Don't Ask, Don't Tell... Demand the future!

Let’s get started by saying, “Thank you for reading!” Secondly, let’s get right to it, shall we?

This past Saturday, December 18th, 2010, brought a historic change in the United States.  The Senate passed a bill that will lift the antiquated & culturally archaic form of discrimination known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Over the last decade or so, the cultural attitudes towards the LGBT community have evolved in a generally positive direction.  We’ve seen the majority of Americans raising their hands in support.  They have said in many places, with one voice, that creating a second-class citizenry of the gay community is not something that meshes with the ideals and intentions of our great country.

But from my vantage point, we still have incredible strides to take to reach full equality.  There is something fundamentally wrong when a United States Senator stands on the floor of that (formerly) hallowed hall, and asserts that allowing gays to serve openly in the military insults the injured veterans & weakens us a military power.  I don’t know Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), but I would suggest that those who advise this modern-day Strom Thurmond, grab a calendar, and let him know where & WHEN we are as a country.  I’m not attempting to imply that the senior Senator from Arizona is facing the lesser side of senility.   I am, however, stating openly that this bigoted and embittered man go down the street and get himself a reality check.  I find it truly depressing that a man who devoted so much to his country, could be so completely out of touch with it.  Let’s not focus simply on Mr. Mean & Bitter.  We have a regular chorus line of Republican and “Conservative” politicians that spew hate speech like a speaker at a 1939 Reichstag rally.  Senators Jim “Demented” DeMint, Jon Kyl, Mitch McConnell, Rep. John Boehner, and list goes on.  In my opinion, there has never been a group of politicians so enraged, so crazed as these.  I should add a caveat to that.  Not since desegregation of the Armed Forces have you heard a group of politicians like these.  When President Truman ended racial segregation of the military, similarly inclined politicians railed on about the end of America’s dominance in the world.  We had just won the biggest military battle this planet had ever seen.  America’s might was unparalleled.  This, in no small part, was attributable to the service and sacrifice of the African-American service members who fought and died.  They were ordered to the far reaches and  protected the ideals of a country that saw them as inferior.  When it became incumbent upon our leaders to give those fighting men the same treatment as all the others, people lost their minds.  The same thing is happening now.

In modern times, however, we can battle this discrimination the previous generations never could.  We can speak out in ways that were never possible for them.  We must make it clear to the politicians who represent us in government, that it is neither acceptable or tolerable to treat any people with the disrespect and malice that they show for the minority communities in this country.  We all have a voice.  We all have the right to use it.  It’s about time we let the bigots & the antiquated among us know, we won’t stand for this….  But we will STAND UP!



I’d like to thank you for reading my first blog.  Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, thoughts, or whatever!  I look forward to reading all of them!