Wednesday, May 20, 2009

WHERE IS PRESIDENT OBAMA REGARDING HIS PROMISE TO RESCIND DADT?

This video interview of Lt. Col. Fehrenbach by Rachel Maddow says far more than I can regarding the egregious treatment of Gay people in our military!

Not only are many millions of dollars wasted in removing just one Gay person from the military, but look at the hardship and the cost in human lives and their careers caused by an indolent President who promised to rescind DADT and who now, it seems, couldn't care less.

Lt.Fehrenbach is a hero, has served our country for 18 years of exemplary service, and now, two years before he is due to retire, he is being kicked out of the military because he's Gay.

Even when Gay people can serve openly in the military in Argentina, the United States continues to show its discriminatory dark side; its underbelly of hatred at the cost of human lives; at the cost of our national security; at the cost of our claim to civility.

This is the interview that I'd like you to hear in its entirety:



[Thanks to The Huffington Post for this video.]
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4 comments:

DC HAMPTON JACOBS said...

The thing that bothered me most about that interview was when Rachel Maddow asked Col. Fehrenbach if he'd be in favor of an executive order to halt DADT discharges and he said no. He parrotted the Obama administration's line about there needing to be a legislative solution. In my opinion, he's not ready for justice, not if he's willing to wait for its implementation! Repeal of DADT and other anti-Gay laws is not a political battle. It is a moral battle, and moral battles cannot be subjected to a political timetable.

Jerry Maneker said...

Hi Don Charles: Repeal of DADT and other anti-Gay laws is not a political battle. It is a moral battle, and moral battles cannot be subjected to a political timetable."

Beautifully put!!!! This is the essence of all arguments that relate to demanding and implementing full and equal civil rights.

In addition, political expediency has no place in the acquisition of Constitutional rights that are to be afforded to every citizen in the U.S.! The U.S. Supreme Court long ago determined that "separate is not equal," and that fact is no less true for LGBT people than it was and is for African Americans about which that decision was made.

Best wishes, Jerry.

Janelle said...

"The thing that bothered me most about that interview was when Rachel Maddow asked Col. Fehrenbach if he'd be in favor of an executive order to halt DADT discharges and he said no. He parrotted the Obama administration's line about there needing to be a legislative solution."

Maybe i didn't understand his answer to that question but as i listen i took it as he was looking at the bigger picture. I don't think he would be totally against the "temporary" fix but he is fighting and pushing for a "permanent" solution, instead.

I pray that in this time of stuggle in a broken world he can find peace!

Jerry Maneker said...

Thanks Janelle. I, too, hope he finds peace. It seems to me that Obama can do away with DADT by merely demanding its removal, as he is Commander-in-Chief of the military, and that would be a permanent solution.

I can't imagine Congress overriding his decision, or even if they did so that their actions would trump his order.

President Truman did the same thing in regard to African Americans in the military in 1947. I'm not a Constitutional scholar, but I can't see how Obama's unilateral removal of DADT would not be a permanent solution to this obscenity.

Until he specifically does away with DADT and pushes for DOMA to be repealed, I'll still see him as a political opportunist who doesn't really care about equal rights. Best wishes, Jerry.