Congress: Tear Down this Law!

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” must be repealed. Now.

I recently read an article in the New York Times about two Generals who are now against the law’s repeal. One of the Generals is quoted as saying, “I do have serious concerns about the impact of repeal of the law on a force that’s fully engaged in two wars and has been at war for eight-and-a-half years.”

Question: When will it be okay to repeal the law? Will that time come after we finish fighting for “freedom” all over the world while we continuously discriminate against people in our own society? Will we be ready once we finish exporting “American values” of fairness and openness while we hinder people who are risking their lives for those values from expressing their full selves? Or maybe it will be time to repeal the law after we decide that we want to get off of our moral high ground and stop telling the rest of the world what to do while we mask pure discrimination, contempt, and prejudice with “concerns” about prejudiced people being forced to actually confront their discriminatory views.

Oh I forgot: we live in a country where protecting minority rights amounts to preserving a broken senatorial system in which 40 senators can obstruct the majority as opposed to protecting groups of people from blatant injustices and inequalities. My bad.

Saying that “people are not ready” is a cop-out. If we wait for the ruling class of society to simply rid itself of all its prejudices and broadly begin to accept everybody it sees as different from the norm before we take action on issues of discrimination, then we might as well get some ice skates and prepare for a hockey game in Hell.

Yes, it will make people uncomfortable. Rightly so! When it comes to matters dealing with discrimination, our decision should be based on what is morally correct as opposed to the comfort of the privileged. It sickens me to see politicians and other leaders riding around the country, professing to champion the underdog, the regular American, Joe the Plumber, Main street, etc, and continue to be too afraid, politically timid, or unscrupulous to object to a law that so clearly violates the very ideals for which our soldiers are supposed to be fighting.

I fully agree with Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In the New York Times article mentioned above, Admiral Mullen states, “No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.”

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” asks our troops to operate under a policy that is misguided at best and the antithesis to everything this country proclaims to be about with regard to freedom, justice, and inequality at worst. Let’s fight for our values while living by our values.

Afternoon Treat!

Today I gave myself a little treat. But we will get to that later.

The day started off not so well. I have been having attendance issues with my first period class, and today the majority of the students were not there. That’s an understatement, actually. Only one student made it before we were told not to let any more students in. Yep.

So, I still conducted class as usual, but I also took it as an opportunity to do a little mentoring. I have had some discipline issues with this student, so I tried to figure out things he was interested in while he completed the warm up. It just so happens that I had this student in mind when I was creating the worksheet for that class period. Therefore, I actually had different sports and pop culture references on the charts that I made (we were doing variance and standard deviation). We still had some issues, but I think I am building a closer relationship with him. I’ll see how it goes.

Now back to my treat. During my planning period, I had a little extra time since it is also my lunch period. I talked to the choir teacher a while ago about observing a rehearsal, and I finally did it today! It was really great to watch the choir teacher work with the students. It reminded me of when I was in high school and was fortunate enough to spend at least 3 hours (usually much more than that!) each day studying music. I enjoyed hearing them sing and watching her talk technique with them. I definitely plan on observing them again.

My last period went well. The students are still enjoying the book. I can definitely see the students start to grow in their ability to comprehend different aspects of the book.

Ahh, my roommate made tacos tonight, so it is time for me to go grub!

Back in Business: Still Alive

It has been a while, but I am back. The past couple of months have been hectic and filled with tons of ups and downs. It has been a struggle to express the span of my thoughts over the past weeks, and I won’t try to do that now either. Instead, I will just start with today.

So…

What happens when you rush out of the house and grab your shoes out of a dark closet? I’ll take a stab at this one: You end up wearing two different pairs of shoes. That’s right, I wore one type of shoe on my left foot and another on my right foot today. I did not notice until I stepped out of my car in the parking lot at school this morning. Luckily, both shoes were black. I was nervous that students would notice; however, nobody made a comment about it (except for the teachers that laughed when I showed them my mindless faux pas).

I also woke up with a huge pimple under my lip. Now, this normally would not be a problem, but I was worried about having a mark of puberty strapped to my face when I already do not look much older than the puberty-stricken adolescents I teach on a daily basis. Again, I was happy that nobody commented on it all day, despite my discomfort with it.

Why would I be surprised that nobody made note of it? Well, it would not have been far-fetched since a student (not the first) cried out at me, “MOLEY, MOLEY, MOLEY” in class yesterday. Yep, that still happens. I took her to the office. It’s a good thing I learned not to be sensitive when I was in middle school.

So, back to today. My first period did not start off great. I had to call two students’ parents during class. Some students decided that they already knew the material for the lesson that I was trying to teach, so I went ahead and gave them their quiz since they did not want to pay attention. I think their grades taught them the lesson far better than I could have any other way.

In my final period, social skills, I had a great time. We are reading a book called The Hatchet, and it is fascinating! I think the kids are getting into it as well, and it is so great to see them get excited about learning! I also had two of those students come to my classroom during lunch to read. As much as I enjoy my alone time sometimes, it is always heartwarming to have students want to challenge themselves outside of the classroom. I gladly welcomed them in.

On a more personal note, I am embracing my artistic side again. I recently began taking an acting class once a week. It is such a blast! I can already see myself growing as an artist, and I am looking forward to pushing myself even further. I am also looking for a voice teacher, so I will see how that goes. I joined the choir at church, and it is so amazing to be singing again.

All in all, life is far from a cakewalk, but I am happy. There is so much more to tell, but I will stop here—I will fill in the details as I begin to post more regularly from now on.

Music on my mind: “Shenandoah” as sung by Paul Robeson.