Elf Sternberg

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution is pretty simple. It says, 'Raise an army.' It says absolutely nothing about race, color, creed, sexual orientation. You all joined for a reason: to serve. To protect our nation, right? How dare we, then, exclude a group of people who want to do the same thing you do right now, something that is honorable and noble? Right? Get over it. We're magnificent, we're going to continue to be. Let's just move on, treat everybody with firmness, fairness, dignity, compassion and respect. Let's be Marines.

Command Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, Michael Barrett, during a trip to South Korea.

What surprises me most is that Barrett is advisor of enlisted men to Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos, the service commander who was most vocal in his concerns about letting gays serve openly in the military. Amos has done an admirable job of following the lead of the Commander in Chief, and ignoring the constant spinning of the Congress. He's been so complete in preparing his service to acknowledge these men and women clearly qualified to serve I'd like to think that Admiral Mullen's moral suasion was part of his turnabout.

This evening my daughter's school had its annual fundraising auction, and while I was there I stood in the hallway with a couple of other couples waiting for the drunken revelry and insane spending of money would begin.

The event was held at the local community college's main dining room. South Seattle Community College, a school at which I used to teach. SSCC is primarily vocational, and two of their biggest specialties are tractor-trailer driving (including engine maintenance, both for trucks and aircraft-- Boeing is a big draw here), and food preparation (including a cooking school, restaurant management, service, and all the rest). The cooking school is quite good, and when Omaha and I lived right down the street from them we enjoyed it when the pastry chefs had their annual open-to-the-public cook-offs. Minor vocations include floral and beauty school. It's in South Seattle, which it Boeing territory-- industrial and vocational attitudes reign.

As I was standing there in the hallway at SSCC, I noticed something about the notices on the wall. You can see the part of the wall that stood out in the photograph. I asked the other parents: "Do you see anything odd about this hallway? Anything particularly sad?"

None of them did. There were thirteen bulletin boards along the walls of the corridor, which not only led into the dining area but also back toward the student union and the bookstore-- a fairly well-traveled part of the school, where lots of students would wander.

Only one bulletin board is protected behind plastic sheeting, closed off with lock and key. This one. All the other ones are out in the open: Mexican American Student Association, Christian Student Association, Student Diesel Drivers Association, Muslim Student Association, Student Culinary Council, Vietnamese Student Association, Khmer Student Association, Chinese Student Association. All publicly displayed without the need for protection.

Only the bulletin board for gay and lesbians students is locked down. I would hazard a guess and say that it's probably the only one that routinely suffered vandalism, and the only one that needed this degree of protection.