Posted on: Tuesday, December 17, 2002

ISLAND VOICES
Professor praised for Army criticism

By Lee Hiromoto

I would like to express my admiration for and support of University of Hawai'i-Manoa professor and faculty senate member Robert Bley-Vroman, who took the morally proper stance against the military's discriminatory and senseless anti-gay policies.

In an age in which the U.S. Army has begun to take high school dropouts, the military should allow all those who hear the calling of their country to heed it.

The U.S. Army's recent dismissal of some half dozen Arabic speaking linguists, whose skills were essential to our nation's security, shows the complete inanity of this policy.

Banning open homosexuality from the military also creates a homophobic atmosphere that can have disastrous consequences for those brave gay soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines who chose to serve despite their country's flagrant rejection of them.

The recent murder trial of Hawai'i born airman Damien G. Kawai for the murder inOkinawa of fellow airman Charles Eskew serves as an example of what the current government policy leads to.

The entrenched homophobia of the U.S. military drove the young Kawai to take another life.

I fail to see how sexual relations that are forced underground can be better for morale than letting our fighting forces enjoy privacy in their precious free time.

In an era in which unquestioning patriotism is en vogue, professor Bley-Vroman's criticism demonstrates a noteworthy fortitude of character.

I sincerely hope that the U.S. military will heed the call of justice and recognize that its policy of excluding able-bodied and talented men and women for an intrinsic and innocuous characteristic is as ridiculous as it is wrong.

Lee Hiromoto, of Wahiawa, graduated from Punahou School and is a sophomore at Yale University.