Lt. Dan Choi and the Conservative Politics of Fear

Conservatives tout themselves as strong on national defense but this case is but another example of how that belief is myth not reality.  The Conservative politics of fear has left not only the U.S. Army weaker but our whole society as well because of Don’t Ask Don’t tell.

Lt Dan Choi was a graduate of West Point.  He is fluent in Arabic.  He is an Iraq war veteran.  By all accounts Lt Choi is a hero, but all that ended when he appeared on the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC and stated he could no longer lie about who he was.

Since that appearance he has recieved his discharge from the U.S. Army and the New York National Guard.  The reason was moral dereliction of duty because he admitted he was gay.  This happened because the military believes that admitting you are gay constitutes a homosexual act.

This man yesterday was an exemplary soldier and as long as he lied and pretended he would continue to be considered as such.  This soldier and the 12,500 soldiers who have been discharged for Don’t Ask Don’t Tell were all considerd good soldiers until they stated they were Gay.  To me that tells me that this has nothing to do with the way they actually discharged their duties it is about the fear of homophobes who are insecure about their own identity.

I am still waiting for any Conservative to explain to me in any way that approximates sense and not hysteria how being gay affects your ability to fight and defend our nation or how banning Gays from responsible committment to a partner and marrying protects the sanctity of marriage. Half of all marriages end in divorce and many of the rest aren’t even close to marital bliss, but this is for a whole variety of reason’s none of which have to do with homsexuality.

In truth marriage was not made in heaven it was a construct of law written by men to codify exclusivity in sexual relations to make sure that a man’s heirs were really his children.

As for God intended marriage to be between a man and a woman because it says so in the Bible.  let me remind all of you that the Bible is a remarkably unreliable source to be claiming it is God’s exact words. Remember, that the Bible was used to defend chattel slavery, the same way it is being used as proof that Gays do not deserve the same standing in our nation as everyone else.

The Holy scripture has been used in history, to defend the divine right of kings, to oppose the Magna Carta, to condemn Galileo, to assert that the Sun revolves around the earth, to justify slavery, to keep women from being educated, entering the professions, voting or being ordained in the priesthood, to justify war, and to persecute people for witchcraft,  So how can anyone put any validity in its supposed pronouncements about homosexuality.

When people on the Right make statement such as, homosexuality is a sin, it is deadly and is spreading, it will destroy our young people and will destroy the nation, we all have an obligation to ask one simple question, How?

Gays have been part of our nation since its inception.  They have fought just as bravely as heterosexuals in all of our wars.

Conservatives when all else fails resort to the absolute lie that homesexuality and pedophilia are synonymous.  Yet the statistics prove that children have far more to fear from family than Gays when it comes to abuse.  This is nothing but the politics of fear and for people who claim to be people of faith they demonstrate none of it.  Fear is the absence of faith.

This little parable that I read somewhere puts this all in perspective:

A man tells his grandson, ” A terrible fight is going on inside of me between two wolves.  One is evil and represents fear, anger, hate, arrogance, intolerance and superiority.  The other is a good wolf and represents peace, love, tolerance, understanding, humility, empathy, genorosity and compassion.  The same fight is going on inside of you and inside of every person.”

The grandson asks,” which wolf will win?”

The old man replied, ” The one you feed.”   anonymous