent the following actual physical letter to the President regarding the reports that the Pentagon, spurred on by Secretary Hegseth, is considering cutting military ties to Scouting America - the Boy Scouts of America. I have stood by this Administration and thought that Hegseth got a raw deal from the overhyped opposition he faced. Maybe he is, in fact, not temperamentally suited to be the Secretary of War if he does this to the Scouts. President Donald J. Trump The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Trump, While understanding that the source of this story is NPR – a "news" entity whose fairness and accuracy in reporting on your administration is dubious at best – if the story is true that the Pentagon is considering cutting ties with and support for Scouting America – formerly the Boy Scouts of America – this is a disastrously bad idea for many reasons and I urge you to step in and stop it. First, the notion that the military is unable to support the Scouts due to operational readiness issues is preposterous on its face. If the military could support the Scouts during Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., it can do so now. We are used to politicians lying, of course, but this is so blatantly false as to be laughable. Scouting America is one of the last unapologetically patriotic youth organizations in the country. Scouts does a better job of inculcating civic responsibility in youth than any other organization, including the public schools. Scouts must be massively overrepresented among the ranks of military recruits and, especially, among the officer corps. For the Pentagon to officially cut ties with Scouts is deeply, and stupidly, self-defeating. Your administration has enjoyed a resurgence in recruiting, but now Secretary Hegseth is apparently about to tell his best source of good recruits that the U.S. military no longer respects their organization. What a tremendously bad idea this is. Military family Scouts, in particular, will suffer. Many children of deployed military are members of local Scout troops based at their military installations, and when their parents get moved, they can move troops. The Scouts give those kids a sense of continuity of membership in a peer group and allow those serving parents an opportunity to make sure their children are engaged in wholesome, proper, and grounding activities. Taking that away does a deep disservice to your current servicemembers and their families. I imagine that your administration enjoys widespread support among serving members of the military, again especially among the officer corps – but getting rid of Scouts will surely damage that support, perhaps significantly. Scouting America represents about half a million current, and many millions of former, volunteer adult leaders. These everyday Americans serve their kids and communities out of a sense of responsibility and wanting to support the future of America. I have no statistics for this, but I have to assume that those Scouters skew to the right, politically. Why would your administration see any benefit in insulting those supporters and the organization to which they have entrusted their own children, and for which they have sacrificed their time and money? Scouting America represents tens of millions of voting adults who were themselves Scouts. Again, I suspect that as a group those former Scouts tend to skew to the right, and thus to be supporters of your administration. I am in both of those groups. I am an Eagle Scout, and I founded a girls' Scouting America troop, where I serve as an Assistant Scoutmaster, because I believe that the girls should have the same experiences and preparation for life that the boys have. My son is an Eagle Scout. My daughter is in her last stages of becoming an Eagle Scout. All three of my brothers are Eagle Scouts. There are over a dozen Eagles throughout my family from my Grandfather, who was recruited into the Scouts in 1913, down to nephews. My daughter will be the first female Eagle in the family. I am a strong supporter of your administration and have gladly voted for you every chance I got to do so. Secretary Hegseth is risking my support of you and your administration. Surely, he is risking the support of millions of Americans like me, if you allow Hegseth to go through with this. Please put an end to this immediately. Secretary Hegseth himself has had more than his fair share of detractors for various reasons, some of which seem entirely undeserved, and others blown out of proportion. If he goes through with this, he will have brought millions more Americans around to the idea that he does not deserve to occupy his current office and that he is not temperamentally fit to serve therein. I hope that Congress looks into this and takes appropriate steps to protect our Scouts and their families. Finally, I note that very large numbers of Members of Congress were themselves Scouts or Scout leaders. I do not believe there is a current figure, but in 2010 the number was estimated at 212 Representatives and Senators. That is approximately 40% of Congress, and I have to assume that figure skews Republican. At least 33 Eagle Scouts were in the House and Senate in 2017. Secretary Hegseth had trouble scraping together support in Congress before he did this; think how that support will evaporate now. If Congress does not act to put an end to this policy, then they risk the support of millions of Americans as well. I will be sending copies of this letter to my Senators, Cruz and Cornyn, and my Representative in Congress, and sharing it with other Scout leaders on social media. There is clearly still time to save the Pentagon from making this mistake, and from your administration suffering because of it. It may be too late for Secretary Hegseth, but then maybe it should be.

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Ernie Gonzalez Jr

@ErnieGonzalezJr

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