No Man's Land

To be a man in the modern age of humanity is to be subject to the same impulses, desires, and limitations as even our distant ancestors, save with one clear difference: we have the power to override the vagaries of our hormones and are encouraged to do so. Encouraged, but at the end of the day, sadly lacking in motivation or courage. It takes conviction to decide that the old patriarchal norms are no longer of substantive value, and that we must place our mantle of societal leadership upon the ground and allow all to have the opportunity to partake of it. We act as if it diminishes us somehow, instead of what it actually does, which is marking us as advanced and enlightened beings. To loose our grip on power that has been ours for so long is not a renunciation of all that we have accomplished, but only a broadening of the scope of possibilities that will make humanity stronger.

Who Will Stand With Me?

I return to you once more, Good Reader, and ask if you will do the courtesy of standing with me to a purpose: the end of the intolerable and inexcusable policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which denies our gay brothers and sisters their just due in defending a nation that they love, but does not seem to love them. The current session of Congress could be far from "lame," if it were to address the end of a piece of Clinton-era legislation that is a larger stain on his Presidency than that of a blue dress of some note.

While the court system grinds away at an inevitable overturn of DADT on the premise of its un-Constitutional nature, Congress can do away with it far more efficiently and effectively. It has been President Obama's fervent hope for a while now that Congress would act; Congress has responded by dithering and delaying, especially the Senate, where the inordinate power of Senator John McCain seems to hold sway over the process. What must happen now, is that pressure must be applied to where it will do the most good. It is not enough to enjoin those who would repeal it to do so, for that is preaching to the choir. Instead, we must raise our voices outside the windows of those who oppose repeal, and make them see that they do the nation a dishonor and disservice by continuing to back this shameful policy.

So, I ask you once again, friends and countrymen, to take pen in hand, or keyboard beneath finger tips, or grasp the nearest phone, and make your voice heard. Specifically, I want us to concentrate on the two greatest roadblocks to success: Senator John McCain, and his cohort Senator Lindsey Graham. These men could, with but a word, end the deadlock and allow DADT repeal legislation to pass in the Senate. They must, however, be shown that the majority of Americans want this integration of the military to take place.

Here are links to the contact form for each Senator:

Lindsey Graham, R-SC: http://lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.EmailSenatorGraham

John McCain, R-AZ: http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

Please, write them or call them or use whatever medium you find easiest to use, and let them know that America will no longer stand for a military that is not reflective of its people, and that we demand LGBT individuals be given the same courtesy of being allowed to defend their country as any other citizen of our glorious nation.

Debatable

What could possess a couple to decide that the decision to continue a pregnancy or not was best left in the hands of millions of people on the Internet? Whatever the reason, the decision reeks of moral turpitude; one would have to examine their competence to have and care for children in the first place, given this turn of events. It would seem however, when we would look past the first blush, that there is more to this than meets the eye. Pete Arnold – with or without the tacit consent of his wife Alisha – seems to be playing a trick on the world. His explanations are hollow, filled with bullet points that sound vaguely contrived, as if handed to them from somewhere else. The whole episode smacks of a desperate attempt to put the abortion debate back in the spotlight after a contentious election season.

Any political playing aside, what would possess anyone to do it, for any reason?

What Must Come Next

It would be very easy to see the current conditions in Washington, D.C. as symptomatic of a general combativeness between Americans of different political persuasions. If you walk down any street, however, you would generally be hard-pressed to look at any number of people and determine that they are in conflict. People walk together, commute together, work together, recreate together, and in almost all cases, whatever political leanings they have are their business and no one else's, and besides the occasional T-shirt or bumper sticker or yard sign, we do not know where any American we choose stands on the issues of the day. We have various levels in every dimension imaginable, and it is hard to pigeon-hole an individual person as “that.”

What We Do Now

To the victors, the spoils, and it is the victorious who write the history in the short term. In the long term, from the perspective of clear hindsight and a dash of imagination, the true story only reveals itself in fragments. The issues of the last decade in America -- and their repercussions -- are still as fresh as newly fallen snow; until the thaw comes, the truth of what happened and why will always be just a few irregular objects poking up through the snow. Eventually the reality will be exposed, bare soil and sere landscape etched with the tracks of a society struggling to find its way.