You really can’t say it better than this.
There is still hope that Obama will get rid of Bill Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that sacrificed principle for politics. The policy has resulted in many patriotic and proud Americans from being discharged — even as the military lowered its standards to allow people with records to fill its ranks. However, after initial optimism, Obama officials downplayed any rush to change the policy.
The tombstone belongs to Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich (1943–1988) who received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine. 
Great looking website. Presume you did a great deal of your own coding. http://badcreditautomotive.blogspot.com
“Three things cannot long be hidden; the sun, the moon and the truth.” Buddha’s quote comes to mind and I understand why he would want those significant words to define his tombstone. Truth resonates throughout eternity and shines like sunbeams to the core of fallacies. While a nation’s warped perspectives attempted to shame, love has the final say. Amen and Rest in peace.
My life in the military was wonderful. I loved my job and I was good at it. You should see the medals and ribbons that I earned to prove it.
But I am a homosexual man.
I was so afraid of being kicked out and receiving an “other than honorable” discharge that I decided to take my honorable discharge at the end of my first enlistment. I fully intended to make the US Navy my career.
There were plenty of people who knew about me while I served. Not because I am flamboyant, but because they could see past that small part of my life and see me for the real person that I am/was. I went to work, worked hard, and I went home.
What are people so afraid of?
You mean Plessy Vs Ferguson has been over turned? Since when? I am gonna go to Topeka. I’ll see what they have to Offer there in 1954.
“unit cohesion” was also used as an excuse to keep African-Americans out of the military, and then to keep them segregated from the white soldiers.
I almost forgot my point. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was a gutless compromise to satisfy the ignorant, the fearful and the homophobic. Period.
The comments of USMC Father are absurd. If his son or daughter feels threatened by the presence of a gay soldier in their unit, somebody did a piss poor parenting job. The “unit cohesiveness” argument has never passed the smell test. It is from the same species of objections used to justify every outrage committed against those who look or think or act differently. Frankly, who would want to even work with someone that shallow, let alone count on him to have your back?
from “Sleep of the Just” by Elvis Costello
The soldier asked my name and did I come here very often
Well I thought that he was asking me to dance
In my holy coat and hat and him in his red bonnet
We’d have made a lovely couple but we never had the chance
[Chorus:]
And now you say that you’ve got to go
Well if you must you must
I suppose that you need the sleep of the just
Well it was a powerful day and there were black crows in the road
And I kept my strong opinions to my chest
I suppose I should have told them that I was on fire for you
When the bus burst into flames outside some place, ‘The Poet’s Rest’
….
Nelson Mandela said it best when he said: “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred. He is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.”
We have to consider that our lawmakers grew up in an era where homosexual acts were illegal. But it is inevitable that later generations will right the wrongs currently perpetrated against our fellow LGBT citizens.
carl:
“MESPO YOU STUPID JERK; HOW ABOUT INCLUDING INDIRECT COSTS WHICH MOST EXPERTS ADMIT ARE NEAR OR EXCEED DIRECT COSTS!”
***********
I love being screamed at–it’s sort of self-affirmimg. Anyway, I ‘ll include the indirect costs if carl includes the indirect benefits of the tort system like safer work places, lower medical expenses associated with safer products, increased sales due to buyer confidence in purchasing American products as opposed to say, Chinese stuff, and oh yea, more Americans alive today because their legal system insisted on accountability. I know life’s pretty cheap to you neo-cons (witness two wars and one heck of an effort after Katrina), but what price do you put on the lives of your loved ones, oh great social accountant? Subtract that from the cost too.
raff,
As usual, we are on the same wavelength.
AY,
As contrast, I offer this – I grew up in the South. While I didn’t condone racism because I had an unusual upbringing for the time and region, I did somewhat understand the “cross cultural” component of racism. The “fear of other”. I didn’t condone it, but I understood it and I understood racism could come from any one of any color. To me, it was simply a matter of ignorance. Fear is a reaction. One fears what one does not understand. One has a choice with fear. Kill it or let it mutate into greater fear, or worse, irrational hatred. Before I knew of homosexuals (overtly anyway), I saw that sex was more than just humping, that there is an emotional component when pair bonding occurs. Maybe it’s because I knew that one plus one can equal one before I knew that “queers were bad”, so it just didn’t register. A vaccine against the hateful meme? Perhaps. I saw that homosexuality wasn’t cultural, but pan-special. But the reaction of hatred and fear seemed blatantly cultural. I saw gays and lesbians from all walks of life and cultures. I knew from reading that some cultures even embraced the lifestyle in varied degrees – from the Greeks who embraced it to the degree they got naming rights, to the Egyptians who considered bisexuals to blessed by the Gods. Maybe I intuited the genetic nature of it, but it seemed obvious to me that homosexuals came from all races and creeds so it had to be a universal potential trait for humans.
So my proposition is simple. As a species, we should teach our children about the nature of love before, or perhaps concurrent to, teaching them the nature of sex (something we do a pitiful job of in this country). Because love is more important than sex of any flavor.
Buddha, I agree that we should not feed the trolls, but they continue to multiply. Maybe confusing them with big words will scare them enough to leave.
As another USMC Father, I do not agree with what the previous Marine father has stated. I can’t pretend to imagine what it is like to be in a Marine unit, but if any person is doing their job, what they do on their own time is noone’s business. Bad Marines can cause problems in the unit. Any bad Marine, not doing his or her job, should be removed. Sexual preferences should not be used to decided if any Marine is doing his or her job. I don’t know if my son would agree with my take, but I believe that freedom of association means just what it says. No matter what profession you choose to work in.
AY,
No, they can’t. Spreading their meme of fear and intolerance is their nature as surely as it is the scorpion’s nature to sting the frog.
In my personal experience, one does not get enlightenment without either experiencing fear or hatred either as a perpetrator or a victim, but honestly – even as a prepubescent kid who though all sex was “icky” or “disgusting” – I never understood homophobia. It simply doesn’t register with me. But I do feel your frustration with an irrational hatred.