Don't Ask, Don't Tell (CTG)

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Be just, and fear not:
Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s,
Thy God’s, and truth’s; then if thou fall’st, . . .
Thou fall’st a blessed martyr!

Shakespeare, Henry VIII

We rarely talked of War
or of the Battle of Sex,

-- sex with the opposite
sex or the same, although
we told dubious jokes.

We were soon to step out
on the battlefield of life,

unprepared, naive, making
our entrance on a plain
where we'd be struck down

if we faltered once.

Christopher T. George

The above stained glass window is in the former Quarry Bank High School that John Lennon and I attended in Liverpool... though at different times, John being about 10 years ahead of me. As of this time, the U.S. government is considering ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy re openly gay people serving in the military, and the bill to end it has been making some headway in Congress. I am not gay but feel that if these service men and women are willing to face death in Iraq or Afghanistan there's no reason why they can't serve just like any other troops.

Nice sentiment Chris.

Wars are often fought to uphold individual rights, or to grant rights to the oppressed in return for filling the ranks. So minorities have always been courted by the military. But not women's rights, or the rights of gays.