{"id":294160,"date":"2010-02-08T11:10:54","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T16:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.rj.org,2010:\/rac\/\/2.2418"},"modified":"2010-02-08T11:14:44","modified_gmt":"2010-02-08T16:14:44","slug":"yes-it-is-time-to-repeal-dont-ask-dont-tell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/294160","title":{"rendered":"Yes, It is Time to Repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Eger.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Denise L. Eger is the founding Rabbi of <\/em>Congregation Kol Ami<\/em><\/font><\/a>,
\nWest Hollywood’s Reform Synagogue. She is the first female president of
\nthe Southern California Board of Rabbis and is also president of the
\nPacific Association of Reform Rabbis. This post originally appeared on her blog<\/a> and is republished with permission. <\/p>\n

<\/em>Even the Washington Post<\/a><\/i> is
\ncalling for the repeal of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy. In last week’s op-ed section, the Post <\/i>articulately urges Congress to do
\naway with this heinous policy of expulsion of openly gay and lesbian
\nsoldiers. Put into place during the Clinton years, DADT has done
\ntremendous harm to the armed forces, to our country’s military
\nreadiness and to the almost 14,000 soldiers and sailors that have been
\nexpelled from the military.<\/p>\n

Here our country is fighting two wars-Iraq and Afghanistan now for
\nmore than eight years! Plus there are numerous places around the globe and
\nhere at home where our service men and women are serving are country
\nand in the interests of peace-making. (Yes, it is weirdly ironic that
\nsoldiers, trained as deadly fighters, are peace-makers). But in an all-volunteer military,14,000 highly trained soldiers and officers matter. Especially in a time of war. They were expelled because of a draconian
\npolicy that continues the uptight sexually repressed Victorian thinking
\nof the hyper macho military-industrial complex. For 16 years this
\npolicy has destroyed lives, destroyed careers and weakened our military
\nreadiness.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

Today’s Army (Air Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard) is a
\n professional force.  They are highly skilled, trained professionals.
\nWe invest a lot of time, money and educational opportunities to train
\nthem. This isn’t the draft of WWII or Korea or Vietnam. Obama in his
\nstate of the union addressed called for repealing DADT. But actions
\nspeak louder than words. Let’s see Congress move. Today Secretary of
\nDefense Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
\nof Staff testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in part
\nabout Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. <\/p>\n

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates spoke of the need to change the
\npolicy. Sen. Carl Levin spoke of the need to change the policy.  Sen
\nJohn McCain, the former presidential candidate supported DADT.  Well at
\nleast his wife, Cindy McCain seems to be in our court.<\/p>\n

One of the surprises of the testimony today was the Chairman of the
\nJoint Chiefs of staff, Adm. Mike Mullen of the United States Navy.
\nAdmiral Mullen spoke eloquently about his belief about DADT: “that we
\nhave in place a policy which forces  young men and women to lie about
\nwho they are in order to defend our their fellow citizens. For me
\npersonally, it is a matter of integrity theirs as individuals and ours
\nas an institution. I also believe the great young men and women of our
\nmilitary would embrace such a change.” Wow! How refreshing that he
\nspoke personally and so forcefully.  But then he hedged about how to
\nmake the change in a time of war. To listen to the hearing see the webcast<\/a> of the Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n

There will be a similar hearing on March 3 in the House Armed Services Personnel Sub-Committee.   <\/p>\n

Let’s keep the pressure on. Contact your Senator, Your
\nRepresentative and President Obama. Let’s make Don’t Ask Don’t Tell an
\nunpleasant memory.<\/a> For more ways to help contact the Servicemembers  Legal Defense Network.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rabbi Denise L. Eger is the founding Rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami, West Hollywood’s Reform Synagogue. She is the first female president of the Southern California Board of Rabbis and is also president of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis. This post originally appeared on her blog and is republished with permission. Even the Washington […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-294160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}