Andrew Sullivan gives Quote For the Day honors to gay Army 1st Lieutenant Dan Choi for this excerpt from his Open Letter to President Obama and Every Member of Congress:
I have learned many lessons in the ten years since I first raised my right hand at the United States Military Academy at West Point and committed to fighting for my country. The lessons of courage, integrity, honesty and selfless service are some of the most important.
At West Point, I recited the Cadet Prayer every Sunday. It taught us to “choose the harder right over the easier wrong” and to “never be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.” The Cadet Honor Code demanded truthfulness and honesty. It imposed a zero-tolerance policy against deception, or hiding behind comfort.
Following the Honor Code never bowed to comfortable timing or popularity. Honor and integrity are 24-hour values. That is why I refuse to lie about my identity.
Keeping one’s sexuality to onesself is not a lie in any ordinary sense of the word. If it were, however, Choi has been lying for at least a decade by complying with the “Don’t Tell” part of the infamous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” compromise. Why, suddenly, was he compelled to “be honest” by outing himself?
That said, Choi has clearly demonstrated that he can serve in uniform without upsetting “good order and discipline.” Judging from his uniform photo above, he excelled at West Point where, unless things have changed drastically in recent years, he bunked with other male cadets and shared communal showers with them. I take him at his word that his soldiers, raised in an era where being gay is about as noteworthy as being a redhead, continue to accept him as their leader.
It’s time to change the policy. But Choi knew what the policy was when he signed up and when he went on television and announced he was gay.
