Obama Administration appeals DADT ruling

Despite repeated pronouncements from President Obama that he will end the Clintonian "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of the U.S. military, his Administration has decided to appeal the ruling of Federal District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips in which she issued an injunction requiring the military to stop enforcing the policy. So much for words and deeds being congruent.

In a 48-page court filing, Clifford L. Stanley, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, argued that the military, particularly in wartime, should not be required to “suddenly and immediately restructure a major personnel policy that has been in place for years.” Mr. Stanley said the injunction would disrupt efforts to prepare for a more orderly repeal of the policy.

“The stakes here are so high, and the potential harm so great, that caution is in order,” he said.

How deplorable that the Obama Administration would use national security as an excuse to continue discrimination against one group of people. I must have missed the threat assessment memo that listed being openly gay and serving your country as being just as terrible as being a terrorist.

Funny, but I also don't recall one incident of a mob of gay jihadists terrorizing their fellow citizens. Yet somehow the President and his team have found common cause with the radical right.

The Administration would argue that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would somehow cause such a loss of morale at such a critical time, rendering the U.S. military suddenly impotent to carry out its mission around the world, but particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq. Need I remind President Obama that he was once a candidate who was going to end Bush's war and bring the troops home? Well, we're still waiting Mr. President.

Furthermore, as an African-American who has been known to invoke Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the President should show more sensitivity to the plight of yet another group that continues to seek an America where they are judged not by their sexual orientation but "by the content of their character."

It's long past time for Don't Ask, Don't Tell to be relegated to the pages of history books.