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New York, 9:10 AM
Wed Nov 11
68 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/12/09
Meghan McCain's assertion that "every soldier in our armed forces is serving his or her country in the most admirable way an American can..." ignores those who humiliate and physically abuse fellow soldiers because of their sexual orientation. DADT is a free pass for bullies and bigots and needs to be ended immediately.
10/12/09
Of course there are homophobes in the military, but honestly- those people are far more of a threat to unit cohesion than someone being gay. The Air Force is constantly making us sit through "diversity training" and has made it pretty clear that "don't ask, don't tell" is beyond obsolete.
People like to say that gay people would disrupt the unit by constantly hitting on coworkers, but it's the straight people who are always doing that. People like to say that there might be more rapes if we let gays be open, but rape isn't about sexual desire.
All in all, nothing disrupts unit cohesion like having to be afraid of being yourself. "Don't ask, don't tell" does more harm than good. Why should we turn away good people who want to fight?
Now... if only we could get rid of the military's legal and sexist policy of not allowing women to serve to their full potentials... but one step at a time I suppose.
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10/12/09
I think the pro-"DADT" crowd are worried they will have to address fundamental problems in personnel policy *within* first, before they can focus on *without*. Keep your own house in order and all that. But that is a very good thing and can only strengthen an institution- especially with the myriad of non-combat missions the military has taken on and the varied jobs that ex-vets hold. They will take the values they learned with them, along with the government sponsored job training, and I'd like to see part of that be a healthy respect for diversity.
10/12/09
Or when our recruiting for said war against terrorism is way down and we're turning to people with criminal records to make up the shortfall, doesn't it also make us a wee bit less secure to fire people who have served honorably and whose only offense is that of sexual orientation?
I so do not get the "gays make us less secure!" argument.
10/12/09
Oh, Meghan, if only that were true. I got in a FB argument with a "friend" of a friend who told me that, when in the foxhole, he didn't want to be thinking "about how some faggot next to him wanted to fuck him."
Delightfully, he also told me that the reason he didn't want women on the front lines was because "i'd feel like I had to save them if they went down, cause they can have babies and stuff."
He was a charmer!
My uncle (career Naval Intelligence) and I often argue about this. He feels like the military should not be the litmus for social change - that it should instead reflect the changes made by the gov't/society. But doesn't that just leave us all in an endless loop?
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of course, that's a pretty heteronormative outlook on life, so . . .
10/12/09
The short-sightedness of some people makes me want to beat my brain against a wall.
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10/12/09
Henceforth the only acceptable topics of discussion is how much America rocks and how most puppies are cute.
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Also, the "no atheists in foxholes" lines is very old, and isn't really about religious belief so much as unity, emotion and sense of purpose. I completely understand when taken literally it seems inapt here, but I've heard that idiom my whole life and I take it to mean just that in extreme situations, we're all human.
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Still, anti-atheist comments shouldn't get a pass. They're still considered un-American by many and face discrimination at school, work and, yes, in the military.
[www.cnn.com]
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He said, "Men who sign up under false pretenses and want to live a lie shouldn't be allowed to serve alongside honorable, courageous men." I tried hard to remember that this man at age 18 had stormed up a beach in Normandy and was awarded the Bronze Star for his bravery on that day. We have to stop making excuses-- there is never a good reason to deny or delay equality.
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As for "there are no atheists in foxholes," I've always felt that phrase said a lot more about the person saying it and how they deal with fear than the person they're saying it about.
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But then again, I remember we are dealing with religiously-motivated neo-conservatives, a population not exactly renowned for its grasp of logic.
10/07/09
I know Hillary's intentions are good, but after centuries of world powers ignoring the African continent and only taking from it, it's obvious that many of the countries have blocked the U.S government out and could care LESS what the hell they have to say.
It's a shame too. Something has to change, we're already flying down to hell in a handbasket.
10/07/09