"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- The Human Affect

For some time now, Rachel Maddow has been regularly doing interviews with individuals directly affected by the ban on gays in the military.  Incredible profiles.  Service members who have been discharged.  Men and women who are awaiting their fate.  Katherine Miller, a former cadet at the U.S. Military Academy who resigned from West Point a week before she would have been required to commit to finish her final two years and serve five years in the military.  All incredibly talented, smart and articulate.  All committed first and foremost, to country, service and duty.

No one has put a face on the human toll of “don’t ask, don’t ask” like Rachel Maddow. However, to the credit of interviewer and interviewees, the pieces have not at their core been about the individuals in question.  Maddow does a fabulous job of positioning the interview segments within the public policy discourse.  The interviews are as much about the person affected as they are about civil rights, military preparedness and the concepts of duty and service.  I walk away from each interview not only wanting to know more about the person interviewed, but thinking deeply about how my country’s military might be less prepared to do its job because this person is not allowed to serve.  A fabulous interweaving of the individual story, and the “big picture.”

And today, this from Greg Sargent:

One thing that's been oddly missing from the debate in the Senate over repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell is any discussion of the moral and human dimensions of this story, at least as it concerns the gay service-members themselves. The discussion has mostly focused on how straight troops will be impacted, and has otherwise been bone dry: It's all about what the statistics in the Pentagon report actually reveal and whether Robert Gates will implement repeal on a sufficiently flexible timetable.

Indeed, when Senator James Webb today asked the Service Chiefs a simple question about the gay human beings impacted by this discriminatory policy, everyone at the hearing acted a bit startled. Webb asked: What should we do with gay patriotic Americans who have already served our country for years, and want to lead free and open lives? Everyone looked uncomfortable, as if Webb had gone way off topic.

 Read the whole piece here, at the Washington Post.

This is about individual, human beings and about policy.  To deny that fact would be very, very un-American.