Co-ed Cub Scouts hurts both boys and girls

Girls joining Cub Scouts is so grand for little girls; not so much for little boys. Girls in Cub Scouts will cause exceptions and compromises for little boys. This ever-evolving thing of girls and women having a right to any and everything they desire without cost is unnerving.

What this shows little boys is that they must compromise whenever a girl wants something. This apparently cannot be a two-way street. The Cub Scouts was created to help boys understand how important is to be accountable and responsible young men.

There is a organization for little girls called Brownies, which is similar but separate. Apparently Brownies is not acceptable for little girls. I believe young girls are being pushed into something that is leaving them totally unprepared for becoming good mothers, or at least what mothers used to be or should be. They are being encouraged to pursue careers.

Initially this sounds grand. However, as any career advances, when all the hard work to reach a pinnacle occurs, it can be interrupted with pregnancy. Where this is supposed to be a blessed event, it now becomes something that is unfair to women.

Learning male and female differences and ultimate purposes in nature early is important. Learning that you can’t always have your way is good for girls and boys.

SC needs a minimum wage law

Only a handful of U.S. states do not have state minimum wage laws. South Carolina is one of them. Let’s change that.

All states must comply with the federal minimum wage law, which is currently a low $7.25 an hour. But states can have their own higher minimum wage.

So South Carolina can adopt a state minimum wage and start it out, say, $10 an hour. This will help hundreds of employees working in industries, such as retail, hospitality and service, be able to pay their bills better.

It’s election season. Ask politicians running for the Legislature and for governor’s seat to support a state minimum wage law. If they are not for it, they are not really for the hard-working people of South Carolina.

Teachers aren’t the only valuable state employees

Teachers are always complaining about their compensation. Through the years, the Legislature has focused on improving the situation for the teachers, while ignoring the other state employees. It is about time for all public service workers in South Carolina to be treated equally, without playing favorites.

It would be instructive for teachers to explain to other state employees, who are equally prepared educationally, why they can work 190 days per year and earn more than others do in 12 months. State employees provide a variety of worthwhile services to the public. It seems to me that teachers have an inflated sense of their own worth.

There is a big emphasis on the teacher shortage, and that deserves attention. However, there is no way South Carolina can pay enough to teachers to either keep them in the profession or attract an adequate supply of teachers.

In 1997, I was working as a chief psychologist for the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs and was fortunate to be hired as a staff school psychologist for the Corrections Department. Since school psychologists are paid on a teachers’ salary schedule, my salary immediately increased by $7,000 per year.

I almost threw away $13,000 on a ‘send-money’ con

I picked up the phone and a familiar voice said, “Hi, Grandpa. Bet you can’t guess which granddaughter this is!”

“Is that you, Lena?”

“You guessed right,” she said. “I’m sorry to have to ask you this, but I need your help, and you can’t tell anyone about this.”

“No problem,” I answered.

In an outpouring of words, she told me she was being held at the Santa Clara County Jail in California after being flagged down for speeding, and that the officer had found a package of heroin in the car.

“They need a bond of $13,000 in cash before they can release me. Can you send it?”

How did Lena — the straight-A student who had just been accepted for a graduate public health program at Johns Hopkins University, get into such a mess, I wondered.

An officer took the phone, gave me a callback number and explained that I needed to mail the cash via FedEx to an address in Baltimore. It had to arrive by 8 the next morning.

I drove to the bank, got the cash, headed for home and wrapped the money in several layers of newspaper as instructed. Got back in the car and drove to FedEx, where I told the clerk the package had to be delivered by 8 a.m.

I tried Lena’s number all afternoon. All I got was voice mail. As the sun was setting, I finally got through to her.

It turns out she was already settled in her new digs near Johns Hopkins; it was never her voice on the other end of the phone.

I gave FedEx the tracking number and learned that my package would be removed when the plane made a stop in Tennessee. Around 9 the next morning, it was back in my hands.

I am retired after 30 years of teaching at USC, and I have often wondered what fool would ever believe such a story.

Now I know.

The State publishes a cross section of the letters we receive from South Carolinians in order to provide a forum for our community and also to allow our community to get a good look at itself, for good or bad. The letters represent the views of the letter writers, not necessarily of The State.