# Hot Blava

The national debate will always seep over into local politics and thus, events on the national stage will find their way into Hot Blava. We hope that Hot Blava will be an interesting mixture of national issues and issues that affect Utah, and particularly Utah County where we live. Mostly, it is great to write about issues you're thinking about as it solidifies your thinking... or exposes your own irrationality. You can decide which is which.

## Tuesday, July 17, 2007

### KSL's confusing story about Israeli and Muslim Scouts

The headline: Israeli Scouts Don't Attend Planned Meeting with Muslim Scouts
A well-written headline--all the pertinent information present, right? There was a meeting planned, the Muslim Scouts showed up, the Israeli Scouts didn't.
The actual story under the headline is somewhat less well-written. Actually, it's rather confusing:

> A very unique scouting event took place in Salt Lake this evening, but what was supposed to happen afterwards, didn't. Israeli Jewish scouts and Utah Muslim scouts did not meet.
> Utah scout leaders had wanted the young people from Israel to meet a Salt Lake Valley troop of Muslims, but only their leaders came.
> Utah Scouting stepped into international relations when members of the Friendship Caravan from Israel performed. The young men and women are Israeli scouts who tour the U.S. every summer.
> These performances were supposed to take on interfaith importance, but they didn't. Apparently, this show of patriotism was a bit too much for the Muslims.
> The Mulsim (sic) scout leaders, Palestinians, said it was nice to meet the Israeli scouts, but did not bring their young people.(emphasis added)

So, the style and construction of the headline seem to imply the Israelis didn't show. The second paragraph is just ambiguous. The last sentence makes it sound like it was the Muslim scouts that didn't show up. I'm still unclear on what happened, but apparently one scout group stood up another one.
Or something.
(I really don't care whether the Israelis or the Muslims were the no-shows--I have no comment about the religious/political subtext that probably underlies the event. All I know is the scout troops could have been Shakers and Wiccans, and it would still be a poorly written story.)