The latest disappointment from the Obama - Goldman Sachs administration concerns the case of Daniel Choi.  Here was a West Point graduate, serving in the Army as an Arabic translator, who appeared on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show.  With Barack Obama in the White House, Choi must have felt that the time was right to take a stand against the "don't ask - don't tell" policy concerning gays in the military by announcing to the world that he is gay.  Wrong!  Within a few weeks, Choi received a letter informing him that he had earned a dishonorable discharge for publicly disclosing his homosexuality, in violation of the "don't ask - don't tell" policy.  Not long afterward, the Obama administration announced that it would not intervene in such cases.

On Friday evening, this subject became a topic for discussion on the HBO program, Real Time with Bill Maher.  Maher reminded us of Obama's campaign promise to do away with the "don't ask - don't tell" policy -- particularly since so many of its targets happened to have served as Arabic translators.  We just don't have enough personnel with that skill.  I agree with Maher's belief that the rationale for adhering to the "don't ask - don't tell" policy arises from the fact that sexual harassment is a huge problem in the military.  Things haven't changed all that much since the days of the "Tailhook" scandal.  In fact, they may now be much worse.  The military brass probably fears that if the "don't ask - don't tell" policy were rescinded, they could find themselves with an enormous increase in sexual harassment claims.  For example, an "out" Sgt. Butch Topington might feel emboldened about harassing the new recruits.

This subject was fresh in my mind as I watched Sean Penn's fantastic, Oscar-winning performance in the film, Milk.  I was particularly impressed by Penn's delivery of those important comments, spoken by gay activist Harvey Milk, into his tape recorder, after realizing that his eventual assassination would be more than likely:

I ask for the movement to continue because it's not about personal gain.  It's not about ego and it's not about power.  It's about the "Us"es out there -- Not just the gays, but the blacks and the Asians and the seniors and the disabled -- the "Us"es.

 

Without hope, the "Us"es give up.  And I know you can't live on hope alone, but without hope life is not worth living.  So you ... and you ... and you -- You gotta' give 'em hope!  You gotta' give 'em hope!

Candidate Obama spoke eloquently about "the audacity of hope".  Nevertheless, President Obama seems to increasingly demonstrate "the audacity of nope".

I believe there is still hope for those individuals in the same situation as Daniel Choi.  Now that they are out of the service, they should start working for "the big bucks" as contractors.  They could call themselves Gay Private Contractors (GPCs) or Gay Military Contractors (GMCs).  They should start their own business to compete with Blackwater (now known as Xe).  They might want to call it:  Gaywater.  Gaywater could promote its translation and interrogation service with a slogan such as:  "When we ask -- they tell."  Although the President has stated that he wants to "reconsider" the role of military contractors, where else is he going to find Arabic translators?  These individuals had security clearances up to the point of their discharge, so it should be a relatively quick, easy process to obtain civilian security clearances for them.  (However, the GMCs should be advised not to take personally, the fact that a civilian security clearance is called a "Q" clearance.)  Although there would likely be some sort of hurdle involved in getting such security clearances for "dishonorably discharged" personnel, the simple fact is that the only "dishonorable" acts committed by these individuals were instances of telling the truth about themselves.