I was glad to see that the
Supreme Court today unanimously upheld the federal law that requires universities to open their doors to military recruiters. This was a welcome ruling particularly for those of us who serve in the military.
The Solomon Act is very simple - if a college chooses to accept federal funds, then it has to open its doors to our country's military recruiters. But some colleges wanted to have their cake and eat it too. Objecting to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy which excludes gays from participating in the armed services, these schools tried to bar recruiters from coming to their campuses. But these colleges weren't willing to cut off the federal gravy train which would have given them the right under the Solomon Act to bar the recruiters.
The Court stated clearly in its opinion that the Solomon Act:
neither limits what law schools may say nor requires them to say anything. Law schools remain free under the statute to express whatever views they may have on the military's congressionally mandated employment policy. . . . Nothing about recruiting suggests that law schools agree with any speech by recruiters and nothing in the Solomon Amendment restricts what the law schools may say about the military's policies.
I abhor the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and find it deeply offensive to everything this country should stand for. And I support 100% the efforts by several of our congressmen to end this disgraceful policy. But the plain fact is that "don't ask, don't tell" is the law of the land. If we want to change it, we need to do it the old fashioned way by winning elections and booting out the bigots and reactionaries.
But, in the meantime, I want to see that we help bring some enlightened thinking to the military. Because my God they -and we - could sure use a whole lot of new thinking there. That means allowing the military to recruit from all our universities, even from the most anti-military bastions. It took a new generation of men and women in our military to give true meaning to President Truman's order ending racial segregation in the armed services. It will take a similar generational shift in attitudes to open our armed services to all peoples regardless of sexual orientation. And perhaps a new generation of military leaders will begin to find greater glory in helping the downtrodden than in smashing and killing "evildoers." We should welcome any decision that moves us even a mini-step closer to that dream.