"Don't ask, Don't tell" ~February 5, 2010

I chose to write on the article “A Smoke the Bigots Out of the Closet” by Frank Rich in the Ney York Times opinion section. In this article, the author made it very clear of who really supported the men of the military no matter what it was made of. He reported that John McCain spoke out against the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the military. This made the republican side of the government look like they were against open gay and lesbian people into the military, when in fact it does quite the opposite.
The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was implemented when Bill Clinton was elected after assuring the American people that the acts of harm against gay and lesbian men and women in the military. The case that Bill Clinton cited when campaigning the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was that of U.S. Navy Radioman third class Schindler and shipmate Terry M. Helvey. This case was when Schindler beat and killed Shipmate Terry M. Helvey to the point that the corpse was not even recognizable. After implementing the policy, these acts of violence taking place in the military had a distinct punishment for this discriminatory act of violence.
.Some people are against repealing this policy because they feel that a person should be who they are without having to hide who they really are. Repealing this policy would mean that these acts of violence would not be as harshly punishable for the person who committed that crime. If people knew that these men and women who are openly gay or lesbian were gay, then that would open up so much more violence towards these men and women who are protecting our country. So if they are protecting us, why can’t we stand up and protect them?

That's all for now!
~Ali

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