<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">I've always thought they should have simply had a "Don't Ask" policy. Just like they currently don't ask if you prefer Fords over Chevys or where you stand on the Coke vs. Pepsi issue.<br><br>Paul<br><br>--- On <b>Tue, 11/18/08, Dan Carscallen <i><areaman@moscow.com></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;">From: Dan Carscallen <areaman@moscow.com><br>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Ex-Generals, Admirals: Repeal Policy on Gays<br>To: "'Tom Hansen'" <thansen@moscow.com>, vision2020@moscow.com<br>Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 4:06 PM<br><br><pre>I think you and Bill fail to see my point, Tom.<br><br>I don't care if you're gay, straight, bi, questioning, transgender,<br>whatever.<br><br>Clinton started the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, and while<br>it
was<br>relatively more inclusive than the policy before, it's a tad silly.<br><br>Were I President (I'd prefer "Benevolent Dictator", or at the<br>very least,<br>"Illustrious Potentate"), I'd have a "We aren't asking<br>because it really<br>isn't that big of a deal" policy. Those who join are there to serve,<br>and I<br>thank them for that.<br><br>DC<br><br>-----Original Message-----<br>From: Tom Hansen [mailto:thansen@moscow.com] <br>Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 3:55 PM<br>To: areaman@moscow.com; vision2020@moscow.com<br>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Ex-Generals, Admirals: Repeal Policy on Gays<br><br>Dan Carscallen stated:<br><br>"Does it matter? Gay or straight, they made the supreme sacrifice. Those<br><br>names belong to Americans. And we honor them."<br><br>You fail to understand the spirit of my question, Dan.<br><br>My question is not meant to reflect on the nationality or patriotism of <br>the 58,195 names as a whole. They (each and every
one of those 58,195 <br>Americans) gave their final full measure. The purpose of my question is to <br>nullify the the ill-conceived "Don't ask. Don't tell." policy<br>of our <br>military.<br><br>To illustrate my point:<br><br>>From "A Soldier's Story" at<br><br>----------------------------------------------<br><br>A Soldier's Story<br>Making love while making war<br><br>by Scooper<br><br>(Dedicated to the memory of the late J. R.)<br><br>This is what happened to Russ in Vietnam. On R&R in Saigon, he and a <br>beautiful Vietnamese woman fell desperately, and secretly, in love. After <br>the madness was over, they would come to America and make a life for <br>themselves. But for now, they would meet furtively, rarely, briefly. <br>Nobody who knew either of them could know about both, because her brother <br>was Vietcong. Technically, they were each sleeping with the enemy.<br><br>And then, at their meeting place, she didn't show.<br><br>"That
one?" said one of his buddies casually, "They say she was<br>killed by <br>a mine two weeks ago."<br><br>The feeling of a kick in the stomach, the taste of acid on the tongue. And <br>he had to hide it, to stay a soldier.<br><br>"Here today, gone tomorrow," he shrugged, feeling suddenly like a<br>traitor -<br>- not to his country, but to her memory and to himself. But if he shared <br>his grief with his buddies, they would say it was to his country, and he <br>would be dishonorably discharged, at best. So he fought on, silenced about <br>what was becoming an incurable wound.<br><br>Funny. Here he was depending for his life at times on people he couldn't <br>trust. And ready to give his all for those who would turn on him if they <br>only knew.<br><br>When he got stateside, he didn't try to replace the love he'd lost. The<br><br>singles bar scene was all he wanted, and he went for it with abandon. <br>Alcohol and casual sex were his anesthetics for a
while. Eventually he <br>gave them up, left the service, and settled down to a wife and a tolerable <br>job. And though he looked good on the outside, he had two constant <br>companions that were slowly killing him. One was depression, and the other <br>was the virus he'd picked up during one of those dates after the war.<br><br>The story of Russ (not his real name) is true, mostly. Except that his <br>lover was not the enemy. His lover was an American pilot who got his name <br>put on the big, black wall in Washington for giving "that last full <br>measure of devotion" while flying a combat mission in Vietnam.<br><br>So, when I think of the people who oppose liberalizing the US military's <br>position on gay and lesbian soldiers, I think of Russ and how he suffered <br>under that policy. I think about the statistics on homosexuality, and how <br>they imply that, along with that of Russ' lover, the names of as many as a <br>thousand homosexuals may be
written on the Vietnam War Memorial.<br><br>Those homosexual soldiers fought, slept, ate, showered, and died as heroes <br>alongside heterosexual soldiers. They knew how to handle themselves in all <br>those situations. Their heterosexual buddies did not, forcing them to keep <br>their secret, most of them to the grave.<br><br>Now we Americans are concerned about the effect of gay and lesbian <br>soldiers on military morale and discipline. But a thousand names carved in <br>stone say that's not a gay soldier's problem. It's a straight<br>soldier's <br>problem. People are concerned because that is the nature of homophobia - <br>homophobia occurs when straights who have problems with gays try to make <br>gays solve those problems for them - even if it's just by keeping their <br>homosexuality a secret. A thousand names say the concern is based on <br>mythology believed by straights who don't think they know any gay people.<br><br>Except for the concern
about how the straight soldiers will behave. On the <br>other hand, gay bashing is another form of sexual harassment, an area that <br>the military needs to deal with anyway, as shown by the Tailhook scandal.<br><br>So, I think we should move forward on the legalization of gay and lesbian <br>soldiers. Doing so will take courage and self-discipline, and a sense of <br>security in our own sexuality. It will take, as a soldier might put <br>it, "balls."<br><br>----------------------------------------------<br><br>So, you see, Dan. Labeling them "Americans" is fine. The label<br>suggests <br>infinite equality. That equality must be enforced not only while in <br>uniform, but forever after discharge; from the wedding chapels of San <br>Diego, California to the hospitals of Bangor, Maine; from the court rooms <br>of Anchorage, Alaska to the classrooms of Miami, Florida.<br><br>Tom Hansen<br>Moscow,
Idaho<br><br><br><br><br><br>---------------------------------------------<br>This message was sent by First Step Internet.<br> http://www.fsr.com/<br><br><br><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> http://www.fsr.net <br> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>=======================================================<br></pre></blockquote></td></tr></table>