Come On!

So its been awhile since I've really had anything to write about in the realm of politics, mostly because nothing particularly interesting has happened in at least a month or two.  Yeah the citizens of Delaware nominated a woman who claims to be a former witch* for Republican candidate for Senator, so what?  At the moment the Democrats are too afraid they're going to lose power and the Republicans are too afraid that they won't win power for either side to really do anything particularly insane.  If you're hoping for any particular bit of major legislation right now, I advise you sit quietly and wait until February.  Nothing is going to happen until then, at least.

But even so, despite those cold hard facts, its still really sad when our Congress cannot come together on something that is so clearly needed.  As a matter of fact, its downright tragic.

So Congress did not pass a military spending bill that had a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell earmarked within.  That's really the entire sad story right there:  our representatives in Congress, out of fear of the upcoming elections, could not represent the wishes of the American people.  And worse, they could not use their elected powers to best govern this country and make a decision that was best for our national security during a time of war.  Once again, we have to face that sad fact that in this instance, the system did not work.  We'll simply have to wait another six months, or if the Republicans take Congress, until quarter after never.  I don't even think I need to explain why Don't Ask, Don't Tell needs to be repealed, you should know already.  Even if you're fighting against it, you have to know you're on the losing side.  I can't imagine what is motivating people to still stand up and move against it anymore.

Okay, say what you want about homosexuals, take whatever opinion you want.  You're entitled to it, even if you're being unbelievably ignorant, hateful, and disgusting.  In America, you're allowed to be all those things, and sadly a lot of people like to be it.  Being a bigot is a choice:  it takes lots of conscious effort to put up the mental walls required to separate yourself from the group you hate.  It must be an exhausting lifestyle, but I'm not going to stop you.

The thing is, even if you hate homosexuals, wouldn't you want them fighting on the front lines of democracy?  Look at it this way:  you want soldiers fighting in Middle East against Terror, and you hate homosexuals.  Every homosexual casualty in Afghanistan is one less "Real American" or whatever tortured phrase you want to use to define whatever group you think is better than homosexuals.  Basically you have your big two enemies, Gays and Terrorists out there fighting each other.  Seems like a win-win to me.  The Romans used to use this strategy all the time.  "Sick of the Visigoths?  Sick of the Huns?  Send them in to fight each other while you get to pick up the pieces."  According to this logic, I don't know why Tony Perkins, Conservative Archfiend of the Family Research Council isn't calling for more homosexuals in the military.  Heck, you can get them all in there.

The main argument against repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell (beyond the ones that Perkins peddles about "the advance of the Gay agenda" and similar nonsense) revolve around removing a possibly concern about breaking unit cohesion and making the soldiers on the field nervous.  You know, because when you're patrolling the mountains of Afghanistan knowing every second that you could step onto a hidden bomb, you're going to be nervous about whether or not the guy next to you wants a hug.  (I don't know what that experience is like, but I imagine you might have a few things more pressing to worry about.)  The fear seems to be based upon this concept that if you have a homosexual soldier in your unit, there's going to be some kind of sexual tension.  I know a few homosexuals personally, and I can't really say I know where this idea is coming from.  Personally I've had more sexual tension with my Grandma.

Its all part of this very sad homophobic myth that homosexuals will constantly try to "recruit" you.  I had hoped that this society had moved passed it, but tragically it seems to survive in some segments of the country.

These arguments are made in a military where both men and women are recruited.  If you want sexual tension, put a single female in a unit filled with fifteen men.  There have been numerous reports of women being raped by men who are supposed to be fighting along-side them, and many more of these cases never get reported.  How many reports are there of homosexual soldiers raping straight ones?  None that I could find (correct me if I'm wrong).

But you know all this already.  Everybody knows this already.  This debate has been going on twenty years too long already.  I shouldn't have to write this post, and it saddens me that I have.  It all breaks down to this:  are we going to let homosexuals be equal members of society, or not?  If you're on the "not" side, then I really have nothing more to say to you.  You're so far removed from what I think is the proper American view of things that I couldn't even start to help you.  And if you're on the side of equal rights, then I'm preaching to the choir.

Can we just remove Don't Ask, Don't Tell already and move on?  Come on!

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* I say "claims" because there are no witches in this country.  There are a few wicca movements, but hardly the kind of "Satanic alter, eats babies" kind of thing that Christine O'Donnell said that was a part of.  If you've ever heard stories of witches or Satan cults, they're fabrications.  The only people who ever worshiped Satan were a bunch of hippies in California trying to piss their parents off.  All the "secret underground Satanist cults" stuff was a just popular myth largely invented by Gerardo Rivera who would later go on to open Al Capone's vault and find... nothing.  O'Donnell's witchcraft comment was made in the late 90s, "The Craft" was a really popular movie.  Who cares?