Last week, Sandy Tsao (who is being fired from the Army for being openly gay) got the following note from President Sparkle-Pony:
Isn’t it funny how certain matters just take such a long darned time!? I mean, it took Congress (including then-Senator Sparkle-Pony, D-IL) like 48 hours to pass TARP and hurl $700,000,000,000 at various shiftless (and fabulously wealthy) banks and financial “services” firms. They moved that money like it was on fire. It was an emergency, and they moved swiftly to transfer all of our money to rich people and their horribly-run giant corporations.
But too bad for Sandy Tsao! America’s ruling class just never seems to get around to certain “issues” (usually “issues” that don’t involve stealing all our money and giving it to rich people, and almost always issues that don’t effect them personally), although they certainly want us to understand how much they care, and that our equality as citizens before the law is definitely on their to-do list!
Whatever. Obama could have effectively ended DADT on his first day in office by ordering DOD to stop investigating these cases. No investigation, no finding, no termination.
Unfortunately for Barry, it doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to brush our “issues” under the presidential carpet with nice hand-written notes, because the firings will of continue. Here’s Army officer (and professional Arabic translator and Iraq combat veteran) Daniel Choi’s open letter to His Hopefulness begging to be allowed to continue to serve his country:
The Department of the Army sent a letter discharging me on April 23rd. I will not lie to you; the letter is a slap in the face. It is a slap in the face to me. It is a slap in the face to my soldiers, peers and leaders who have demonstrated that an infantry unit can be professional enough to accept diversity, to accept capable leaders, to accept skilled soldiers.
My subordinates know I’m gay. They don’t care. They are professional.
Further, they are respectable infantrymen who work as a team. Many told me that they respect me even more because I trusted them enough to let them know the truth. Trust is the foundation of unit cohesion.
After I publicly announced that I am gay, I reported for training and led rifle marksmanship. I ordered hundreds of soldiers to fire live rounds and qualify on their weapons. I qualified on my own weapon. I showered after training and slept in an open bay with 40 other infantrymen. I cannot understand the claim that I “negatively affected good order and discipline in the New York Army National Guard.” I refuse to accept this statement as true.
As an infantry officer, I am not accustomed to begging. But I beg you today: Do not fire me. Do not fire me because my soldiers are more than a unit or a fighting force – we are a family and we support each other. We should not learn that honesty and courage leads to punishment and insult. Their professionalism should not be rewarded with losing their leader. I understand if you must fire me, but please do not discredit and insult my soldiers for their professionalism.
When I was commissioned I was told that I serve at the pleasure of the President. I hope I have not displeased anyone by my honesty. I love my job. I want to deploy and continue to serve with the unit I respect and admire. I want to continue to serve our country because of everything it stands for.
Please do not wait to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Please do not fire me.
I know the Dems are cagey about The Gayz after what happened to Bill Clinton, but guess what? It’s not 1993!
Seventy-five percent of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll said gay people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military, up from 62 percent in early 2001 and 44 percent in 1993.
Gays in the military have a higher approval rating than you do, Mr. Popular! So what’s it’ gonna be?
Well. We’re not much farther along here, with the, the change, and the spine, and all; but at least he has lovely manners.