Now is not the Time to Delay Repeal
Bullets flew over the heads of many as we tried to envision a reason to continue through the trenches. Despite the fact that all of the soldiers around me were participating in training to prepare us for what may come in a real wartime situation, we all have implanted pictures in our minds of who we were doing this for, which in turn motivated us to push harder to make it to the end. While rain drizzled off our faces and mud covered our uniforms, day in and day out we woke up early and pushed ourselves to be the best that we could for not only our country but for the person(s) that we cared about back home. Graduation day came slowly and as they called us to attention we looked around trying to identify a face in the crowd. For six weeks we had endured things that we never thought that we could. There were many who did not make it. But we did. But as I looked around I knew that there would not be a familiar face. My motivation to continue grew less by the second. I knew that my significant other would not be able to be present because of this outrageous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law.
Gates said on Sunday, "Let's push that one down the road a bit." The bottom line is if we keep "pushing it down the road" we will have soldiers like myself who no longer want to be in the military. This will harm our military and cause us to look weak to our enemies. Losing valuable members of what my comrades in the military constantly call "our team - our family" undermines the readiness of our military. The reality of wartime illustrates why we should open our eyes and recognize that someone's sexual orientation is irrelevant to how well they serve.
Ask yourself this question: If you were dying and could only be treated by a gay or lesbian medic, would you deny yourself the help?
04-03-09 By Takia Mitchell, former Army Specialist |
2 Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.martina sternberg in Indiana on April 05, 2009 at 06.31 pm
I am a heterosexual that served 20 years in the military before retiring. My dad, brothers, brothers and sisters-n-law served, I have 5 nephews and a daughter who are currently serving. I think I can say I know A LOT about military culture. I have served with gay comrades for many years and just as heterosexuals, they have served with honor, integrity and professionalism. I would trust them with my life and give my life for them. In my earliest days in the military my room mate in the dorm was lesbian and it didn’t bother me - she was a great person. We would rather lower standards and allow rapists and others into the military instead of letting gay people serve. My daughter was recently sexually assaulted by someone in her battalion because we are allowing rapists to serve. Not only is my daughter going to Iraq in August to fight the enemy, the enemy for her also wears the same uniform as she does. Over 23 countries allow gay people to serve without incident. Canada recently allowed gay people to serve openly and in so doing, the number of sexual assault cases on females in the military declined by over 40%. Allowing gay people to serve openly would allow us to again increase the requirements for military people to join and decrease sexual harassment and assault on females who are serving.
Michael Bedwell on April 03, 2009 at 03.21 pm
Lord save us from Secretaries of Defense. President Clinton’s effort to eliminate the military ban in 1993 was immediately undercut by his Defense Secty Les Aspin whose confidential memo to the President saying he thought it would never succeed was mysteriously leaked to the press. When asked about it on “Face the Nation,” instead of spinning postively like the experienced politician he was, Aspin caved, thus “aiding and abetting” the enemies of equality, those Four Horsemen of the DADT Moral Apocalypse, Dole, Moskos, Nunn, and Powell. And he saw to it that the pro gay soldier Rand Study, that he’d commissioned himself, sank quietly behind the bigots’ bellowing fire and brimstone.
[And how many caught Powell’s sudden Alzheimer’s the other night with a shockingly gullible Rachel Maddow about how he and Aspin “were never asked” to change the existing policy? Shameful!]
Now we have Gates signaling his own hostility to repealing DADT by clearly dragging his feet. As his boss, Obama is primarily responsible but I bet Gates didn’t wait for written orders to begin work on Iraq, etc.