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Pulitzer Prize winner Clarence Page began his career in journalism as editor for the Middletown Journal and Cincinnati Inquirer, and received his ...
Read more about By Clarence Page, Tribune Media Services.
Pulitzer Prize winner Clarence Page began his career in journalism as editor for the Middletown Journal and Cincinnati Inquirer, and received his ...
Read more about By Clarence Page, Tribune Media Services.
Obama Delays His Promise to Gays
By Clarence Page, Tribune Media Services
As if he didn't have enough headaches. President Barack Obama has to
decide not only whether to deploy more troops to the war in
Afghanistan but also whether gays and lesbians will be allowed to
serve in it.
Although confidential surveys show thousands are serving, officially homosexuals are still banned from military service unless they are willing to comply with a hastily constructed "don't ask, don't tell" policy that Congress passed in 1993. In short: Your superiors won't ask whether you're a gay, lesbian or bisexual as long as you stay in the closet.
How has it worked out? Worse for gays and lesbians in some ways than what they had before. As a candidate, Obama promised to be a fierce advocate for gay rights in the fight to overturn "don't ask, don't tell." As president, he is still an advocate, but fierce? Not so much. In fact, not at all.
Some of his supporters in the gay rights community are getting mightily impatient. Maverick conservative and openly gay blogger Andrew Sullivan eloquently endorsed Obama's candidacy, but you could not tell from his review of Obama's Saturday speech to the Human Rights Campaign, the world's largest gay political group. "Much worse than I expected," he wrote on The Atlantic magazine's Web site. "(The president) failed every test" -- by offering no specifics on key issues -- "this speech was highfalutin bull (bleep)." (Censorship mine.)
I appreciate Sullivan's point. I used to think that allowing gays in the military would weaken national security. I have since discovered how much our national security would be weakened without them.
I was led to this view not so much by what military people have said but by what military commanders have done. The discharge numbers indicate that tolerance for gays and lesbians in the ranks actually rises sharply when the military is called upon to perform its primary mission, which is to fight wars.
Discharges under "don't ask, don't tell" doubled from 617 in 1994 to 1,273 in 2001, the Defense Department reports. But despite assertions by the Pentagon that nothing has changed, discharges under the "don't ask, don't tell" law took a nosedive after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks led to new wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. By 2007 such discharges dropped sharply in half to 627.
It even has become a challenge for some gay personnel to get themselves discharged after revealing their homosexuality on purpose. Some who came out of the closet on purpose, like the famous case of Army Sgt. Darren Manzella, were told to get back in. Manzella, whose story was broadcast on "60 Minutes," served as an openly gay soldier in Headquarters Company, 1st Cavalry Division, for more than two years before he was honorably discharged in 2008.
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an advocacy group formed in response to don't ask, don't tell, estimated more than 500 gay troops are serving openly like Manzella. For their commanders, "don't ask, don't tell" apparently has become "look the other way and keep marching."
Attitudes about equal rights for gays appear to have evolved within the military as they have in the civilian world. A 2006 Zogby International poll found 73 percent of the military personnel were comfortable with the idea of serving with gays and lesbians. About one in four U. S. troops who served in Afghanistan or Iraq told Zogby pollsters they knew a member of their unit who was gay.
Today's military and the reporters who cover them report a generation gap in the ranks on this issue. The older personnel are opposed to gays and lesbians serving openly. The younger ones tend not to think of the issue is a big deal either way. They have bigger issues to worry about. Or, as we used to say about racial integration when I was a Vietnam era Army draftee, there are no bigots in foxholes.
A group of 28 retired generals and admirals, including retired Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued a letter late 2007 calling on Congress to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" act. Yet the firings continue.
Busy as he is on other issues, Obama owes at least a timetable for action on the big issues of concern to gay and lesbian communities that enthusiastically supported his election. The equal rights fight calls not only for outreach to opposing views but also leadership, commitment and action that spends some political capital.
That's a tough call for any president, but as his predecessor might say, Obama is "the decider" now.
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E-mail Clarence Page at cpage(at)tribune.com, or write to him c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207.
(c) 2008 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
This news arrived on: 10/14/2009
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Posted Comments:
10-16-2009 17:28
JCE wrote:
There is another consideration, rarely mentioned, and taken the wrong way when mentioned. Most of the slave owners, and population who accepted slavery as normal, legal, and their right, were not only Christians, they often used the Bible to defend their position, as well as the constitution. These were good, well meaning people, but they were wrong. The KKK were all Christians, usually prominent townspeople, the mayor, chief of police, policemen, especially insurance salespeople, and often, the local preacher. All of them went to church. Just because they were Christian doesn't make it right. Most terrorists are religious, and most are very passionate about their cause. That is the way it is, but it still doesn't make it right. And pointing that fact out isn't an attack on the other Christians who either aren't, or weren't, a part of it. So we come full circle back to the churches leading the attack against the jobless and the workers in this country. Like the church leaders who condoned, supported, and often owned slaves, they don't represent all Christians. It is really terrible when one speaks the truth, in a fair and partial manner, and is attacked continually by people who would prefer their fantasy to be the truth, and don't want to accept reality. So they attack. I guess having a choice between being right and attacked, or wrong, but not attacked, I will have to go with being right. People say they don't even do the research because as soon as they hear it, they know automatically that it is just left wing propaganda. Sounds like god like powers to me. I have to do the research to be sure I am right.
10-16-2009 15:54
JCE wrote:
Catharyne You are right in all you say. But here in America, most slave owners were white, and most slaves black. I don't think that most slaves spent more time thinking about what their fellow blacks had done to them, which was normal to them, but to escape what the whites were doing to them. You should also know that truth and faith, while all too often confused, are not at all the same. All to often the church members are not fully aware of what the leaders are doing on another level. And even when they are, their faith keeps them from just up and leaving the church. But as long as the preacher is saying one thing, and doing another, the member tends to trust the preacher. I seriously doubt most church members know what the leaders are doing. Look at the disbelief on here, the denial, the refusal to accept, the simple truth about the leaders. It is a mistake to just lump all Christians in a category, and that is what you are doing. So, as I select a group of Christians doing a terrible thing, you are thinking that I am accusing all Christians, and defending all Christians. All Christians don't need defending, and there is no defending what these leaders are doing. Yet here is another prime example of how the church leaders are keeping people at odds, when there is no need. You often say I generalize, and it is true, but I think that in this case, you are too. And you come out defending the actions of a lot of bad Christians, and end up thinking I am attacking all Christians, which I am not. One reason I don't align myself with a lot of groups is this case here. The WASPS have done a lot of good, and a lot of bad. But usually, a WASP takes any justified criticism as a complete denial of all good done by them, and that is not my intention in pointing out a few undesirable truths. All that you point out, I know, having researched it myself. That is why I point out only the truth. Just sometimes in a confusing way.
10-16-2009 12:02
ssssssss wrote:
JK your post was right on. JCE claims hes not a dem but he sticks up for Obama on everything.
10-16-2009 10:07
Catharyne Stauffer wrote:
In conclusion
In conclusion concerning the topic on slavery . Slavery has been practiced for 1000's of years through out the history of mankind and in Biblical times prior to Jesus's birth .
Only in the past 200 years or so has slavery been almost entirely abolished . It was always a common practice when one country conquered another a certain portion of that vanquished countries citizens were enslaved . Rome enslaved many different people from Europe one example is the original people of England .
I think ever race known to mankind has at one time been enslaved or themselves owned slaves .
Slavery was practiced here in North America before the white race ever came here . Many of the American Indian tribes practiced slavery with captured enemies from other tribes .
Only in recent history has the human race started to rethink this practice and that change of thought was due in part to WASPs and their concept of HUMAN RIGHTS .
Only in the past 200 years or so has slavery been almost entirely abolished . It was always a common practice when one country conquered another a certain portion of that vanquished countries citizens were enslaved . Rome enslaved many different people from Europe one example is the original people of England .
I think ever race known to mankind has at one time been enslaved or themselves owned slaves .
Slavery was practiced here in North America before the white race ever came here . Many of the American Indian tribes practiced slavery with captured enemies from other tribes .
Only in recent history has the human race started to rethink this practice and that change of thought was due in part to WASPs and their concept of HUMAN RIGHTS .
10-16-2009 09:41
Catharyne Stauffer wrote:
To JCE , In your statements when you just say Christians with no other clarification ,you have placed all the good ones with the very few bad ones.
Also if " all religious leaders" like you say, do not represent their parishioners or their faith , like you say . Then that church would soon after see their membership drop as well as their attendance and most importantly their tithings. All of which they are very dependent on .
There are however some religious leaders that have crossed these lines but again you can not lump a few bad leaders with all the good ones that are out there .
I would also like to address your statement when you said " Blacks knew white Christians enslaved them." unquote . In Africa slavery has been long practiced by the different African tribes loong before white people ever went to Africa . In fact slavery is still being practiced there . One African country has almost 30% of it's population practicing slavery in the remote tribal areas of that country .
The slave trade to the Americas was in part started by different African tribes selling their captured enemies to the traders and this was tribal tradition .
This knowledge does not excuse past Christians from owning slaves but it sheds a bit of light on how some of the slave trade was started in the Americas 100's of years ago.
Also if " all religious leaders" like you say, do not represent their parishioners or their faith , like you say . Then that church would soon after see their membership drop as well as their attendance and most importantly their tithings. All of which they are very dependent on .
There are however some religious leaders that have crossed these lines but again you can not lump a few bad leaders with all the good ones that are out there .
I would also like to address your statement when you said " Blacks knew white Christians enslaved them." unquote . In Africa slavery has been long practiced by the different African tribes loong before white people ever went to Africa . In fact slavery is still being practiced there . One African country has almost 30% of it's population practicing slavery in the remote tribal areas of that country .
The slave trade to the Americas was in part started by different African tribes selling their captured enemies to the traders and this was tribal tradition .
This knowledge does not excuse past Christians from owning slaves but it sheds a bit of light on how some of the slave trade was started in the Americas 100's of years ago.
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