I just want to be me

There are a lot of really bad things going on right now. Alberto Gonzales and his Justice Department are up shit creek (a bad thing because the DOJ is supposed to be nonpartisan). It's looking more and more each day like the Democrat-controlled Congress is going to go after Karl Rove (a bad thing because at this point, Plamegate is a non-issue, despite the fact that, at the very least, Vice-President Dick Cheney ought to be impeached over it). And yet none of these, to me, attacks our very way of life the way the statements of Gen. Peter Pace, the (worst-ever) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said to my hometown Chicago Tribune that homosexual acts are "immoral," and guess what? I don't give a damn. Gen. Pace can think whatever the hell he wants, even if it's wrong, 'cause this is a free country.

Where he threatens our way of life, however, is when he said this in 2005: "The U.S. military mission fundamentally rests on the trust, confidence and cooperation amongst its members. And the homosexual lifestyle does not comport with that kind of trust and confidence." This is not based on fact, and it is not expressing a personal opinion wholly separate from the military; this is a direct slam on any brave man or woman, for whom homosexuality is simply a part of their life (like family, the military, and hobbies), serving his or her country.

Look, I don't care about what your personal opinions on homosexuality are. You can, like me, think that gays are just as valid as straights; you can disbelieve that, too. I'm not saying that your view on it is right, if indeed you do believe gays are invalids or mentally unstable or something, but as an American citizen, you have the right to believe the moon landing never happened, that the Freemasons run the United States, and that dinosaur bones were planted in Africa by the Jews if you so desire.

Obviously, those previous three statements are ludicrous, as is the idea that homosexuals are inferior to heterosexuals. But you can believe anything you want in the USA. What you cannot do, however, is tell me that someone willing to defend this country, someone who has no physical maladies of any sort, someone who love the States and Her People enough to die for them, does not deserve the chance to be himself or herself.

I respect the military. Unlike a lot of libs I know, who believe that a big military is the root of all evil in this country, I believe our military is made up mostly of good dudes and girls. I happened to meet a couple of them -- Marines, actually -- whilst waiting in line at a bar on Saturday (St. Paddy's Day). They were typical guys, nothing special about them, except for the fact that they've put their lives on the line, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, defending our way of life. One of them asked me if I was "queer." I said, "No, but so what if I was?" He said to me, "Fags just freak me out." Then he stopped, looked at me, and in a moment worthy of a four-walled contemporary sit-com, said, "'Cept if there's fuckin' bombs going off around me. Then, long as you're mowin' down motherfuckin' terrorists, I don't give a shit."