Should "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Stay or Go?

The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy established in 1993, has been controversial to some people. The article “Obama seeks stay on don’t ask, don’t tell ruling” by Charlie Savage, tells about how Obama wants the military policy to remain the same, after. Clifford L. Stanley of the department of defense argued that we should not restructure a major policy that has been in effect for years. Some people think that the policy is unconstitutional, but I think it is the right policy.

I think that it’s fine for people to be open with their sexuality. Anybody should be able to express their sexuality and feelings, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t ever encounter judgments. I think that it’s a good idea to keep the policy, just because it has a big effect on what people will interpret that person to be. Some may think that people in the military shouldn’t have to keep it personal if they don’t want to, but think about it- will homosexuals be able to sleep at night feeling safe from judgments?- Maybe not.

Obama said “anybody should be able to serve, and they shouldn’t have to lie about who they are in order to serve”. The policy however doesn’t involve lying about sexuality, but not knowing about their sexuality. It has no need to be abolished, and it helps protect our soldiers from judgments. Sexual orientation shouldn’t define us as a good or bad person, but sometimes knowing somebody’s sexuality just isn’t necessary.

Kentucky License Plate Causes Trouble

The Article, “Kentucky Group Sues Over Nixed ‘in God We Trust’ License Plate” by Diane Macedo brings up the topic of what’s right and what’s wrong when it comes to freedom of belief, and burden of seeing something you might not like. An organization (ROCK) applied for a specialty “In God We Trust” license plate. There are certain things that however, can be considered very offensive, but something like “in God We Trust”- something that’s printed on all currency- shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

                This seems like a very small topic, but I think that banning a national motto from being printed on a license plate is a little bit too far. Farther into the article Chuck Wolfe says,“It just wasn't clear how the national motto -- somebody just seeing that on a license plate-- would be able to tell from that that this is an organization with the stated mission of being opposed to pornography and the sex industry.” It really makes me wonder why such a small organization for a good cause can have such bad impression on certain people.

                Would you rather have a license plate supporting pornography, or one supporting a religious belief, that happens to be a national motto? I’m not trying to be bias in any way, but if people have religious beliefs, it is their right to support it in any way they can, even though some people might now agree with them. There is nothing morally wrong with a simple motto, so why should people care so much?

                What we see everyday influences us and effects us in some way. We see advertisements for alcohol and makeup everyday on the television, so why should something like “In God We Trust” be any different? Overall, I think that people shouldn’t worry about a harmless license plate, when they could be supporting their own beliefs and ideas.