Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Don't Ask Me, I Just Live Here

With the repeal of a seventeen-year-old policy, our government took one giant step into the twentieth century. Gone is that terrible restriction on our freedoms, the one that was put in place as a compromise to hard-line hate by Bill Clinton. The original title of the act was "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue." The Pursue part was there to discourage someone from snooping around without asking about a soldier's sexual preference. But why would anyone pursue any sort of investigation if they weren't tipped off in the first place? Don't talk in the first place and everything will be just fine. After all, loose lips sink ships, not to mention what they can do to tanks and bombs and other soldiers.
So all that is behind us now, and I will give Barack Obama credit for riding this one home before the big change of the next term. Now we can all hang around and enjoy the legal gymnastics that will no doubt take place in order to try and tear it down. And passing a law won't suddenly make everyone in uniform open and accepting of other's lifestyles, just like it won't do anything about the way we treat each other here on the home front.
Take the case of Martin Gaskell, an astronomer who asserts that he is being discriminated against because of his life choices. He feels that he was passed over for the directorship of the new student observatory at the University of Kentucky. We all understand how the intolerant history of those who live in our southern states, but one wonders why Mister Gaskell would openly admit to being Christian. You're supposed to be a scientist, man. Keep your mouth shut about all that stuff you do in your free time. We just don't want to know about it.

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