I am torn this week about whether I should write my long-promised column about the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in the military or if I should write on SWG winter sports, which are coming now to an end. Since my deadline approaches and I can’t make up mind—I decided to write about BOTH!
The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy was enacted under the Clinton administration in 1993 as a compromise between the liberal Democrats who wanted to assure that gay men and women could serve in the military if they agreed to certain conditions and conservative Republicans who wanted absolutely no homosexuals in the military in any way shape or form. Basically, it said that the military would not actively research a person’s sexual orientation or even ask them if they were gay. However, it the soldier admitted to being homosexual or was caught red-handed, they were discharged.
At the time, many conservatives preached that DADT would absolutely RUIN the military and perhaps cause Armageddon. “Why, a homo could just keep it hidden from people and go to war and get shot and be a regular hero. That just ain’t right!” many said with derision. Okay—maybe I’m paraphrasing there, but you get the point. Many people in 1993 thought that even closeted gays were a danger to our armed forces. . As unnecessary as I think the policy is now, at the time it was pretty darn groundbreaking.
Well, it’s been almost twenty years and nothing much has come from the dreaded legislation. The military hasn’t broken down, there aren’t gay pride parades in the streets of military bases and Generals aren’t dressing in drag. Now, it is time to take the next step and repeal DADT—letting servicemen and woman who are gay serve openly and proudly. I (of course) agree with President Obama that a person should be able to “serve the country they love because (regardless) of who they love. It's the right thing to do.”
President Clinton learned that he would have to compromise to make some progress on his agenda and I am thinking President Obama has learned the same thing. Social change takes time—and sometimes baby steps are better than no steps at all.
Now, for winter sports. As happy as I am that this is the “cusp of the season” between basketball and spring sports and I am not spending every single weekend and evening sitting on a hard bleacher somewhere, I am going to miss watching Josie and Paddy’s teams play. Both were very good. Patrick’s fifth grade team—coach by Mark Clausen—had a winning season—even winning their own SWG Booster Tournament last weekend. Paddy isn’t a starter, but his coach makes sure all the kids get good playing time. My son even made a basket and once had over a dozen steals in one game. It was a fun season for us all.
Josie’s junior high teams have garnered a great deal of attention lately—probably because they are awesome. The seventh grade team only lost two games all season and the eighth grade team is darn good too. I wrote a column two years ago about how fun these girls were to watch and predicted we might see them at the state tournament. I stand by this prediction. Just think: when Josie and gang are freshmen and sophomores, Anna Coder will be a senior—how much fun will that be to watch???
Finally, Cody finished his junior year of wrestling with a bang, finishing third at a very tough sectionals. Cody had a few strikes against him going into this meet: he hadn’t wrestled much for a month and was nursing a pretty severe back injury, You can imagine just how proud we were of him when he pinned his first guy and won by technical fall with his third guy. The photos of him on the podium are going to be featured prominently on our mantel.
I guess now is the time to move onto new seasons (spring is in the air) and new hot topics. See you in a couple weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment