A proud Scout

EDITOR: Thanks for the Monday column explaining the smear campaign conservative extremists have launched against the Girl Scouts ("Self-defeating smear against Girl Scouts"). It's pitiful that a congressman thinks he's taking the moral high ground by attacking little girls. Maybe he doesn't realize that many of his female colleagues, in both parties, are former Girl Scouts. I suspect his real problem is that scouting prepares girls for lives of competence, self-reliance and leadership.

Girl Scouts of the USA celebrates their 100th anniversary this year (March 12, 1912, almost a decade before women won a 75-year fight for the right to vote). Founder Juliette Gordon Low was the descendant of American pioneers and the daughter of an Army brigadier general. For the record, the U.S. government named a Liberty Ship after her, issued a postage stamp in her honor and declared her childhood home a National Historic Landmark.

I'm proud to be a former Girl Scout. My daughter, a police sergeant, was a Scout through high school and serves as a troop leader. Right now, Girl Scouts are in the midst of their annual fundraising campaign. So the big question is: Have you got cookies?

VICKI VIDAK-MARTINEZ

Rohnert Park