It's Time
Submitted by Wes Clark on February 3, 2010 - 5:05pm.
It's time to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
President Obama stated his resolve to end this discriminatory policy in his State of the Union address. And yesterday at the Senate Armed Services hearing, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates joined the call to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
From a moral standpoint, we should honor all those who want to serve their country. It's wrong for people to be told they have to lie about who they are and cover up their identity in order to serve their country.
From a national security standpoint, we are fighting two wars. Our military is strained. And yet we discharged over 400 soldiers last year due to this policy, including crucial Arabic and Farsi translators.
It's time to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Email your members of Congress. Tell them to support the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" today!
Unfortunately, the current policy in the U.S. Armed Forces really isn't "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." It's about witch-hunts. It's about tattle-tales. It's about the pressure to cover things up, to not be seen, and to not know who you are.
Other nations' armed forces have gay and lesbian individuals openly serving in them, and they are succeeding. There is no reason why we have to discriminate against men and women who want to serve their country.
I was encouraged by Secretary Gates' announcement of a one-year review with an implementation plan to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to be submitted by the end of 2010. But to implement any plan, Congress must support the repeal.
Email your members of Congress. Tell them to support the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" today!
People should be entitled to be who they are.
As Admiral Mullen stated in his testimony yesterday, "Allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do."
Sincerely,
Wes Clark
after hitting submit and some of the recipients may require more info -- a phone number, a subject title, and for Obama it's typing a code thingy.
Thank you as always, General Clark for standing up and speaking out, and helping our voices to be heard.
Transaction ID: 47012842
Date: February 3, 2010
Amount: $xx.xx
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
the program will automatically send to my congressmen and senators? Is that correct? I want to make sure I get this sent to the right places.
That's the way these things work if the system works. The zip code is key. Most congresscritters don't accept e-mail comments unless the sender is in the person's jurisdiction (district for House members, state for Senators). (Although there are ways to cheat the system: I've been known to go to the legislator's website and use as my home address the in-district/state office of the critter.)
UPDATE: I just got a "thank you for contacting me" message from my own congressman, so it worked.
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark: "We're no better than our own sense of humility."
It's been a while since I've "signed" one of these on-line petitions and I wanted to make sure I was doing it right...
be too. What Ollie fails to understand is that pedophiles have already long served in the military. If they weren't there, I wouldn't have become a federal whistle-blower when I worked overseas with kids of military members. Ollie just pushed all my buttons. It was so difficult to get anything done when an adult was abusing their own kids. If they raped a neighbors, kid, they something happened.
http://rawstory.com/2010/02/oliver-north-gays-allowed-military-pedophiles-follow/
He's just too full of himself. The thing about the military is that the focus is all on the service member, which should be paramount, but what happens to family members in a larger proportion than the general population gets swept under the rug often times. It would be a black mark against a community commander and that's more important to said commander than the bad things happening to kids, etc... I'm not saying this is across the board. I'm only saying it's what I witnessed. So Ollie North should just shut up!
i'll never forget that during the 2004 election when during a university town hall meeting (with Chris Matthews?) you were asked about this and you told everyone that when a junior officer came to you to ask for help you would tell them to imagine that the person involved was their own son or daughter.
you asked them whether they would want their own son or daughter to live their life with the burden of social criticism instead of with acceptance.
i can't remember exactly what you said but it was great and courageous
i hated "don't ask don't tell" ever since i first learned about it because it promised to be unfair and abusive and to put people into an impossible position.
it proved sadly to be punishing and wrong as you say and to be a net loser for the armed forces and the country.
It's been a long time since I've participated in one of these on-line petitions. Could someone help me, please?
By filling out the requirements to the right of the petition and then send, does this automatically send to my congressmen/women?
I would like to support this.