Respecting Diversity for Our Victory

A religious war like our current war with Islam is not usually considered to be the raw material for creating a more tolerant society, but this war could be different. Our religious diversity is one of our strengths against Islam. Islam makes it easy for us to be united, as Islam preaches war against all non-muslims. That the fundamentalist Christian and the atheist are forced to be comrades in arms has a certain beauty. If we rejoice in that beauty and fight this war united against Islam, we can come out of this war a better civilization, despite the unpleasantness of having to slaughter the muslims. Sadly, not everyone gets this. Bleu Copas, a decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist, was dismissed from the US Army for being gay. We face a war and the Army is wasting time firing gay people from positions the Pentagon describes as critical.

There is an issue deeper than gays being useful manpower for the Army. Gays, like Jews, Christians, atheists, women, Buddhists, Hindus, muslim apostates and so forth, are singled out for special hatred by the muslims. Gays have a human right to defend themselves and slaughter muslims like everyone else. Think of it in this way, the idea behind the Second Amendment is that we have a basic right to self-defense. The way we defend ourselves against a force hostile to our country is the military. This implies a Second Amendment right--and I consider a Second Amendment right to be basic human right--to join the military. Obviously, that right must be balanced against the cost of training a soldier to be effective. The military must be able to reject an eighty year old women with arthritis who wants to enlist, though an alternative would be to weed them out on the first day of boot camp. On the other hand, we know young gay men and women are effective workers in virtually every job in our society. We also know that many gay men and women have in fact made excellent soldiers in our military. The military leadership should overturn the ban on gays in the military because of these facts and to respect the Second Amendment. Unfortunately, the courts cannot do this, as it could be disastrous for the courts to second guess the military.

I admit I have strong feelings about this issue One of my neighbors is a young, black, Buddhist drag queen. I tell him about how the muslims kill gay people and kill Buddhists in Thailand. My stories fill him with the anger as they should. This strange fruit has had to defend himself against bullies in schools and understands Islam for what it is—a doctrine for bullies. He told me he would gladly join the military. I'm sure he's saying this partly because he knows the military won't accept him and partly to get back at his hippie parents—that most authentic behavior of the young. Still, I believe there to be a genuine core to his desire. Surely, we can find it in our hearts to tolerate him enough to permit him the glory of battle.