On Friday afternoon, Greg Marzullo, the Washington Blade Features Editor, posted a piece on the Blade’s blog about our 12,000 Flags for 12,000 Patriots event, at which 28 new generals and admirals came forward at once to call for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” While Marzullo started out praising us veterans, particularly Eric Alva, he went on to… well, I’d better let you read for yourself. Here are a few selected excerpts that succinctly summarize the point of his article (which you can find for yourself at http://www.washblade.com/blog/index.cfm?blog_id=15484):
“…I couldn't help but shake my head in utter bewilderment at this entire memorial. Twelve thousand people had dedicated a good portion of their lives to a homophobic institution that not only asked them to risk life and limb, but also asked them to perpetuate cycles of violence in an already violent world.”
“When I looked at all those stars-and-stripes planted in the ground, I wondered, ‘What if all these people had been working for world peace instead? What if every one of these unfairly discharged queer persons was planting gardens, feeding the homeless and saving vanishing habitats?’”
“This is where queer people really needed to be — putting their efforts into changing the culture of tomorrow, not the destruction of current cultures at the hands of patriarchal, autocratic monsters.”
So I couldn’t help but once again wonder, why is it that an anti-military minority within the gay community cannot understand that there are gays and lesbians who actually like the military, who have an affinity for the lifestyle, who can contribute to it and benefit from what it offers, who take pride in service to the nation, and, most importantly, who recognize the timelessness and importance of the institution of the U.S. military? Why can that minority not separate their opinions about contemporary events from the undisputed need for a strong and capable military?
The U.S. military is a glorious institution, a necessary institution, and one that provides many opportunities for millions of Americans. Since when has “planting gardens” provided a G.I. Bill benefit - a benefit that enabled me and millions of others to get a college education? Does this minority not remember that the U.S. military is the institution that helped liberate Europe from the Nazi empire, helped liberate Asia from the Japanese war machine, and helped end the Holocaust? I don’t think Hitler was in the process of being persuaded by the peace movement, much less an army of gardeners.
To quote someone whose name I cannot remember at this specific moment, we should always have “old men talk more before we send young men to die,” but to demean the U.S. military and those who serve because you disagree with an ephemeral political issue is reckless and disrespectful at best, in my humble opinion.
You know, this is the second encounter I’ve had with Mr. Marzullo. He actually wrote the very first article I ever appeared in with regards to the DADT issue. In December of 2005 he wrote up a piece for the Washington Blade on the upcoming Call To Duty Tour I had organized for the following spring, and the very first line of that article mistakenly reported that I had been dishonorably discharged from the Army. The error was quickly corrected in the online version of the article at least (my discharge was fully honorable, for the record!), but being the very first piece of media I had ever done for DADT, I was quite distraught over the mistake, needless to say. That erroneous assumption on Marzullo’s part seems to have only been the beginning of his lack of understanding of the world of the U.S. military, of why Americans answer its call to duty, and of the one million gays and lesbian veterans in this country who have recognized the nobility of service.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
The First Flag
The “12,000 Flags for 12,000 Patriots” events in Washington, D.C., which Servicemembers United created and co-sponsored with several other organizations, are officially over. I originally conceived of the idea for this project while driving through Dahlonega, Georgia during Memorial Day weekend last year. This proud, quaint town lines its streets with American flags for about a week surrounding veteran-oriented holidays, with each flag representing a veteran from the area. The display makes for quite an impressive site several times per year, but I had to wonder how many of those being honored were gay or lesbian. If there were any who were, I wondered how their lives might have been affected by the anti-gay regulations and whether any of them had been the victims of those regulations, and later of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” over the decades. I also wondered whether the town would even put up a flag for someone whom they knew was discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
You’re probably beginning to see how the idea for “12,000 Flags for 12,000 Patriots” came about.
“Wouldn’t it be great,” I thought, “for those who had been discharged under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ to be recognized like this?” As the day wore on, I recall thinking through the idea more and more. At some point, it occurred to me that it would be absolutely amazing to put just such a display on the National Mall – in front of the nation and on the doorstep of Congress. As I envisioned what 12,000 American flags on the National Mall might look like, I grew more and more excited about the potential of such a unique and unprecedented event for the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” issue.
This past weekend, that idea came to fruition as we placed one flag for each servicemember discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law on a grid across the National Mall. And on Friday, November 30th, the 14 anniversary of the signing of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, we were joined by the heads of three other organizations that work on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” two 2-star generals, numerous other veterans, and a barrage of media to break the news of 28 new generals and admirals who chose our event to step forward to call for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
As the Executive Director of the new Servicemembers United, I emceed this historic event, but the most personally rewarding part of the entire event was the planting of the first flag... which I did for myself.
You’re probably beginning to see how the idea for “12,000 Flags for 12,000 Patriots” came about.
“Wouldn’t it be great,” I thought, “for those who had been discharged under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ to be recognized like this?” As the day wore on, I recall thinking through the idea more and more. At some point, it occurred to me that it would be absolutely amazing to put just such a display on the National Mall – in front of the nation and on the doorstep of Congress. As I envisioned what 12,000 American flags on the National Mall might look like, I grew more and more excited about the potential of such a unique and unprecedented event for the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” issue.
This past weekend, that idea came to fruition as we placed one flag for each servicemember discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law on a grid across the National Mall. And on Friday, November 30th, the 14 anniversary of the signing of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, we were joined by the heads of three other organizations that work on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” two 2-star generals, numerous other veterans, and a barrage of media to break the news of 28 new generals and admirals who chose our event to step forward to call for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
As the Executive Director of the new Servicemembers United, I emceed this historic event, but the most personally rewarding part of the entire event was the planting of the first flag... which I did for myself.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Showers and Foxholes
I originally wasn't going to do a blog on this site, but I reconsidered after coming to the conclusion that there would probably be things that I would be in a unique position to comment on or bring to light. As opposed to the stylistic masterpieces that may come from some of our other bloggers, I intend to maintain a more practical blog, dragging out items of interest within in the DADT repeal movement, the national security arena, and the wider military community, and occassionally turning over the mic to guests in order to mix things up a little.
The name of this blog, by the way, is a reference to two of the most common hang-ups of those who oppose allowing known gay men and women to serve in the military without fear of being fired if someone happens to find out that they are gay. I always chuckle to myself anytime someone brings up showers and foxholes, as those two words usually indicate that he (or she, but usually he) is likely not familiar with the modern military. The days of group showers - even if the paranoid fears of predatory gays circling were remotely realistic - are largely gone, as new facility construction designs have incorporated private or semi-private shower arrangements for a variety of unrelated reasons. Where I attended basic training at Ft. Benning, GA, the only all-male basic training site left in the Army, the shower stalls on the oldest barracks were already semi-private, which we saw for all of about 8 seconds per day anyway. Even in Iraq, when one is able to shower, the showers in the shower trailers are partitioned there too.
As for DADT's other pillar, the foxholes, where gay men must surely be a trollin' while bullets are a flyin'... come on! Who's digging foxholes Iraq? The point is that the underpinnings of the fear surrounding repeal of the DADT law are a lack of education and exposure - exposure to the modern military and to the modern servicemember, and this is where Servicemembers United aims to play a unique role within the upcoming national policy debate over the continued utility of DADT in the 21st century.
The name of this blog, by the way, is a reference to two of the most common hang-ups of those who oppose allowing known gay men and women to serve in the military without fear of being fired if someone happens to find out that they are gay. I always chuckle to myself anytime someone brings up showers and foxholes, as those two words usually indicate that he (or she, but usually he) is likely not familiar with the modern military. The days of group showers - even if the paranoid fears of predatory gays circling were remotely realistic - are largely gone, as new facility construction designs have incorporated private or semi-private shower arrangements for a variety of unrelated reasons. Where I attended basic training at Ft. Benning, GA, the only all-male basic training site left in the Army, the shower stalls on the oldest barracks were already semi-private, which we saw for all of about 8 seconds per day anyway. Even in Iraq, when one is able to shower, the showers in the shower trailers are partitioned there too.
As for DADT's other pillar, the foxholes, where gay men must surely be a trollin' while bullets are a flyin'... come on! Who's digging foxholes Iraq? The point is that the underpinnings of the fear surrounding repeal of the DADT law are a lack of education and exposure - exposure to the modern military and to the modern servicemember, and this is where Servicemembers United aims to play a unique role within the upcoming national policy debate over the continued utility of DADT in the 21st century.
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