Read Online The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope by Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan
Tags: United States, General, Social Science, History, Sociology, Political Science, Politics, Media Studies, 21st Century, Current Affairs, Social History, Public Policy
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Unemployment among young male veterans is now more than 22 percent.
Take one base: Fort Hood, Texas. Maj. Nidal Hasan faces the death penalty for allegedly murdering thirteen people there in November 2009, a horrific attack heavily spotlighted by the media. Less well known is the epidemic of suicides at the base. Twenty-two people took their own lives there in 2010 alone.
Neither the Luceys nor the Keeslings will get a presidential condolence letter, despite the policy change. The Keeslings won’t get it because the decision is not retroactive. The Luceys wouldn’t anyway because it narrowly applies only to those suicides by active-duty soldiers deployed in what is considered an active combat zone.
Sadly, those with PTSD can leave the war zone, but the war zone never leaves them. Some see suicide as their only escape. They, too, are casualties of war.
October 14, 2009
Lt. Choi Won’t Lie for His Country
Lt. Dan Choi doesn’t want to lie. Choi, an Iraq War veteran and a graduate of West Point, declared last March 19 on The Rachel Maddow Show , “I am gay.” Under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” regulations, those three words are enough to get Choi kicked out of the military. Choi has become a vocal advocate for repealing the policy, having spoken before tens of thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their allies at last Sunday’s National Equality March in Washington, D.C.
Shortly after Choi’s public admission to being gay, the Department of the Army sent him a letter stating, in part, that “you admitted publicly that you are a homosexual which constitutes homosexual conduct. . . . Your actions negatively affected the good order and discipline of the New York Army National Guard.” Since Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993, 13,500 soldiers, sailors, and Marines have been discharged from the military for similar alleged behavior. Choi could receive an “other than honorable” discharge, losing the health, retirement, educational, and other benefits to which combat veterans are entitled. While Congress acts to remove the restrictions on health insurance for people with “pre-existing conditions,” Choi’s pre-existing conditions, being gay and being honest about it, may be enough to keep him out of the Veterans Affairs health care system for life.
The night before Sunday’s march, President Barack Obama spoke to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest and wealthiest gay-advocacy group: “We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve this country. . . . I will end ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’” He laid out no timetable, however.
After receiving the letter from the Army, Choi wrote an open letter to his commander in chief, Obama. He said: “I have personally served for a decade under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: an immoral law and policy that forces American soldiers to deceive and lie about their sexual orientation. Worse, it forces others to tolerate deception and lying.” U.S. troops in Afghanistan are serving side by side with NATO forces that include openly gay and lesbian troops.
Longtime gay-rights activist Urvashi Vaid, author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation , is opposed to war and militarism, but told me, “The military is a large employer, and has to commit to not being discriminatory.” She, too, was at the march Sunday, whose turnout surprised many of the mainstream gay organizations, as they hadn’t actively organized it. She said: “First, it’s a generational shift in the LGBT movement. There is a new wave of activism coming up. And it’s gay and straight. That’s a second big change . . . the third shift that’s happening in the LGBT movement is that it’s much more of a multi-issue agenda that is being carried by the people who are marching.” In addition to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the LGBT movement is also intent
Take one base: Fort Hood, Texas. Maj. Nidal Hasan faces the death penalty for allegedly murdering thirteen people there in November 2009, a horrific attack heavily spotlighted by the media. Less well known is the epidemic of suicides at the base. Twenty-two people took their own lives there in 2010 alone.
Neither the Luceys nor the Keeslings will get a presidential condolence letter, despite the policy change. The Keeslings won’t get it because the decision is not retroactive. The Luceys wouldn’t anyway because it narrowly applies only to those suicides by active-duty soldiers deployed in what is considered an active combat zone.
Sadly, those with PTSD can leave the war zone, but the war zone never leaves them. Some see suicide as their only escape. They, too, are casualties of war.
October 14, 2009
Lt. Choi Won’t Lie for His Country
Lt. Dan Choi doesn’t want to lie. Choi, an Iraq War veteran and a graduate of West Point, declared last March 19 on The Rachel Maddow Show , “I am gay.” Under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” regulations, those three words are enough to get Choi kicked out of the military. Choi has become a vocal advocate for repealing the policy, having spoken before tens of thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their allies at last Sunday’s National Equality March in Washington, D.C.
Shortly after Choi’s public admission to being gay, the Department of the Army sent him a letter stating, in part, that “you admitted publicly that you are a homosexual which constitutes homosexual conduct. . . . Your actions negatively affected the good order and discipline of the New York Army National Guard.” Since Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993, 13,500 soldiers, sailors, and Marines have been discharged from the military for similar alleged behavior. Choi could receive an “other than honorable” discharge, losing the health, retirement, educational, and other benefits to which combat veterans are entitled. While Congress acts to remove the restrictions on health insurance for people with “pre-existing conditions,” Choi’s pre-existing conditions, being gay and being honest about it, may be enough to keep him out of the Veterans Affairs health care system for life.
The night before Sunday’s march, President Barack Obama spoke to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest and wealthiest gay-advocacy group: “We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve this country. . . . I will end ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’” He laid out no timetable, however.
After receiving the letter from the Army, Choi wrote an open letter to his commander in chief, Obama. He said: “I have personally served for a decade under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: an immoral law and policy that forces American soldiers to deceive and lie about their sexual orientation. Worse, it forces others to tolerate deception and lying.” U.S. troops in Afghanistan are serving side by side with NATO forces that include openly gay and lesbian troops.
Longtime gay-rights activist Urvashi Vaid, author of Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay and Lesbian Liberation , is opposed to war and militarism, but told me, “The military is a large employer, and has to commit to not being discriminatory.” She, too, was at the march Sunday, whose turnout surprised many of the mainstream gay organizations, as they hadn’t actively organized it. She said: “First, it’s a generational shift in the LGBT movement. There is a new wave of activism coming up. And it’s gay and straight. That’s a second big change . . . the third shift that’s happening in the LGBT movement is that it’s much more of a multi-issue agenda that is being carried by the people who are marching.” In addition to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the LGBT movement is also intent
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