I second the motion: You say that if you have clarity around values, decision-making becomes streamlined. YES! YES! YES!

Let me put forth a scenario: A Muslim, A Christian, and a Jew are all on the same board of directors. Someone says something controversial that interrupts a healthy debate around a business decision.

Two choices become apparent: one: either the members argue ad naseum and break down the communication process and kill the space for a good business decision to be rendered: i.e. one that is at once geared toward protecting the environment and creating profit OR two: take on a posture of listening instead of talking. Hear out the person who is speaking to you and who is saying things that are occurring as “grating” or as “intolerable” or as “difficult to hear”.

Clarity around values provides the space for all three people, the Muslim, the Christian, and the Jew to express themselves fully and not to offend anyone at all! Why? Because even if God (be He the God of the Jewish interpretation, the Muslim interpretation or the Muslim interpretation) is the SAME benevolent force in the universe. The messenger is not as important as the message. And, we humans continually assume that we “know” God. I assert respectfully that we do not and that we cannot. There is some knowledge that is outside of our ken.

Philosophically speaking, this is what Rawls refers to as the “veil of ignorance”. Rawls means the ignorance of emptiness and meaninglessness; not the ignorance of hatred and bigotry and intentional hard-headedness.

What would it be like if we were being open and patient with one another?

This is a victory for homosexuals in the armed services. This is a victory for straight, white, Christians. This is a victory for Blacks and Latinos and everyone else! The homosexuals get what they want and the straight, white Christians get absolved and forgiven.

Straight, gay, black, white: Diverse America…. listen up! This country has a PILE of problems that need solving. Time to set aside differences once and for all and act like a TEAM and solve these problems. It is within our power. It is within our reach.

Let us set aside the old ghosts of the past generation. Let us lay the spirit of the Baby Boomer “categorization” of humanity to rest now in the 21st century. Let us begin to learn who we are for one another. Let us have a return to people speaking clear and intelligent English to one another in America, without words’ meanings getting all twisted around. Let us live in fellowship and harmony and joy and abundance and prosperity.

Despite the circumstances, do not stop believing. Never give up hope. It is the last thing to be lost.

Perhaps

I’ve always been amazed by the number of GLBT men and women who are willing to risk their lives in the military for a country that did not afford them equal rights!

One of the guests asked a great question, “How can someone tell if a soldier is GLBT in a uniform on patrol, in a staff meeting or driving a tank?” They can’t, but the decision will be announced in the international press. Al-Qaida and the Taliban will try to exploit the very point that “our country’s values have been expressed”. It may make some insurgents fight harder. Some of the individuals who are our allies now may abandon us.

The services are studying the impact of the repeal. What if they determine the repeal will have an adverse impact on our military and the war effort?