Obama and Don't Ask/Don't Tell
There's an article in the Washington Times about how Obama may push back trying to lift the ban on gays in the military until sometime in 2010. It seems silly to me, and rather stupid, but what bothered me more was this quite, from a guy who works for a conservative think tank:
OK, really? First, when did demanding to be treated equal make on a militant activist. Was MLK a "black activist"? Were women sufferagists "women activists"? And secondly, why is this guy talking about people wanting to serve their country in terms of attacing America? Pearl Harbor, resistance building, "the threat grows stronger," "in their gun sights." Gays aren't trying to hurt anything, they're just trying to be part of the same society everyone else is. What is really so goddamned threatening about that?
Why is it that people can't just let others live their lives? If gays want to be in the military or get married or adopt or whatever else it is that people want to outlaw for them now, why not let them?
Delaying the congressional vote a year would give the White House time for consultation, but it would also let ban proponents organize and possibly sway public opinion, as they did in 1993.
Homosexual activists are overconfident because they have not yet seen a counterforce emerge as occurred in 1993," said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Media Institute at the Media Research Center, an organization that seeks to balance perceived liberal bias in mainstream news coverage.
"But as the threat grows stronger, we will see groups forming and the resistance building," he said. "Americans go about their business and are not activists until they have a Pearl Harbor moment. That has yet to happen, but it will."
He added that most Americans "are unaware that gay activists have the military in their gun sights."
OK, really? First, when did demanding to be treated equal make on a militant activist. Was MLK a "black activist"? Were women sufferagists "women activists"? And secondly, why is this guy talking about people wanting to serve their country in terms of attacing America? Pearl Harbor, resistance building, "the threat grows stronger," "in their gun sights." Gays aren't trying to hurt anything, they're just trying to be part of the same society everyone else is. What is really so goddamned threatening about that?
Why is it that people can't just let others live their lives? If gays want to be in the military or get married or adopt or whatever else it is that people want to outlaw for them now, why not let them?
posted by Adam at 10:42 AM
2 Comments:
I think Obama wants to take the time to build up his credibility within the military and gauge what could or could not be accomplished within his administration.
It's certainly not fair, but politically, I understand why he could put it off.
I think you have a legitimate point concerning gays in the military. That said, the problem I and many other conservatives have with gays being married, is that it devalues the institution of marriage. Essentially if we recognize marriage as anything people want it to be, it ceases to mean anything.
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