Doing what "works"

ON NOV. 30, a group of 28 retired generals and admirals released a letter urging Congress to repeal the law mandating the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding gays. [...]

The letter followed by just two days a Nov. 28 CNN forum for GOP presidential contenders in which all the candidates (except Giuliani) expressed support for the current policy, arguing that it is “working” or that it would be disruptive to integrate open gays into the military. Sen. John McCain said specifically that senior generals had told him that the policy is “working.”

Is the policy working? Well, a lot of deplorable policies have “worked,” depending on your goal, but that doesn’t mean that they are the best policies or that other policies would not work better. Racial segregation in the military “worked.” For that matter, racial segregation in the whole Southern society “worked” too. At least for white people. Stalin’s concentration camps “worked.”

Islamic “honor killings” of women who have been raped “work” too, I suppose, if you are not the victim. But do many people want to defend those policies as the best policy?

Remember those Arabic-language students a couple of years ago who, despite the military’s crying need for Arabic-language translators, were discharged because they were gay? Is that an example of the policy “working”? What about all the other skills gays may have been taught that are lost when they are discharged from the military? More examples of the policy “working”? (source)

Bigotry... always “works”.

It works because it’s very existence is a testament to the circumstances and world it exists in. Throughout the history of this country, we have always justified our actions because it was “the right thing to do”, or that it “worked”. Today, we do the same thing. We justify torture by saying that we need to protect the country from terrorists. That’s a hugely broad statement to make. Not one of the “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo have been charged . But, the system “works”, because the President says it works.

And what about those Arabic-language translators that were discharged from the military because of their homosexuality? Was that in the best interest of this country? Right after they were discharged, the military put out a plea for translators that could speak Arabic.

And what about the ban the American Red Cross has against gay men donating blood? I suppose I can understand their rationale, saying that gay men are more likely to be exposed to the AIDS virus. Again, a very broad (and very dangerous) assumption. Their ban prevents any man who has had sex with another man since 1977 from donating blood. That’s their rationale, and their policy.

But here’s what I don’t get about it... A straight man who has had sexual relations with a female prostitute(s), must wait for three months before he is again eligible to donate blood. He suffers no life-time ban for this. We are talking about a virus here that really doesn’t know or care about sexual orientation. Perhaps the heterosexual form of AIDS only has a life span of 3 months? I’m just trying to make sense of the Red Cross policy. But, apparently, that policy “works”.

Bigotry... always “works”.

Oh, one more thing. I understand the Republican candidates views with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. My biggest disappointment is with Senator John McCain. He actually has a brain on his shoulders and he doesn’t have a hard on for Jesus so much. He knows better. He served with men in the military he knew were gay. Today, would he be able to look those men in the eye and say, “You should have been discharged.”?

He would probably say, “No.” Yet, he supports the current policy because he feels the policy is “working”. Such hypocrisy. John, you showed great courage and conviction in the past. What happened to that?