jar of hearts

well, i would first like to extend a gracious "thank you" to the wonderful persons who brought my page views from zero up to 78! any traffic is good traffic :) also, i find it funny that i have hits from Canada, Russia, Germany, Taiwan, Latvia and Nigeria... oh, and from South Korea (but i know who that is).




this past week has been.... a roller coaster ride, to say the least. very emotional times with losing some things (read: people) that cannot be replaced. it reminded me that each person's perspective is that person's reality. my perspective is my reality. your perspective is your reality. the important part comes in remembering (which i had to force myself to remember this) to not mistake the limits of your perception as the limits of the world.
 
 
that being said, i want to talk about something slightly political. and i may piss off a few people... but please remember that i mean no harm.
 
today, the Senate voted down an attempt to bring DADT into debate. GLBT/LGBT issues are on the forefront of a lot of discussions. the fact it is an election year is probably to "blame," but it is important.
 
i want to start with a lot of caveats because i don't want anyone to mistake what (or how) i say for what it is not. and i also don't want anyone to think that by disagreeing with what they've said is, by any means, me disagreeing with the key issue.
 
- i believe that DADT should be repealed
- i'm not a democrat
- i'm not a republican
- i don't hate the US military, i support it
- i believe that everyone has the right to have a belief and to express it
 
ok. here we go.
 
i understand why it is upsetting that the Senate voted this down. GLBT/LGBT persons are, on a daily basis, discriminated against. sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes in big ways. but it is still discrimination. i get rather perturbed and rather often whenever there's a news story that comes up and there are comments like "I can't believe that with one stroke of a pen, this judge is going against a majority vote of the state!!" and like "It's about time! The Republican'ts are trying to bring us back the 1950s." i find issue with the thoughts behind both of these comments.
 
i firmly advocate that the existence of any one right of any one person should not be decided by a majority vote. (i'll go ahead and connect the dots) if that were so, then minorities would have no rights. in my 8th grade civics class, my teacher taught us something that i think has been lost: the majority vote decides what America does, but it should never be at the cost of the minority.
 
now, here's the clincher: i have no issues with the Senate voting against bringing up the debate on DADT today. (don't get angry yet...) i think we need to be patient. yes, there are many serving in the military right this moment that are GLBT/LGBT that have to hide who they are and there are those who have been kicked out, "dishonorably" so, because their sexual identity came to be known. i'm in favor of waiting for the survey that has been sent out to those actually serving in the military. the people it will directly effect, and not just the GLBT persons, has to be considered. if this is done too quickly and without much planning and without much careful thought, it could be disastrous. for everybody. we have to be in this together, or it won't work. i'm not saying that if we should wait, think carefully and have exact planning that it will absolutely go right. but, i'd rather caution on the side of preparedness.
 
yes, GLBT/LGBT persons are being treated as de facto second class. but, we are not the only ones that will be effected by this. Lady Gaga, of whom musically i am not a fan, said that the new law should be "If you don't like it, go home." to me, this is nearly as bad as sending home gays from the military. if someone believes that being gay is wrong... they have every right to believe it. but they should not receive the same treatment as gays in the military now get.
 
so, this is turning into a much longer post that i anticipated. so, i'll go ahead and give a conclusion.
 
we need to be patient. but we also need to be consistent in our response to DADT. every person matters and every person in the military will be effected by this. not just the heterosexuals. not just the homosexuals. everyone. it is not going to be easy if and when DADT is repealed... but we can work with each other to make sure it goes easier. now i'll bring in my tie-in from the beginning of my post. perspectives matter. and i'm saying this more to myself because i need to hear it right now more than ever: don't mistake the limits your perspective as the limits of the world (or of other people).
 
 
 
levi