DADT and Presidential Politics
by: Victor Maldonado
Mon Sep 15, 2008 at 11:12:34 AM EDT
http://pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=7014This Saturday's Washington Post offers up an important reminder that in this year's presidential elections, there are serious policy (as opposed to personality) differences between John McCain and Barack Obama. In an editorial, the Post's writers sound off on one of the major policy differences between the two men: repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
During last week's ServiceNation Presidential Forum, both candidates chastised Columbia University, the host of the forum, for not allowing the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) to recruit on campus. Columbia, like many of its sister schools in the Ivy League, bans ROTC training as a result of the Congressional "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law. The law, banning openly lesbian, gay and bisexual students from participating in ROTC, falls afoul of the university's guidelines governing inclusiveness in all university sponsored organizations. As a result, ROTC programs are forced off campus. Schools, students, and community all suffer when young men and women are denied an important avenue to financial assistance and public service.
