August 1,
2006
Sgt
Denny's Rant
The Tenth Man
Straight
folks are often very conflicted about having gay
people in their midst. It is a well known fact
that, while the US armed forces forbid known gay
people to serve, discharges decline during
wartime. When we are needed, it becomes convenient
to ignore the concerns of discrimination. The
American Christian community, until its recent
conversion to extremism, simply ignored the rather
obvious fact that most talented church organists
are gay. In the Jewish community, as well, the
concept that all Jews are welcome has prevailed up
to a point. In many American inner cities, there
are declining populations leading to some small
old synagogues having only a handful of old men
available for the required minyan of ten Jewish
men to carry on the tradition of daily group
prayers. And so, it is considered a great honor
and blessing (a mitzvah) to be 'the tenth man' who
may go out of his way to volunteer to be present
to allow the tradition to go on. In the late 90s,
I found myself willingly 'on call' for this duty
for two small local congregations. After all,
there's no harm in having a bit of good-deed on
account. But, I began to feel troubled by the
subtle homophobia that hovered in the background,
the muttered chatter, the innocuous questions
about wife and family, etc. And so I began to show
up, when called upon to be the tenth man, wearing
a pink yarmulke. These old men were not stupid;
they knew exactly what it meant. And this set up a
conundrum; did they want to send me away because I
was an unwelcome queer, or did they want me to
stay as the honored tenth man whose blessed
presence allows them to pray?
In
today's American armed forces, with recruiting
shortfalls resulting in shortages of readiness
manpower, idiotic ideology prevails; queers are
not wanted, period. Instead, criteria for
intelligence and decency have been lowered to
allow common criminals and neo-nazis to enlist.
Research data indicates that over 41 thousand gay
and lesbian young Americans would enlist to serve
their nation, in this time of war, if they could
do so openly. Millions of other young Americans
refuse to join a military that discriminates.
In recent
years, huge numbers of critical linguists were
discharged simply for being lesbian or gay. Many
were replaced with 'foreign national native
speakers' some of whom turned out to have
compromised or conflicted loyalties. How can it be
that criminals and potential traitors are
considered more desirable than intelligent
patriotic young Americans who are willing to
volunteer in time of war but are unwanted simply
because of the way they love. What sort of moral
fascism drives this nation towards such self
destructive decisions?
The
decision of the old Jewish men? They always had me
stay so that they could pray. They were not
particularly egalitarian. They simply decided
that, even if I was gay, I was a Jew who qualified
to fill out the minyan; and the obligation to give
thanks in prayer was paramount. It would have been
a sin to send me away, simple as that. The primary
sin considered was the abrogation of prayer for
the sake of discrimination. The second sin, of
sending away a Jew who wanted to pray, was perhaps
a secondary but still very serious consideration
as well.
Our armed
forces, our nation, stand on the brink of failure
due to a fanatical ideology which has resulted in
inadequacies and incapabilities in our troop
strength. It is what my mother called,
"biting your nose to spite your face."
Is this nation really so determined to defend
discrimination that our national defense is
compromised? What kind of sin against American
values, democracy, and liberty is it to send away
able bodied patriotic American citizen volunteers
who want to serve their nation?
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