Good As You

I'm sure if we looked hard enough, we could find a bunch of WWII vets who are still unhappy about the racial integration of the military.

Next, just like Prop 8 voters, they're gonna complain about their names becoming public.

I thought I recognized that address. Does anyone find it strange that Ms. Donnelly shares the same address as the Flag and General Officers for the Military. I wonder how many of those listed are actually living members, or members at all.

"the military would be condoning immoral behavior and could no longer attract the finest young Americans." This is what they're doing now with gang members and neo-nazi's enlisting. And competent and intelligent gay people are being denied?

Is it just a typo that the first 42 names are on the list twice?? I mean I'm not going crazy right.

Kitt: It was a typo. Should be fixed now

Yes, endorsing the "global decriminalization of homosexuality" is progress, but isn't it curious that, here at home, addressing anything LGBT on the White House To Do List seems too much for our multitalented, multitasking Commander in Chief? For over two months, when anyone's dared suggest that contrary to "avoiding the same mistakes Clinton made" Obama has been repeating them, we've been denounced as reactionary, cynical, heretical.

Now, two days after the fabric of the fiction that he's been busy behind the scenes fully unraveled in the admission by Secretary of Defense Gates that nothing has been done nor is even being contemplated, the fears of "Unfriendly Fire" author Nathaniel Frank and others, including myself, have come true: Obama’s inexplicable and indefensible refusal to immediately and publicly frame the narrative for repeal of DADT has allowed the ruthless enemies of equality to plant their fascist flag in an abandoned battlefield.

Not surprising to see the assault’s design knitted together by the Antigay Industry’s own Madame Defarge, nor that her charge was led by the apparently still venomous and virulently homophobic Carl Mundy. As Commandant of the Marines in 1993 during Clinton's efforts to dump the decades old policy of banning gays, Mundy trumped Colin Powell’s insubordinate deviousness with more direct action, distributing countless copies of the notoriously homohating, semi-pornographic video “The Gay Agenda” throughout the Pentagon. Pray his VCR isn’t warming up again.

Mundy comes from a long line of shameless Marine bigots. When racial integration of the services was being debated in the ‘40s, Marine Commandant Thomas Holcomb declared, “If it were a question of having a Marine Corps of 5,000 whites or 250,000 Negroes, I would rather have the whites.”

Within months of helping force Clinton to surrender with his barrage of gay terrorist tapes, Mundy was forced to apologize for remarks during a “60 Minutes” segment on racism in the Marine corps suggesting that black Marines were inherently inferior to their white peers. Essentially he said they cain't shoot good, git lost in the dark, and....wait for it....cain't swim worth a damn. He claimed his comments were edited out of context but offers no such disclaimer for recycling his rancid homophobia and willful ignorance.

Continuing to ban out gays from the military is not the only poisonous personal prejudice he’s attempted to paint over with his perception of what “American society” wants. In 1992, he said “I do not believe the American people want [women in combat because combat is] debasing”—a similar, persistent obsession of Madame Defarge er Donnelly—proving once again that the root of homophobia is ancient sexism and atrophied gender role expectations.

Admirers of Mundy frequently quote his well-worn Marine “Core Values” speech. Cue scratchy "patriotic" tune:

“At the foundation of our core value system is honor. A person cannot be a Marine without honor. It’s the bedrock of our character. Honor is integrity, honesty, and responsibility. It’s the quality that guides Marines to exemplify ethical and moral behavior; never to lie, cheat, or steal; to abide by an uncompromising code of integrity; to respect human dignity; and to have respect and concern for each other. We subscribe to a creed that an individual is entitled to be judged on his or her merit as a Marine . . . . The Corps cannot foster or tolerate discrimination . . . or any other form of mean-spirited behavior.”

By his own definitions, by his disgusting actions in 1993 and today, by his continuing to defend a policy that forces gay Marines to lie, that discriminates against them regardless of their merit, Carl Mundy has tarnished the very service and servicemembers he prides himself on honoring and loving.

One can only hope that he one day realizes the difference between what he says and what he does. ........And that our Commander in Chief will cease being Missing in Action.

Michael Bedwell
www.leonardmatlovich.com

I have written a letter to Dearest Elaine, and I plan to copy it to every person on that list whose email I can track down.

http://fundytroll.blogspot.com/2009/04/to-elaine-donnelly.html

Yes, that stench in the air is shameless self-endorsement.

Big f'ing deal. The overwhelming majority of these dinosaurs retired away from relevance some time ago. And, it happens that nearly of them identify as either Republican or Evangelical - and many as both.
They have lost touch with the current disposition of the forces they are hoping to protect from the evils of homosexuality and virtually none of them have commanded during these current wars.
Who gives a shit what these old men think? The sooner they die, and that will be soon enough, the sooner we can get putting our military on the right side of history.

PLEASE don't waste your time writing Donnelly or anyone else on the list!

THE SHORTHAND: only Obama’s active lobbying could have killed DADT before; only his active lobbying can kill it now. Without a long overdue, PUBLIC, full-frontal assault by our Commander-in-Chief, Congress will simply pull this letter over their heads like a huge camouflage blanket to cover up their own homophobia and/or that of their constituents.

If you understand that opening the military to out gays is the single most powerful weapon to advance every other area of gay equality, CALL/WRITE the White House and DEMAND that Obama do just that. Or was his promise to repeal DADT just political smile fucking?

I am so disappointed to see so many names on this list, especially M/G Gary Alkire who told me personally that he was seeking guidance from his pastor on this. During my tenure at Air Force Village, I found Gary Alkire to be a man of much higher thought. I considered him to be a rare breed that was "in touch." I was wrong.

Todd Spann
San Antonio, Tx.

I'm late to this party....but. Let's remember that the men on this list without question fought hard for our right to speak free and live free. It was a different time that these men grew up in (a large portion of them are highly decorated WWII vets)... getting angry at them or calling them "dinosaurs" sort of defeats the purpose. These old boys aren't the problem. Saying stuff like the sooner they die the better, is just incredibly ignorant and disrespectful. Equality for all should be the standard for military service and don't forget the number one role of the military is to protect us. These men did their job that they were asked to do, and many of their friends died in the process.

The number one role of the military is not to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy.Leave the heroes alone. And if you don't think they are heroes, do a bit of research on the names on that list and tell me what you think then.

Thank you, Chip Richter, for addressing the hateful and hurtful comments of TB regarding the military officers who endorsed this letter and its contents. I am the daughter of one of the officers who signed this letter, and on September 2, we will lay him to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. So your suggestion, TB, that the sooner my father dies the better, was very personal and piercingly painful to me. I was saddened to see my father's signature on this letter because I do not now and really never did agree with my father's position on this and many other issues. However, because of my father's life-long service in the U.S. Marine Corps, we continue to live in a country where we can disagree on issues such as this without being beheaded or imprisoned. But to personally denigrate these military heroes is uncalled for and painful to their families. My father was a Marine's Marine, and I am proud of him. You, TB, should have thought twice before you insulted those whose lifetime of service has guaranteed your right to speak your mind. I will think of you and your soulless comments when they play taps at my father's burial in two weeks.

Pretty sure none of the pro commenters ever spent time in the military. Did my 15 years in the Marine Corps and fought in both Iraq wars. I can tell you that no matter what is passed, this will cause alot of physical abuse at home and friendly fire deaths on the battlefield. When you reply please mention how much time you have served your country.

BB -- My five years (2001-2006) as a straight man in the Army taught me that gay troops are exactly the same as straight troops. Period.

All of the anti-repeal folks who stumble across this article, whether or not you served in the military, and ESPECIALLY if you served back in the 70s, 80s, or 90s, can take your fossilized moral standards and shove them up your bigoted a$$es.

Service people being gay won't cause any violence -- service people with 1800s mindsets will, and gay troops will be the victims.

Leave the post-9/11 military to the post-9/11 generation -- the one that DOESN'T CARE a bit about sexual identity.