Immoral

Whatever you might do, I can do more, 'cause I know how to fight better than you.

Amy, if you knew the horror of that place. It isn't a hospital. It's a desolate island haunted by death. They'll put Pres in an open shed with a hundred others. You must be there with him day and night, watchin' every breath he draws. You must bathe him, keep him clean, give him drugs, fight for his food and water. You must keep the livin' from him and the dead. Be there by him with your body between him and Death.

--Jezebel (1938)
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Ms. Davis's Jezebel may not have been pure as her rival Amy, but she understood devotion, and how to fight and win a battle.

General Peter Pace, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, was so kind yesterday as to share his belief that homosexuality is "immoral." Possibly Pace should consider changing jobs to that of chaplain, though this inherent prejudice might prove somewhat problematic.

If Pace believes that homosexual conduct is immoral, how does he weigh in on the immorality of Gingrich, Haggard, et. al.? It would seem that war fighting is the only thing that should concern Pace's thinking in any pronouncements made in his professional capacity. Pace functions as Chairman JCS, not a moral arbiter.

Why would Pace bring this topic to the national level? We can presume that any statements given by a man in his position, especially to a national news outlet like the Chicago Tribune, would be vetted prior to their issuance.

This smacks of the most obsequious braying to the Republican party's Christian fundamentalist platform. GWB is prevented from saying such things due to that messy matter of separation of church and state, so the 4-Star with nothing to lose is sent out to reassure the party base that they still control the board.

However, those gung-ho right wingers should be ever-grateful for the efforts of all of our servicemen and women. It is estimated that as many as 60,000 troops are homosexual. Even if the actual number is only a fraction of that, it is the most odious hypocrisy to call someone immoral whom you have no compunction about sending to his death in order to protect you and your way of life.

Our country should be grateful for the services of all our soldiers, regardless of sexual orientation. This affiliation does not bear upon fitness for service. Do we hold our law enforcement officers or firefighters up to the same sexual censure?

It seems more immoral to this writer to execute elective wars than it is to partake in illicit sex, either homo or hetero. As Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Cynthia Tucker said recently speaking of the voters who still view Bush as "upright and moral" in the face of untold misinformation leading up to the Iraq invasion,

"morality encompasses more than sexual fidelity, more than sobriety after years of reckless driving. It also encompasses honor, integrity and candor--especially in an enterprise such as war.

"Bush took the nation to war on a web of lies, sacrificing the lives of men and women who took him at his word. There is precious little honor or integrity in that."

When will the voters surmount their petty prejudices and affiliations, in order to view the big picture? The important questions are: Who is leading you down a path of distractions, and who is protecting you? Who is doing a noble day's service, and who is servicing their own agenda, come hell or high water?

Look out for your own needs, and those of your countrymen, rather than looking for ways to condemn and exclude them. At the end of the day, their needs are much more like yours than you might initially imagine--and certainly more like yours than like those of the official distractors.

The cartoonist Mike Luckovich (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) captures the behavior in his cartoon below. When will we tire of the distractions?

by Jim and Lisa