Relax. Recreate. Remember. Recommit.
Memorial Day weekend has become the traditional summer kick-off. For most of us the long weekend is a time to gather together for barbeques, beach trips, and ballgames. These leisurely pursuits often ignore the fading sounds of Taps, the moment of silence, and the toasts to "Absent Friends" that reflect the true meaning of the day. Yet both solemnity and celebration are fitting tributes to the memories of those patriots who, for over two centuries, have paid the ultimate price in the defense of our way of life and values. We should celebrate their lives and the fact that the United States has been blessed with men and women who are willing to guard a post or stand the watch so that the rest of us can enjoy our lives in peace and tranquility. We should take a moment in the middle of our fun to remember them and say, "Thank you."
For those of us who have served, particularly those of us who served in wartime, Memorial Day will always be bittersweet. For us, when we see names, engraved on polished marble on monuments from the Mall to the town square in our little hamlets, we do not see cold, historical artifacts. We do not see tributes to martial glory. We do not see liberal or conservative, black or white, Christian or Jew, straight or gay. We see only the faces of our shipmates, hear the laughter of our classmates, listen to the shared fears, hopes and dreams of our buddies, and once again feel the terrible, painful loss of our brothers and sisters.
In "Saving Private Ryan," as the fictional Captain Miller lies dying, he tells Private Ryan to "Earn this," meaning to go on to live a life worthy of the sacrifice made on his behalf. We too are challenged to "Earn this." But unlike the movie, our actions must honor the real sacrifices made by those whom we remember on this holiday. Memorial Day provides for a renewal of the American spirit in all of us. We should make a renewed commitment to making the more perfect union envisioned by our Founders a reality. We must ensure that we take actions worthy of those who gave their lives for us, defending our great nation and its ideals. The belief in a land where everyone truly is equal, where we all enjoy the fruits of liberty, and each of us are treated with the dignity and respect due to all Americans, was worth dying for. For us who remain, it is also a dream worth fighting for.
One way to take action is to get involved in the fight to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Why? Because this law, mandating discrimination against lesbian, gay and bisexual patriots, harms our national security and promotes bigotry over liberty, freedom, equality and shared sacrifice, which are the true American values. This law corrodes the Core Values of our Armed Forces, denigrates the service of 1 million LGBT veterans, and devalues the service of the 65,000 who currently serve in silence, often in harm's way at the tip of the spear. And it mocks the sacrifice of the countless LGBT Americans who died in the defense of a country that they loved, fighting for rights often denied to them at home. Getting rid of such a law will advance liberty, equality and freedom; embrace all who would defend these ideals, treating each with the respect and dignity they deserve, and is worthy of our fallen heroes' sacrifice.
05-24-09 By Paula M. Neira, Lieutenant, United States Naval Reserve (1985-1991) |
3 Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com on May 24, 2009 at 08.51 pm
Oh, the CIC has already made crystal clear this Memorial Day weekend the Grand Canyon-size gap between what he says and what he does.
Friday, he was at Annapolis, the academy for the service that has always discharged the highest #s of gays. The branch that kicked out, among tens of thousands of others, Top Gun Tracy Thorne simply for being gay; that kicked out Annapolis graduate and officer Copy Berg. The academy that kicked out Joe Steffan just weeks before his graduation but not before humiliating him by making him literally rip his Commandant stripes from his uniform before they’d allow him into a discharge hearing.
At Annapolis, our “fierce advocate” said:
“SEALs and special operations forces… Marines… Naval aviators and flight officers…surface warfare officers and submariners, we need you.” [UNLESS YOU’RE GAY]
“...we will be with you every step of the way…This is America’s covenant with you - a solemn commitment to all those who serve.” [UNLESS YOU’RE GAY]
And, then, they gave him a [No Gays] Navy flight jacket with “Commander-in-Chief” in gold letters on it.
Yesterday, our “fierce advocate” was on the radio & YouTube, saying:
“We have a responsibility to serve all of [our military] as well as they serve all of us.” [UNLESS THEY’RE GAY]
“And yet, all too often in recent years and decades, we, as a nation, have failed to live up to that responsibility. We have failed to give them the support they need or pay them the respect they deserve. That is a betrayal of the sacred trust that America has with all who wear and all who have worn the proud uniform of our country.” [UNLESS THEY’RE GAY]
“That is what Memorial Day is all about. It is about doing all we can to repay the debt we owe to those men and women who have answered our nation’s call by fighting under its flag.” [UNLESS THEY’RE GAY]
And Monday he’ll place a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns and continue to ignore the service and sacrifice of gay servicemembers known like Harvey Milk, Frank Kameny, Troy Perry, Leonard Matlovich, Perry Watkins, Mike Rankin, Joan Darrah, Darren Manzella, Tracy Thorne, Zoe Dunning, Copy Berg. Alex Nicholson, Keith Kerr, Joe Steffan, David Hall, and soon-to-be-discharged-under- Obama Capt. Margaret Witt, Lts. Daniel Choi & Sandy Tsao, & Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, and the hundreds upon hundreds of thousands more in all our wars and peacetime unknown.
In the meantime, yet another Memorial Day passes with the invisibility of LGBT veterans enforced by this Commander-in-Chief while the majority of the country he “leads” says: Let them serve.
Lynn in Montana on May 24, 2009 at 03.49 pm
Thank you Lt. Neira.
I doubt that the Commander in Chief will have the courage to say it, but he ought to include in his Memorial Day remarks a remembrance of all who made the ultimate sacrifice, gay and straight. Otherwise it seems a profound hypocrisy to speak of those who we lost even as the law specifically characterizes some of them as “an unacceptable risk” and worthy of dismissal.
The logic of the law, past and present, would suggest that we are only supposed to honor the heterosexuals who died, the rest being “unfit.” But this Memorial Day, I am thinking especially of the ones who served in spite of the law’s codified ignorance and who were asked to take their silence to their graves. I hope the CIC does the same.
Tom Carpenter in Los Angeles on May 24, 2009 at 09.41 am
Well said, Paula. Bravo Zulu!