ofREH

'scuse me...could you pass me some paper?

So.
I wish they could.
If I had my way, everyone would serve in some capacity. The young, the old, infirm and healthy. Men, Women and transgender.
If I had my way, it would be compulsory. Want an higher education? Cool!…sign here. Like that heath care? Awesome!…drop and give me two…years.
I wouldn’t insist on the Military, there are many ways to give back to the society and Nation that has seen so thoroughly to you.
If Gays want to join the Military and join the ranks of so many that have fought for us, protected us, given for us, sacrificed. If they care to be enlisted with those other brave and honorable souls deployed domestically and abroad, apart from Families and Friends, living in less than optimum conditions. If they want to be Patriots, I say…let em!!
Ahhh…but there’s a problem isn’t there?
Women.

As far as I can tell, the greatest concern and the single barrier to Gays serving openly is what the Pentagon has tactfully dubbed “Morale concerns”.
I read this to be that in light of the communal habitat environment that is inherent to military life, straight Men, and some Women, are wary of co-habitating, showering and performing daily and essential ablutions, with another that might, possibly ~gasp~ peek.
I know better. I’ve been in many such situations. Military and…uh…confinement. Both were shared by openly gay and assuredly, closeted, Gay Men. I can’t recall ever feeling as if I were being cruised or spied and certainly never assaulted.
That either speaks to my lack of desirability or to the outright absurdity of the argument.
Yet…
That’s done nothing to have the showers and restrooms of Women flung open in welcome to me.
Yea. Fat chance.

The Military is restricted in the field to it’s resources. With the advent of Women in theater, the Military had to dramatically adjust and accommodate. Some would argue, at the cost of effectiveness. I don’t agree but if Gays are allowed to serve openly, The same accommodations would have to be considered. Or…all facilities must be co-ed. Right?
Ladies?
~crickets~
Exactly.
For the record, I’ve no interest in sharing washrooms with Women. I’ve worked in too many clubs and seen the disparity in waiting times for Men and Women’s restrooms, but I do think that I should be allowed the same discriminations as are afforded them.

Lo.
To whom will you turn, California?
In the end, who will recreate the miracle of fish and loaves, your standard of feeding the multitudes?
Having preserved the fish only to squander the loaves. No amber waves of grain, the tide having retreated. The bread, in basket, wilting in the Central Valley sun.
Having affected the grandest of immigration reform…a stalled economy.
What no fence or border could manage, you’ve produced.. To your chagrin.
Leaving in it’s wake, those who would not seek a proffered or tenable dream but instead suckle on a already drawn and unreplenished welfare.
Will you in turn abandon this host, seeking another, like just so many parasites? Many have. Fled to more accommodating pastures, having worn their own so thin, but only finding their insatiable appetites stunted by the cost to themselves and an inhospitable host.
There being no place like you. In the World. You would see it finished and the rest of us robbed. Having us bleed from the purchase of nails that were your votes.
Had you opened your eyes though, if you had ever looked beyond your own tiny hovels of political correctness, the need to assuage guilt, garner acceptance, pursue bumper-sticker ideology…you might have noticed the rest of the Country taking an alternate route.
The very Country you will hope see you rescued.
Had you noticed anyone else, you might well have seen the other path, one not as easily traversed, one with limits, consequences, and trials but one which leads to prosperity and independence.
As you’ve treated your own, so you might expect to be treated but your path has lead you to desolation.
Your vote will leave you lone.
Those you robbed of your stunning shorelines, your snow capped mountains and deep, clear volcanic lakes. Those denied your pristine golden valley’s and their countless roiling, twisting rivers. The theft of vast, harsh, yet fragile deserts, of lush and verdant landscapes of vine, will not, can not, be absolved.
By your vote, California, you’ve robbed me of these things. By your vote and those preceding, you’ve put California out of reach of those you, so loudly and with deliberate hauteur, professed union.
You will not be forgiven your trespasses. Debts to come due, cannot be assumed by those you have spurned with callous indifference. Those that plowed your fields and built your homes. We, in wanting to participate and enjoy your once plentiful and promised bounty, were held in scorn and derision. Succumbing to the burden of support for those who would do nothing for themselves, much less for anyone else.
So we flee, taking our pursuit of success, our businesses and ingenuity into the wilderness. So also, the support it provided.
You, left plagued, seeing the locust cloud, need follow but will be turned back. In the end, envious and hungry.

The fish.

Let them eat Smelt.