A letter I sent to President Bush this morning

Friday, November 29, 2002

Mr. President:

This is the first letter I have ever sent to a President of the United States. I have watched over the years how many gay service members have been thrown out over the current Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy on homosexuals serving in the military. You know as well as any of us that this policy makes no sense. It has made members of the gay community who serve in the military into second rate citizens. We have lived with that and have accepted that as a price we seem to have to pay for the privilege and opportunity to serve our nation. Notice, I said OUR NATION. Not the straight nation, or the gay nation, but a nation of We The People.

Now, it's time to abolish this policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. We are all in this war on terrorism and we need all the expertise that we can get. I recently read a story in the New York Times about some servicemen who were discharged from the military after it was found out that they were gay. It so happens, they were training in interrogation and were linguists specializing in Arabic and Korean.

Mr. President, you yourself repeatedly say to the American People that we are in a "war on terrorism". We are supposed to accept that and do what needs to be done for the survival of our nation. Mr. President, with all due respect, how can you expect people to take this war on terrorism seriously when it seems to be more important to our government to expel people from the military who's talents we desperately need all because of an archaic policy of don't ask, don't tell?

I support and love our great nation and yes, I would die for it. It's time that this nation that I would die for put it's priorities in order. It's time that this nation realize that we are all valuable to the operation of this nation and our military. Mr. President, put an end to Don't Ask, Don't Tell once and for all so that we can all fight this war on terrorism and make our nation the strongest it can be.

Sincerely,

Bill Cannon
A concerned gay American