Remember The Fallen on Memorial Day

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This long week-end we celebrate in the United States at the end  of May isn't about the beach or the picnics and parties or even the parades.  It isn't even about soldiers who are off fighting today.  It is about the soldiers of our nation who have fallen in battle.  It came out of a bitter civil war-- a war that tore us apart.  Decoration Day( as it was originally called) was a way of healing the wound and cementing our unity.

It still is except that today we are not Union or Confederate, we are Liberal or Conservative, Republican or Democrat, or even Socialist or Libertarian and only a few of us are actually out there putting our lives on the line.  Memorial Day is still a day when we can put our differences aside and remember that however we differ in our political opinions and visions for our nation, we are all still Americans and the soldiers who  have died in every war deserve our respect and we have an obligation to remember them.

Happy Memorial Day everybody

Don't Ask Don't Tell? Don't Care, Do You?

Don't Ask, Don't Tell is about to move out of the Senate's Armed Services Committee and onto the floor for a vote as early as today. Yes, folks, Congress may finally repeal the 1993 law that represented Clinton's compromise between the gay community and the military establishment.

  It was a stupid law that offended many and pleased few  from the very beginning but it replaced a prior policy that made it  totally illegal for soldiers to be gay in the first place which made it a step in the right direction at the time. Now, just in time for Memorial Day, when we honor all our fallen soldiers, would be a good time to get rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Don't you agree?

There has been a sea change both in society and in the military since the Clinton era, and while there is still much resistance to repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell in some quarters,  ordinary soldiers don't much care whether their buddies are gay or straight.  They are more interested in a soldier's ability to watch a buddy's back in battle than who gets turned on by whom. In a world which recognizes civil unions, gay marriage, and even gay adoption, DADT seems like a real anachronism.To anyone under 40, who grew up with gays out of the closet, it seems dumb.

Polls indicate that 75% of the American public wants the law repealed, I find it interesting that statistics also indicate that as many as one out of every three women soldiers gets raped in the military-- a situation about which a military establishment that is outraged at the thought of homosexuality remains remarkably silent.  According to Time, a female soldier in Iraq is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by the enemy in the field.

Isn't it fascinating that the military brass that sweeps rape under the rug, still wants to make a big thing out of homosexuality? Could it be that all those macho men  are afraid they might get attacked if they drop their soap in the shower?  Or could it be they are afraid they might do the attacking. 

Think about that for a minute, and ask Congress to repeal " Don't Ask Don't Tell."