Tuesday, March 13, 2007

War and love.

Where can you find pleasure, search the world for treasure, learn science and technology?
Where can you begin to make your dreams all come true on the land or on the sea?
Where can you learn to fly play in sports or skindive study oceanography?
Sign up for the big band or sit in the grand stand when your team and others meet.

In the Navy, yes you can sail the seven seas.
In the Navy, yes you can put your mind at ease.
In the Navy, come on now people, make a stand.
In the Navy, can’t you see we need a hand?
In the Navy, come on, protect the motherland.
In the Navy, come on and join your fellow, man.
In the Navy, come on, people, and make a stand.
In the Navy, in the Navy.

They want you. They want you. They want you as a new recruit.

If you like adventure, don’t you wait to enter, the recruiting office fast.
Don’t you hesitate, there is no need to wait, they’re signing up new seamen fast.
Maybe you are too young to join up today, but don’t you worry ´bout the thing
for I’m sure there will be always the good Navy, protecting the land and sea.

In the early 90’s Jacques Morali, Henri Belolo & Victor Willis wrote the text of this song performed by a group called “The Village People”.
If this song had been performed by some tough, heterosexual guys, the message would have been very different.
Because “The Village People”, from San Francisco, were openly homosexuals, their ambition to want to go into the navy gave it a cabaret like twist.

However, yesterday, we came to learn that there is no such thing as joining the Navy for Village People.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Peter Pace, said Monday he considers homosexuality to be immoral and the military should not condone it by allowing gay soldiers to serve openly, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Marine General Peter Pace likened homosexuality to adultery, which he said was also immoral.
"I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way," Marine General Peter Pace told the newspaper in a wide-ranging interview.
Conclusion: no homosexuals in the navy and army therefore.
But wait!
Marine General Peter Pace also said he supports the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell policy" in which gay men and women are allowed in the military as long as they keep their sexual orientation private.

Marine General Peter Pace is the highest-ranking military person in the USA today.
He has his morals, as he claims, from his upbringing.
So, they are not his own.
He didn’t develop in life his own morals but allowed to be indoctrinated.
He happened to have been born in a family and community where homosexuality was condemned while there are other families and communities where homosexuality is accepted and tolerated.
He is having a morality based on chance and coincidence but pretends it is the one and only.
Marine General Peter Pace doesn’t see that one’s morality is a personal entity and can never be imposed on fellow human beings.

One thing is that he puts his personal and private morals as a standard for a whole army.
That is fine: he is the boss.
If too many people disagree, he will be sacked.
The other thing is that he corrupts his own morals accepting the “Don’t ask, don’t tell policy” doctrine.
And that makes the man unbelievable and unacceptable.
It is characteristic for persons who live in strict dogma’s to falter and become hypocritical.

To compare homosexuality with adultery is of a tremendous naivety.
This naivety is understandable of a man specialised in violence and conflict not having learned much else in life.
But to believe and express openly, in public, in his position as the highest-ranking military authority, that homosexuality is immoral, is a dangerous demonstration of intolerance and fanatical moral fundamentalism.

In 2006 in Austria, Europe, a British writer, David Irving, was condemned to prison time for stating that the Holocaust by the Nazi’s during the Second World War had never taken place.

Anybody is free to think what one wants.
But to publicly say and follow up on a personal moral conviction that homosexuality is immoral, should be categorized as a criminal offence like many other public statements not tolerated by law.

What makes Marine General Peter Pace so pathetic though is his inability to be consistent and consequent.
He draws a line in the sand and next looks the other way when people cross that line.

Marine General Peter Pace makes us think of the 1999 Sam Mendes film “American Beauty”.
Actor Kevin Spacey plays a man who comes to understand how ridiculous his life and his suburbian reality is.
It is a great movie to see how he is able to liberate himself and choose for a life of his own.
But he has a neighbour, a married, retired army officer, whose daughter has a beautiful romance with Kevin Spacey’s son.
This army officer discovers that he has homosexual feelings of attraction towards Spacey.
He even makes a pass at him and Spacey gently makes him understand he is not homosexual.
This infuriates the army officer so much, he actually shoots and kills Spacey.
Is Peter Pace using his morality to avoid feeling his own homosexuality ?
Why otherwise make such a public outcry about it ?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could you get over yourself? Typical European sissified thinking. The same kind of mindset that allowed the Nazi's to turn most of you into dogmeat. Disparaging a fine man such as General Pace. You should be ashamed of yourself. It's because of people like him that has allowed you to roam freely in this country that you so obviously hold in contempt. This is what happens when political correctness has run amok, where a man can't even voice an opinion without every crybaby in the country getting their feelings hurt. I fear that as a nation we have turned into a bunch of weak-willed men and women who are just waiting for the next imagined slight, so they can seek counseling or a candlelight vigil or bring a lawsuit and you're not helping matters any with your drivel. I'll tell you what: I've been in the military and I would rather have ten General Pace's than a thousand homo's or ten thousand Europeans. Why don't you just report on your Fuso? At least you haven't screwed that up yet, and when it gets done start it up and get out of the U.S.A.

Anonymous said...

I agree with comment 1. It seems you have nothing positive to say about the USA or our President. You are a guest here. You seem to have never learned any manners. It might be time for you to go take your snapshots somewhere else.

Anonymous said...

I say: You can stay as long as you wish. ;>)

Anonymous said...

Michel, you are as entitled to your opinions as is the next person! In fact, sometimes it takes someone with a differing perspective to more clearly see what is truth. As for gays serving in the military, they have been there forever and will continue to be. In a time of no drafting of troops, gays who serve in the military do so out of choice. They are as fit to serve our country and fight for our continued freedom as any heterosexual grunt. Being gay does not make lily-faced cowards of men or women. Had General Pace or your first two responders ever let go of their personal homophobias long enough to really get to know gay people they would know that gays are as passionate about right and wrong and as moral as anyone else, if not more so. I am very much a heterosexual, yet some of the very best people that I have known throughout my long life are gay. It is people like General Pace who keep our country from progressing into an age of enlightenment.

If the first two responders and others don't like your opinions about whatever, then for crying out loud, they don't need to read your blog.

Michel, keep on keeping on!

Anonymous said...

If all you righteous anonymous commentators think you're position is so correct, why don't you sign your name? Thank God this country is diverse, and not all Americans share your view.

I for one welcome our visitors.

Anonymous said...

Michel, one of the great things about this country is you can say any thing you want as long as you are not starting a riot our something comparable and nothing is going to happen to you unless your words cause someone to get hurt. It is called free speach.

So even as a guest you are welcome to your opinion even if people here don't agree with you.

But may I ask you one thing. If you were in the army and another soldier that is gay and has HIV is hurt and bleeding are you willing to get his body fluids all over you to help treat him.

In other words why should a soldier or anyone having to treat this soldier in combat have to be put at that risk when there is not time to find the answers to them.