This week I want to quote the Command in Chief from the State of the Union speech Tuesday night.
These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together.Mr. President, you're right. Especially Gen-X and younger, we don't.
When you put on that uniform, it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white; Asian or Latino; conservative or liberal; rich or poor; gay or straight. When you’re marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you, or the mission fails. When you’re in the thick of the fight, you rise or fall as one unit, serving one Nation, leaving no one behind.
When we come back from the mission though, when we try to keep that bind, there is an entire army of self-serving racialists on the DoD pay roster who see as their whole job to obsess over our differences; to count or invent every white, black, Asian or Latino nose. They force sectarianism and division for their own purposes, eroding out progress to a more equal and fair nation.
They are a cancer - a cancer that is eating at exactly the good that you spoke of. If you truly believe your words - act. As of right now, your military actively discriminates on the basis of race, creed, color and national origin - all you need to do is start with the actions of the Navy's Diversity Bullies and go from there.
It is just the tip of the iceberg.
