Don't Ask, Don't Tell; Don't Look Back

“It is time to close this chapter in our history.
It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valor and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed.
It is time to allow gay and lesbian Americans to serve their country openly.” - President Barack Obama

This afternoon, Saturday, December 18, 2010 marked the end of the 1993 law, with a vote in the Senate that included votes in support of the end of DADT by eight Republicans as well as a majority of Democrats.

The honor roll of those Republicans are:
Senator Scott Brown, Massachusetts
Senator Richard Burr, North Carolina
Senator Susan Collins, Maine

Senator John Ensign, Nevada
Senator Mark Kirk, Illinois

Senator Lisa Murkowski. Alaska
Senator Olympia Snowe, Maine

Senator George Voinovich, Ohio

The House of Representatives passed the bill on Wednesday, December 15, 2010.  Thank you, members of Congress for righting this wrong.  Thank you for voting for our armed forces to be able to serve with dignity and integrity on our behalf.  This will mark a similar turning point in our history to the end of segregation in the armed forces.

General Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps, if you cannot in good conscience continue in your position, now would be a good time to pack your bags, and leave your position for a more open minded man or woman.  There is no going back.  So, either look forward, move forward, with honor, or sir, please, with respect for your years of service, leave now.

General Amos made the comment that he felt allowing people to admit they were gay would present a distraction.  Apparently not allowing them to admit they were gay avoids that distraction for General Amos; I doubt the general cares if living a lie distracts gay soldiers or otherwise disturbs them.  General Amos made the statement that the distraction of someone admitting what in fact their comrades often know anyway and don't care about, would distract soldiers, and might get the straight soldier killed.  Amos doesn't appear to care about those who aren't heterosexual, but serve their country in the armed forces.  Soldiers like Marine staff sgt. Eric Alva, the first soldier seriously wounded in Iraq, who lost a leg after being injured by an IED.

Amos must not have been thinking of Alva, or the men and women like Alva, when he said he

"I don't want to have any Marines that I'm visiting at Bethesda [National Naval Medical Center, in Maryland] with no legs be the result of any type of distraction."

General Amos's solution was to simply kick those distractions out of the military, at the rate of two soldiers a day who are separated from the service.  Good thing General Amos didn't happen to visit Sgt. Alva when he was a patient; the general might have been distracted by the ill timing and offensiveness of his own comments in the presence of Alva's sacrifice for his country; or maybe just embarrassed at his faux pas.  Good thing General Amos can no longer exercise his prejudice, although his freedom of speech, defended by soldiers like Alva, still permit him to express it.  We can only hope he might think better of it, and honor real warriors, instead of conforming to the false ideals and ignorance of the conservative 'culture warriors'.

Senator John McCain, your position on this issue has been a disgrace, and dishonor, sir.  It has saddened me to see someone I once admired betray his prior position on this issue, and it is tragic that you have so little regard for the many members of our armed forces, in all branches, both men and women, who are homosexual or bisexual, who have made tremendous sacrifices in order to serve and defend this country or who will do so in the future.

Senator McCain, shame on you, and shame on those who supported your backwards, ignoble, ignorant and intolerant position on this issue. Pretty much every modern nation allows people to serve in their armed forces, without respect to any other criteria than that they do so with competence and integrity. 

Thank you, Congress, especially you Democrats who didn't have to be bribed with political advantage to do the right thing for the sake of doing it.  Thank you Mr. President.  Thank you members of our armed forces, in all branches, for your sacrifice and your courage, like you Sgt. Alva.  Thank God we finally have reordered our priorities to reflect a more worthwhile set of values.