President Obama threw in the domestic kitchen sink last evening during his first State of the Union address.
Politicians, especially first term presidents, tend to do that. Of course, Obama had a lot to cover. The nation’s average unemployment rate being in double digits alone could have taken half of the ground Obama marched over during his 70-minute speech.
As a State of the Union speech goes, it was very good. Obama was not Barack the law professor. Instead, he was Barack the populist president.
Of course, the cable media had to stir up a controversy where there really had not been one. I’m speaking of the president’s rebuke of the Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations and unions to spend unlimited dollars on political campaigns. Some members of the high court were sitting near the president and during what was a polite but forceful dart, Justice Samuel Alito silently mouthed something like “not true.” It’s not like Alito told the president “f**k you.” Or he didn’t yell out: “You lie” as Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., did during Obama’s address on health care reform last year during a joint session of Congress.
Obama covered a lot of ground, including his belief that now is the time to scrap “Don’t ask, don’t tell” and allow gays to openly serve in the military. The cameras on the Joint Chiefs of Staff showed its members in a grim state. But the president was right on this one.
The argument against gays “telling” in the service is about 9/10ths political and 1/10th religious. Which, if you really take the macro look at it, it’s either 100 percent political or 100 percent religious. This is because the political argument is mostly fueled by the religious right, who in turn, pressure the politicians.
One example against gays in the military used 30 years ago when I was in the service was that the enemy could possibly capture a gay service member and blackmail him to reveal classified material by using the service person’s homosexuality against him. (I use “him” because the “hims” were mostly those in such situations. Today, there are plenty of “hers” serving in dangerous and sensitive military positions.) If the military person was openly gay, such blackmail attempts would mostly prove moot.
What many soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and coasties — some women but I think mostly men — would be most concerned with if they are not for open “gayness” in the service might perhaps being hit on by someone of their own gender. You might ask one of these brave souls and they’d tell you “no way.” But until these mostly young males and even some females make peace with themselves about their own sexuality, being a straight who is hit on by a gay can be disconcerting, and for some might rarely spark violence. But the same could probably be said about some straight guy hitting on your girlfriend.
The bottom line is if gays are openly admitted in the service and you are upset at having a pass made at you, you can file the same complaints with superiors as when an unwelcome pass by someone of the opposite sex is made. And yes, sometimes it is difficult to see justice done with that. Nonetheless, fair is fair. Plus we don’t have a military draft and we need people, especially intelligent and talented people — gay or straight — to provide for our national security.
I liked, as well, how the president basically told both parties they act like jackasses, and that his own party needs to grow a (some) pair (s).
I did dislike one of the president’s proposals. That was his proposed government spending freeze beginning in FY 2011. Previous limited budget increases for government agencies have contributed to poor equipment and half-ass training. If the government doesn’t have time or a little extra money to update outmoded equipment and fully train their employees, it will lead to both a total breakdown in services as well as costing more in the end when people or things fail to work as they should.
Think about that one, Mr. Prez.
All in all, I think the President did a fine job on, at least my opinion for now, what I hope to be many more SOTU addresses over the next three-to-seven years.