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part 3

I am of the strong opinion that there should be seperation of church and state.  We are not a white nation, but a nation of many peoples.  We are not a Christian nation, but one of many religions and  faiths.  We share a dream of equal protection under the law, that no race or religion can dictate to the others what is moral or immoral, or holy or not.  Marriage is not only a Christian idea and should not be legislated according to this.  Freedom of religion also means freedom FROM religion. 

I do not care if the person beside me is white, black, atheist, Christian, Muslim, homosexual or heterosexual or bisexual.  I care only that they are competent in doing their job, that they love the higher ideals of liberty and equality that this country is still trying to aspire to and, hopefully, someday more fully achieve, and that this person has my back. 

Concerning sexual assault in the military, it is underpenalized.  We have women soldiers who are leaving the military from their ordeals, while the perpetrators are kept in because they are a 'good soldier' and that's what men do.  I am very proud of my uniform and this country for which I've fought in two wars.  Yet our military, like our country, is not perfect and knowing this with humility we ought to take strides to ever keep working toward the achivement of those ideals which this country is founded upon...

...Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Eddie S Black

Beaverton, OR

USMC 89-94

Oregon Army National Guard 04-10

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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part 2

Never mind that women can be very competitive, goal driven, quick to anger, aggressive, take charge, decisive, and so on.  These are, in our still infantile masculine culture of misogyny, masculine defined traits.  Women in the military are not women, but lesser men trying to be as manly as the men are.  For their efforts they are admired as much as they looked down upon.  The mentality is 'at least they are trying'. 

No man that I've ever met in over twelve years of military service as ever expressed any amount of concern if a woman in the military was a lesbian.  The problem comes from the notion of there being gay men.  And the reason for this is that the men, who can really BE men (that is all the qualities of masculinity thought to inhabit a pair of genitals) are giving up this in order to be like women, therefore they are worse than women who are at least trying to be something.  Gay men are an offense to the values of the imature masculine ideal and the misogynist culture that is predominant in our military fears and hates it.

A common sentiment among some of the men who are opposed gays in the military will often cite that they do not want men looking at them in the shower, or any unwanted sexual advances.  This sort of behavior is an epidemic in our military concerning our women service members.  Whereas a man can go jogging on a base in Iraq by himself, a woman is told to go with a buddy because of the elevated risk of being sexually assaulted.  She is more likely to experience MST, military sexual trauma, than she is to be shot at in a warzone. 

When I've asked these men, at other times, if they would object a woman seeing them in the shower, or their sexual advances, it rarely makes a difference if the woman is 'attractive' or not to the male.  He has the power and is not threatened by it.  He doesn't care.  But when I ask how does this differ from a gay man and he becomes defensive, angry, irritable, and falls back on the same tired excuses of 'its just wrong'. 

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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part 1

I am prior Marine Corps and current Army National Guard.  I am in full support of the REPEAL of Don't Ask Don't Tell (D.A.D.T.) and the allowing of members of the military to serve their country honorably without sexual orientation being an issue.  As the Admiral said yesterday, it isn't about command control but about leadership.

Our military has many virtues that many of us hope to live up to.  One of them is integrity.  It is impossible pretend to have integrity when a person must lie about their sexuality, or the institution of the military tries to avoid dealing with the issue.

This is NOT a social experiment, as so many right-wing types deem to call it, it is justice.  I wonder if they would have also have termed some other advances in civil rights down the years as social experiments as well.

The downright truth of the matter is this.  The military has a deep core of misogyny.  The values that are culturally and socially supported within our branches are those of masculine traits.  We are 'hyper masculine'.  The opposite of a good soldier/marine are also traits that are given to women.   Soft, emotional (any emotion save violence), empathy, submission, tenderness, collaborative, and others are all negative traits for us.

Keep in mind the job that we must do.  Kill.  We train for war and combat is not a time to lose your cool.  Emotional distancing can be very useful when patrolling a section of Iraq for a year. 

However what is acceptable in our military culture is not so much the professionalism as is often expressed in various creeds (the NCO Creed of the Army for one) nearly as much as the pressure to be more masculine. 

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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I appreciate the President's manner in gaining information about Afghanistan.  I support the continuing of the mission there.  The region is unstable and Pakistan is not doing so well. Plus Pakistan has nuclear weapons.  I do not want the Taliban (who recently staged a major attack on the Pakistani military HQ) to gain more ground. 

I object to the political grandstanding of former V.P. Cheney.  If Americans are losing faith in the war in Afghanistan it is because we've been there for several years and not the fault of the current administration that inherited it from the last.

I object to Michael Moore's opinions as well.  He is as bad at politicizing and making a name for him self as Cheney and others.  I don't trust him, Limbaugh, Cheney, or many others that have something to gain from their tirades for/against the war.  Point is the elements that attacked us are growing in strength in Afghanistan.  When you enter into a fight you do so with the intent to win a fight, not slap around and hope things work out as we've done with the past administration. 

As far as the comments from the Right that this administration is too slow in acting, it would have been nice if they'd been a bit slower in rushing to Iraq.  I'll fight alongside my comrades in arms anywhere in the world, but I would appreciate a little less flippant attitude about spending the lives of our troops for ill thought out wars as Iraq. 

Semper Fi

Eddie Black

posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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Hmmm... lets punish children for the actions of their parents.  Because a kid's parents moved here under the radar lets make it more difficult for that kid to go to college and make something of his/herself.   

Does this sound just plain wrong to anyone else?

posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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I was the GM of a strip club in Eugene.  Before that I was the bar manager of another strip club.  I had gone to strip clubs before but being unemployed for weeks/months at a time had me end up working in such clubs.  I joked, half-seriously, that being deployed to Iraq was less stressful than the job I left.  

I cannot generalize and say that all club owners and managers in the business are of poor character and I've never met any in Portland.  Yet all the dealings with others I had contact with were hard for me to bear.  Drug use, drug selling, exploitation, and more are common.  The things I've seen, just from the manager side of things, left a very bad impression on me.  I'm not talking about whatever your views on sex are, of puritan ethics, of exploitation of women, of sex as empowering or victimizing, of second or third wave feminist views.  I'm speaking of those that run the industry.  Deals cut with video producers in other cities to come film dancers, give the girls $200, and then make big profits off the videos.  Flying my girls out to mansions and then getting them high/drunk and offering them money for videos.  Aiding in self destruction behaviors that keep the power up top.  It was sickening.  But living in Eugene for 3 years and being unemployed for half of that time, I needed money.

I talked to yoga instructors, credit counselors, and others, to come to my club and give my girls a class.  They would be enthusiastic to do so until I told them it was a strip club.  Then they'd turn cold on me.  I'd go with different girls to Planned Parenthood because nobody else would and she wanted a friend.  I managed the club but everyone knew that my wish was that they'd eventually leave the club and start another job.

There were a few girls that danced for me that simply liked to be naked.  Why is it that going to Sauvie Island is okay but dancing naked to music AND getting money for it is bad?  These girls were great.  they had fun, they didn't do drugs, they didn't play games.  I had some that told me that by working three nights a week she could pay for her college and her child's private school.  I had one that had finished up her undergrad and had gotten accepted to law school. 

posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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Is there a web address or such to RSVP for this? I would love to go to this.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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It cannot be understated how far reaching the impacts of combat are as it spread from the veterans to their families, their communities, and further. It was mentioned today on the program the effects on spouses and children. OHSU is beginning a program to look at how to best help spouses and partners of veterans. Below is their website and informational fier.

www.ohsu.edu/psychiatry/sadsweeties.html

Information Sheet for Radio Discussion Group (November 11th, 2008; Veteran?s Day)

Researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at OHSU are conducting a study on how best to provide support for the depressed spouses of veterans. They will be creating a website designed to provide information about depression tailored to the needs of military spouses and partners. They would like to learn more about the experiences of military spouses. This feedback will help them determine what kinds of information they should put into the website. There will be no cost to participants or the clinics that provide participant treatment and all the information provided will be kept strictly confidential. OHSU IRB# 4594.
Who: Spouses and partners of service members who have been deployed.
How: Participants will be asked to take part in a two-hour discussion group to talk about key issues that lead to distress.

Participants will be compensated $30 for their time.

Where: The Oregon Health & Science University
When: There are three possible times:
1. Tuesday, November 18th, 6:30PM
2. Thursday, November 20th, 3PM
3. Thursday, November 20th, 6:30PM

If you would like more information, please contact Dr. Colleen Lewy at (503) 418-3768 or by e-mail at lewyc@ohsu.edu.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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I am a vet that has found Returning Vets and have had the best of experiences with the therapist that has donated her time for me. I am so grateful for all that she has done. I cannot speak highly enough of her or the Returning Vets organization. Thank you to everyone.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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