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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Courtesy
of Mother Jones at:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/open-letter-usma-cadet-katherine-miller-west-point-gay-lesbian-dadt">http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/open-letter-usma-cadet-katherine-miller-west-point-gay-lesbian-dadt</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>-------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>MEMORANDUM<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>TO:
Cadet 2nd Class K. Miller, USA<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>FROM:
Midshipman 2nd Class A. Weinstein, USN (Ret.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Subj:
SEPARATION<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I’m
an editor for Mother Jones magazine in San Francisco, specializing in military
and defense affairs. But once upon a time I was Midshipman Adam Weinstein, USNA
class of 2000…until, like you, I resigned from an Academy—Annapolis—at
the beginning of my junior year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>My
reasons for leaving were not due to DADT—rather, I was just a liberal
with a big mouth and a lot of moral misgivings about the Academy’s
internal workings, and I returned to the reserves after 9/11— but in your
letter to the chain of command I sensed a similar dilemma, a forced choice
between upholding the honor concept, which I loved, and being the person I was
born to be.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>A
flood of emotions came back to me in reading of your decision. I remember
especially the last few weeks after I’d submitted my resignation, waiting
to be separated, while I still lived in Bancroft Hall, and was among my
shipmates in the brigade, but sensed acutely that I wasn’t any longer of
the brigade. It was sad, saying goodbye to a place I really loved, people I
really cared for, and a job I really saw myself doing for many years. But there
was a sense that it wasn’t my place, and I grew anxious about my next
steps in life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I
suspect you’re going to go through a similar time right now. You’ve
already been accepted to Yale, and given your academic interests in LGBT
equality and military affairs, you’re likely beginning a fruitful,
lifelong, love-hate association with the defense establishment. I’ve gone
that route, and felt especially grateful for it. It’s given me the
opportunity to be more critical of the military than most military people can
be; it’s also enabled me to articulate the military ethos to fellow
journalists and progressives in a way that doesn’t come naturally to
them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>If
you choose that route, though, you may feel the occasional twinge of regret
over your decision. For a lot of reasons, but primarily this one: People will
say you didn’t go all the way. You weren’t a real, proven member of
your class, and aren’t qualified to speak as an authority. You’ll
feel this pressure all the more, because it will come from elements that
believe deeply that homosexuality is a sin, one that can’t be tolerated
in the ranks. Their way of dealing with you will be to dismiss your experience
and membership in the profession of arms.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I
will tell you what my closest, most valued USNA classmates told me: You must
never for a second give yourself over to the sour-grapes macho attitude of some
cadets and alums that you “washed out.” You made an affirmative
decision, one that demonstrates a degree of courage and strength that many in
the Corps and the professional officers’ ranks will never know.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Beyond
that, good luck. I hope to chat sometime. Or to at least meet you at an
Army/Navy tailgater.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>V/R,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Adam
Weinstein<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>MIDN
2/C USN (Ret.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>P.S.
Beat Army!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>-------------------<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>West
Point Cadet Sergeant Katherine Miller speaks out<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60nzcYrw5Ds">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60nzcYrw5Ds</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>-------------------------------------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Pro
patria,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Tom
Hansen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Moscow,
Idaho<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"Patriotism
is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady
dedication of a lifetime."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>--
Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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