Don't Ask Means Don't Tell

So my Grunt came back from his hump (Marine Corps lingo for a hike that is not meant for the faint of heart), motivated and hoarse from his time playing drill instructor with new recruits (aka poolies). But now he and my overworked puppy are passed out on the couch, so what better time to make my debut to the world of blogging!

Yesterday, around 70 Binghamton University students gathered outside their local Armed Forces recruiting station to stage a protest. This protest was due to the unequal treatment they believe homosexuals are given under the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. A female BU student had attempted to enlist in the Army earlier this week, and immediately informed the Army recruiter of her sexual preference. He told her that the Army could not allow her to openly serve as a lesbian, and she went off in a huff. Later she sent in a male friend who threatened the recruiter, "you'll be sorry!"

This girl, we'll call her Sandy, is a freshman at BU. How many freshmen have you heard of ending their college career before it really begins to join the military...let alone a female? So, I am going to take some liberties here and assume that her desire to enlist was not a genuine one. How many people go into apply for a job, and say "oh, just so you know, before you even consider me, I want you to know I like my own gender." Not many I would gather, in fact I'd say the average person never brings up their sexual orientation to their boss even after the hiring process. I am sensing a little unfair treatment that the military is receiving here....hmmm, where are you ACLU?! I am going to take it a step further and assume (yes, I know the dangers in assuming) that she intentionally informed the recruiter of her being a lesbian in order to cause a scene. We all know liberals love playing the victim! But let's analyze the situation, give her the benefit of the doubt that she doesn't have the victim mentality. It is no secret of the military's don't ask, don't tell policy, so she certainly knew about that before confessing her homosexuality. Well, if I were a lesbian and I really really wanted to join the military, and knowing of the DADT policy...I think I'd use my finely tuned college brain to come to the conclusion that, maybe I shouldn't tell! They don't ask you, so all you have to do is not tell, and you're good to go! A heterosexual man does not walk into enlist and say, "just so you know I like women, I'm totally straight"...nobody asks him, and he doesn't tell. SO why do homosexuals get special treatment in being able to openly talk about their sex life when nobody else gets that? Sandy was told she can not serve openly as a lesbian...so she could serve, she just has to keep her mouth shut about inappropriate for the work place things like everybody else. If you ask me, that sounds pretty equal. But because she can't have things exactly her way, she complains; yeah I bet she would have made a great soldier! When she was whining in her interview like a two year old, it really made me confident that she should be in the battlefields.

Fast forward to the protest, every bleeding heart liberal was crying the same thing, "we need more recruits to send to Iraq and Afghanistan, and the military is turning away people just because they are gay!" Trust me kids, the military is doing just fine in enlistment numbers, you can thank the current administration's lackluster economic policies for that. People cannot find jobs, so they join the military. The Marine Corps has surpassed their enlistment goal by thousands and thousands, and the other branches are not far behind. Gone are the days of enlisting and shipping off the next day, you better plan on waiting almost a year before boot camp anymore because there simply is not room. So those of you cute little knuckleheads that fain caring for your country's military, you can rest easy. People are being turned away for sillier things than their sexual preference right now, because the military has no choice but to be picky about who joins.

Not only did students, but the newscaster also made snide remarks about the recruiting station being locked during the protest. They insinuated that the military was turning their back on the people and some kids (I'll call them kids because they have the maturity of children) even hinted that these military men and women were scared! My gosh, behind that locked door are trained killers, people who have been to combat (or some of them not but still received the training), people who are no more scared of staring down the barrel of a rifle than they are of pathetic excuses for college kids. I would have loved to have been there for the protest so I could have held a sign saying, "you kids are jokes, get a hobby!" But the real reason the door was locked is because the Vestal Police Department, knowing of the protest beforehand, had asked the recruiters to lock the door. This was to prevent unnecessary stupid behavior by the college students, who when traveling in packs tend to become brazen and exponentially more stupid.

The moral of the story is this; they won't ask, so you shouldn't tell. That is the same for whatever your sexual orientation is, it is equal. If you're gay and you really genuinely want to serve your country, you can, just keep your bedroom talk where it belongs; the rest of us do.