In the essay “Why gays shouldn’t serve” by David Horowitz he states that “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell policy is a way of containing the destructive force of sex on a combat capability called Unit Cohesion. (354)” This controversial topic has surfaced more and more recently because Barack Obama wanted to let all people serve in the military, regardless of their sexual orientation. “More than 1,000 retired flag and general officers have joined us in signing an open letter to President Obama and Congress, repeal of this law would prompt many dedicated people to leave the military (James J. Lindsay).” There are multiple points you could focus on when trying to explain your point on why gays or lesbians should not serve in the military. The first point we will be focusing on is: how would military life change if straight men or women knew that there were gays or lesbians sleeping next to them? The second point is: would straight men and women communicate with the gays or lesbians the same way as they would toward other straight men or women? The third and final point is: how would other countries view our military if they knew we had gays or lesbians in the military? The first main point that I want to focus on is how daily life in the military would be affected if we knew we had gays or lesbians sleeping right next to us every night. Would we want to move out of our barracks and move to one where there wasn’t a gay or lesbian or would we just stick it out? In some cases you have times where you may have other soldiers in your barracks that you may not know if they are gay/lesbian at all unless they tell you. This affects many things like the “Buddy System” and also the life in the barracks. “Most junior enlisted (the ones who have to live i... ... middle of paper ... ...traight men and women. The three key topics that we need to read and understand carefully are how the military life would change if gays and lesbians were in the military. Also we need to look at the interaction with the gays and lesbians and determine if the cohesion is good or is there no cohesion at all. Lastly we need to take a look at how other countries would view us and see how they would react if we did make the decision to put gays and lesbians in the military. Works Cited Horowitz, David. "Why Gays Shouldnt Serve." Faigley, Lester and Jack Selzer. Good Reasons Researching and Writing Effective Arguments Fifth Edition. New York: Pearson, 2012. 352-356. Article. James J. Lindsay, Jerome Johnson, E.G. "Buck" Shuler Jr., Joseph J. Went. The Washington Post. 15 April 2009. Article. 17 March 2014. Powers, Rod. About.com. 28 March 2012. Article. 17 March 2014.
: In reading How to Be an Undividual, it is clear that the author David Koloff is a full-fledged nonconformist, although, believes in the natural order of finding yourself; even if it involves being an intentional conformist in the beginning. He quickly lets the reader know his stance on conformity in the first paragraph, that illustrates the isolated feeling that children feel as they’re thrown from institution to institution as they grow up. However, how is Koloff himself a conformist? Well, Koloff is obviously a very successful writer. He seems to follow a trend in one of the aspects of his writing. Koloff uses satire, wit and irony as devises. Although, considering he was inspired to write this piece because of the conformity he sees in
Lisa Miller uses the Bible as a basis for her argument for gay marriage in her essay "Our Mutual Joy: The Religious Case for Gay Marriage". She first begins her argument by saying that neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament show model examples for marriage. Therefore, neither a homosexual or heterosexual couple would want to look to the Bible for marriage advice. Instead, the Bible should be read for its universal truths. Miller goes onto say that there is no real definition of marriage in the Bible, and the laws and guidelines in the Bible were put in place for a culture that no longer exists. If Christians no longer subscribe to animal sacrifice, then why would they condemn homosexuality? She ends by discussing the fact that Jesus ' message was one of inclusion. So, all those who claim to follow the Bible 's teachings should love others regardless of their sexual orientation.
Throughout millenniums, people have tried to figure out the causation for human behaviors. Michael Kimmel and Dave Barry have written pieces focusing on this subject, particularly about men. In the excerpt “‘Bros Before Hos’: The Guy Code” from Michael Kimmel’s book Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, he wrote that men act they way they do due to other men’s judgements. In the introduction “Guys vs. Men” from Dave Barry’s humor book Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys, he wrote that guys act they way they do because of strong internal drives and lack of deep thought. Although both Kimmel and Barry have similar views on the actions of men, they have different approaches to the reasoning behind their actions: Kimmel believes they are caused by fear of breaking societal norms, and Barry believes they are caused by guys’ internal drives.
A true war story blurs the line between fact and fiction, where it is neither true nor false at the same time. What is true and what is not depends on how much you believe it to be. In the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story” from the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, the author provides various definitions to how the validity of a war story can be judged. The entire chapter is a collection of definitions that describe the various truths to what a true war story is. Unlike O’Brien, who is a novelist and storyteller, David Finkel, the author of “The Good Soldiers”, is a journalist whose job is to report the facts. Yet in the selection that we read, chapter nine, Finkel uses the convention of storytelling, which relies heavily on the stories the combat troops tell each other or him personally. Finkel attempts to give an unbiased view of the Iraq war through the stories of the soldiers but in doing so, Finkel forfeits the use of his own experiences and his own opinions. From O’Brien’s views on what a true war story is combined with my own definitions, I believe that Finkel provides a certain truth to his war stories but not the entire truth.
Frank, Nathaniel. Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2009. Print.
Today’s military is a unique force in my opinion. What makes the US Military so unique is that we have an all volunteer force. With that volunteer force there are rules and regulations that need to be followed because serving our country is a privilege. The 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy is claiming that even though it may be considered an infringement on human rights and freedom of expression, it protects the rights of the rest of the military and opens a loophole for gay men and women to serve in the armed forces. Other countries have successfully integrated gay men and women into their militaries and compared the treatment of other "minority" groups in the military. Is the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy really effective or even necessary for our militaries?
la Haye, K., Green, H. D., Kennedy, D. P., Zhou, A., Golinelli, D., Wenzel, S. L., & Tucker, J. S.
"Update: Women in the Military." Issues and Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 29 May 2007. Web.
As generations proceeded, institutions such as the American Psychiatric Society began to classify homosexuality as a disease, which was later retracted in the 1970’s and was no longer considered a mental disorder. At this time many homosexuals decided to start “coming out”, a process in which people talk freely about their sexual orientation to family and friends. Then in the1980’s new adversary for the gay community became the forefront of debates worldwide. The AIDS crisis, which seemed to be only contracted in the gay male population, paved the way for brutalizing words such as “queer” that was used to describe all sexual minorities. In the 1990’s where the gay rights movement saw more victories with the United States military instituting the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy.” This policy gave homosexuals the right to serve within the military. Then in the year 2000, Vermont became the first state to allow same sex civil unions (Pitas).
Imagine being in the heat of war, a place where trust is needed most. Imagine, however, that in the heat of war you cannot trust your fellow soldier because of personal tensions within the unit. It was this problem that the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was designed to avoid, the tension caused between soldiers when homosexuals are serving openly. Without this policy, homosexuals serving openly could create tension that interferes with the military’s effectiveness. While it may not be obvious at first, the policy of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” actually supports the both values of the military and the rights of homosexuals. As a result, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is needed to protect homosexual service members and is crucial in securing military effectiveness.
Gomes, Peter J. �Homophobic? Read Your Bible.� Good Reasons With Contemporary Arguments: Reading, Designing, and Writing Effective Arguments. Lester Faigley and Jack Selzer. 2nd ed. New York: Pearson, 2004. 412-14.
Healthcare is the act of taking preventative or necessary medical procedures to maintain and improve individual’s physical and mental health. These services are typically offered through a health care system made up of hospitals and physicians.
In addition, having in consideration that the military is mostly made up of males, twenty percent is a high amount of male soldiers subjected to sexual assault and sexual harassment in reality. Victims of sexual abuse and harassment are generally involved in different situations, but according to a study performed by the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, “men are more likely to experience military sexual assault and harassment from a same-sex perpetrator, whereas the perpetrators of women’s military sexual assault and harassment experiences are most often of the opposite sex”. (Street et al).
In the views of Micheal Kimmel “hegemonic masculinity” is a socially constructed process where men are pressured by social norms of masculine ideals to perform behaviors of a “true man” and its influence on young male’s growth. It is the ideology that being a man with power and expressing control over women is a dominant factor of being a biological male. The structure of masculinity was developed within the 18th to 19th century, as men who owned property and provided for his family with strength related work environments was the perfect example of being a generic “American man.” Kimmel introduces Marketplace Manhood and its relation to American men. He states, “Marketplace Masculinity describes the normative definition of American masculinity.
The purpose of this essay is to discuss the issue of rape and sexual assault in the military. The number of attacks for rape and sexual assault in the military are at an all-time high. Women have recently been allowed to fight on the front line. While this may be a huge achievement for women-kind, for this woman, it is a very scary thought. I am a junior at Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences; a school geared towards students wishing to enter the medical field. I may be forced to join the military one day if a war breaks out and women are needed to protect the country. I would be happy to serve my country if I did not have to be scared of my fellow soldiers. Rape and sexual assault are major issues in the military and have been for many years without much effort to decrease the attacks. I am suggesting that unless the rape and sexual assault issue is fixed, the amount of people joining the military, specifically the women, will decrease greatly.