I have been working with the American Legion of Great Neck for over 20 years honoring our Fallen Veterans. Every Memorial Day, I invite both the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to meet in All Saints Cemetery of Great Neck to place American flags at the final resting place of the 130 veterans buried there.
It has always been my honor and privilege to do this for the men and women who have sacrificed for us.
Until this year there has never been an issue or a problem.
The Girl Scouts of Nassau County Council has asked the Great Neck Girl Scouts not to participate in the annual placing due to ongoing litigation between the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts. at the National level.
This ceremony is not about the Boy Scouts or the Girl Scouts. The Memorial Day flag placing is about honoring our Fallen Veterans and it has been a tradition that began at the end of the Civil War.
Is this what has become of our society? The choice to honor our veterans is now being determined by lawyers?
I think it is a deplorable decision of the Girl Scout Council to mandate that Gril Scouts not participate in this. Is this how the Girl Scouts choose to honor America’s Fallen Veterans?
When I participate by placing American Flags in the cemetery, I do not do it as a Boy Scout, but as an American Citizen thanking our Veterans for their service.
Daniel Panetta
Great Neck