This amazing piece is reposted from the website Michael in Norfolk, originally posted May 10, 2010. I am posting it in its entirety with permission from the author, Attorney Michael Hammer.
If Harry Truman had Obama’s lack of guts, the U.S. military might well still be segregated.
I have previously drawn the parallel between Harry Truman’s firing of General Douglas MacArthur for insubordination and what appears to be Defense Secretary Gates’ insubordination on the issue of repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. After Gates’ latest in your face insubordination, if Obama does not fire Gates, then we can more or less assume that Obama is tacitly supporting Gates’ efforts to throw LGBT service members under the bus – all the while hoping to avoid having to exercise any leadership and delaying the issue until next year. At that point, of course, if the Democrats lose a number of seats in Congress in the November midterm elections, Obama will then use the reduced control of Congress as a further excuse to hang LGBT Americans out to dry. As I have noted before, at this point, I have ZERO confidence in anything Obama says on LGBT issues. Sadly, I fell for Obama’s act of being different from other politicians. At this point, the only difference I see is that he’s a smoother liar. Here are highlights from CNN on Gates’ flipping the bird to Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, etal (NOTE: Gates’ comments indicate he doesn’t give a flying f*** for the feelings or lives of LGBT service members. Only straights apparently count/matter):
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is pushing back against liberal criticism that he trying to slow walk the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Rather, Gates told CNN the change needs to be done in a way that does not disrupt the armed services.
Legislating a change to the policy before the military’s review was done “would send a very negative signal to men and women in uniform that their views on this and how it should be done, don’t matter,” Gates added.
Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, recently called on President Obama asking for “immediate action” on the planned policy change. In the open letter to the president, Dean expressed concern that the Defense Department could, “indefinitely delay the possibility of moving forward with the repeal of DADT until the Pentagon completes a review of the policy.”
If Harry Truman had Obama’s lack of guts, the U.S. military might well still be segregated.
REMARKS MAKE BY LARRY KRAMER AT ACT UP/HealthGap DEMONSTRATION AGAINST OBAMA, THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2010, ST. REGIS HOTEL, NEW YORK CITY:
Obama is not my president. Obama is not your president. Obama does not like AIDS. Obama does not like gays. Now what are we going to do about it? Because we continue to sit on the sidelines while our world is denied us, yes, our world, which is as much our world as anyone else’s, is denied us. Our rights are denied us. Our love is denied us. We are even denied the right to fight for our country. How long must we be denied all of this before we truly rise up in united anger!
Why is it always so hard for us to fight back? This man does not like us. When someone does not like you, you fight back. This Obama who is not my president and not your president obviously does not like us. It is not a secret. Day after day and week after week and month after month he tells us he does not like us. He tells us! He does not keep this a secret. His government does not like us. His chief of staff does not like us. His Attorney General does not like us. His Department of Justice does not like us. His Generals do not like us. His Department of Health and Human Services does not like us. This is not a new situation for us.
President after President have treated us so badly. Ronald Reagan. George Bush the first. Bill Clinton. George Bush the second. Barack Obama. They have all treated us like shit. Like little pieces of shit that they can step on with their heels and grind into the ground. Obama is treating us just like that. Like little pieces of shit he can grind into the dirt with his heel to make us go away. I wish you could see that. I wish you could see what he is doing to us for what it is. He is manipulating us into invisibility. He HAS manipulated us into invisibility. Our people in Washington live in a never-never cloud cuckoo-land, thinking that this man likes us, not responding as, little by little, he take bits and pieces of us away. That is how they control us. Can’t you see that? Why can’t our people in Washington see that? They give them a dinner as they take away another right.
How long are we going to allow ourselves to be treated with such disdain, to be cast way in such an unwanted and disposable and ignoble fashion?
We forget what miracles we once were able to accomplish. Every single treatment for HIV/AIDS is out there because of us. If they are out there because of us, why can’t all the people waiting for Ryan White meds get them? Why can’t over 90% of the rest of the world get them? We did not fight for them just for ourselves. So many dead young men fought as activists for those drugs to save the world and this Obama will not let them save the world. Little by little he takes away our Ryan White drugs in America and our PEPFAR drugs for the rest of the world and our AIDS organizations and clinics everywhere so he can grind even more people with his heel into the earth like little helpless smelly pieces of shit. Yes, this man, like all his rotten hateful predecessors treats us like shit.
I am so tired of being treated like shit.
I wish you could realize that my words and my language and my vocabulary are not too strong. They are not strong enough!
I beg of us all. Re-assemble! Re-unite! Fight back once more with the passion and honor and truth and unity and brotherhood as we once did. We once accomplished miracles. Why do we not recall our glorious fights and build anew upon them? They treat us like shit because we let them treat us like shit. When will we get that into our heads and hearts and fight back?
How effective and fierce and unstoppable we can be when we take action together. The only reason we got those drugs is because of direct action, mobilization, fighting back. That is the reality of what we have be able to accomplish. We are alive, for those of us who are still alive, because we saved ourselves! When we fought back rudely and together, we were able to achieve miraculous victories. I take these victories, as do many of you, every morning with my breakfast.
This Obama president made a commitment to ensure that America does its fair share to fight AIDS, in Africa, in America, and around the world. He has broken that promise. He, like Clinton, has lied to us. He does not like us, this president, as the other presidents did not like us. We are not a part of their American People. He does not want us to get married, he does not want us to fight for our country, he does not want to end the plague of AIDS.
We must have the presence of mind and the force of character to insist that he and his society are wrong and we are right.
Do you need to know any more than this? This is all you need to know. And that once upon a time we accomplished miracles.
Can we do it again? Oh, please, can we do it again?
Again in an effort to infuse our movement for LGBT equality with powerful song…
Lesbian artist, Tracy Chapman performs her hit “If Not Now” at a 1988 benefit concert in Oakland. The song strikes a powerful chord with the latest news from the White House on DADT, the slow moving progress on ENDA, and the delay on the DOMA repeal. Tracy takes about 10 seconds hanging on stage, and then she kicks in. It is worth the wait.
Somehow, it feels like strong message to President Obama and the Democratic Controlled House and Senate.
If not now, then when? If not today, Then, why make your promises? A love declared for days to come, Is as good as none.
If not now, then when? If not today, Then, why make your promises? A love declared for days to come, Is as good as none.
You can wait ’til morning comes. You can wait for the new day. You can wait and lose this heart. You can wait and soon be sorry.
If not now, then when? If not today, Then, why make your promises? A love declared for days to come, Is as good as none.
Now love’s the only thing that’s free. We must take it where it’s found. Pretty soon it may be costly.
‘Cause if not now, then when? If now today, Then, why make your promises? A love declared for days to come, Is as good as none.
If now now, what then? We all must live our lives. Always feeling. Always thinking. The moment has arrived.
I have previously drawn the parallel between Harry Truman’s firing of General Douglas MacArthur for insubordination and what appears to be Defense Secretary Gates’ insubordination on the issue of repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. After Gates’ latest in your face insubordination, if Obama does not fire Gates, then we can more or less assume that Obama is tacitly supporting Gates’ efforts to throw LGBT service members under the bus – all the while hoping to avoid having to exercise any leadership and delaying the issue until next year. At that point, of course, if the Democrats lose a number of seats in Congress in the November midterm elections, Obama will then use the reduced control of Congress as a further excuse to hang LGBT Americans out to dry. As I have noted before, at this point, I have ZERO confidence in anything Obama says on LGBT issues. Sadly, I fell for Obama’s act of being different from other politicians. At this point, the only difference I see is that he’s a smoother liar. Here are highlights from 
Obama is not my president. Obama is not your president. Obama does not like AIDS. Obama does not like gays. Now what are we going to do about it? Because we continue to sit on the sidelines while our world is denied us, yes, our world, which is as much our world as anyone else’s, is denied us. Our rights are denied us. Our love is denied us. We are even denied the right to fight for our country. How long must we be denied all of this before we truly rise up in united anger!
