There’s big news being made by the Boy Scouts of America, changing their name from Boy Scouts of America to Scouting of America, a change halting a treasured tradition of more than 100 years calling that group of elite young men the Boy Scouts of America. I never made it to the Boy Scouts, but I was a Cub Scout and am now so interested in the name change I’ve Googled Boy Scouts of America and found many now-famous Americans who, when young men, did make it. Famous in sports like Michael Jordan and Hank Aaron. In space, the astronauts Neil Armstrong and James Lovell. In movies, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Harrison Ford. Martin Luther King and Walter Cronkite were Boy Scouts, as were Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford and John Kennedy. The list of famous men who, as boys, were Boy Scouts is very long. No girls, because the Boy Scouts kept them out of Boy Scouts of America until just a few years ago when a few girls were allowed by the boys to participate in a few Boy Scout activities. How embarrassing. So embarrassing that on February 8th of next year, 2025, the Boy Scouts of America will officially, legally, become Scouting of America. Sometimes it takes time to change. For the Boy Scouts of America, it’s about time.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective: