Diversity Thursday
more need to join the fight for equal treatment
We've been doing "Diversity Thursday" on a regular basis since 2008 or so. Not my favorite topic, not a popular topic among some segments ... but we persist.
We covered the military's drift towards racial essentialism earlier, but the "Diversity Thursday" segment really only became a regular thing about 15-yrs ago.
We tried to warn everyone ... and here we find ourselves in the thick of it ... but now we are getting real and substantial advocates kicking back against the diversity cadre including out in the open in the Senate and House of Representatives and in the larger culture.
You love to see it.
One thing the left has always been better at than most is organizing. The next thing they have been good at is providing supporting fires to like minded entities who, if not in full alignment, are at least 80%.
In the battle to push against racial essentialism in our military, it appears the right people decided to organize;
the Biden administration is distracting military leaders with a new, woke policy agenda that they appear far too eager to embrace. Today military officials talk so much about climate change, domestic extremism and systemic racism that you’d think our enemies are at home, not abroad. Green Berets are forced to sit through trainings about transgenderism.
Official military reading lists include the anti-American ravings of Ibram X. Kendi. Army recruitment ads seem aimed more at attracting social-justice warriors than actual warriors. The Navy is producing instructional videos on gender pronouns while its poorly maintained ships crash at sea.
Officers are led astray by our service academies, whose curricula are growing indistinguishable from that of woke Ivy League schools. Physical fitness standards have been lowered significantly for the sake of “inclusivity.” The chairman of the Joint Chiefs says he seeks to understand “white rage.” The Secretary of Defense released an official statement about the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling.
...
It’s time to confront this problem. Veterans have given too much to allow the service to become another victim of the left’s culture war. We have lost limbs and carried unseen scars. We have buried friends and family members.
That’s why I joined with like-minded vets to launch Veterans on Duty, a new national membership organization. Our goal: To compel the military to get back to basics by exposing how the woke revolution in the services works and how policymakers can defeat it. And we’ll support candidates and elected officials who’ll take on those corroding our military.
Great to have more people in the fight. We need it.
Trying times for sure. The left labels good and well intentioned efforts as racist, bigoted, extremist, and they may even try to get you labeled a domestic terrorist when nothing could be further from truth. Partnering with someone you don’t personally know and trust can be dangerous since their words and deeds can naturally be thought to represent yours. If the left can make those labels stick then they will attempt to take away some freedoms in an effort to silence you. I’m only advocating caution. But you are absolutely right about organizing and supporting fires. I’m just not sure how much a vet or a retired SM knows about what’s really going on, in the active force. I’m one of those people and while I’m selective in what I read, I believe very little of it because everyone has their own agenda and almost none of it has to do with verifiable readiness.
What did we look like the last time we won, unconditionally won? Maybe we ought to look and act more that now. Maybe the National Security Act of 1947 hasn’t been in our best interest after all, in terms of budgeting, readiness, and war fighting.
Maybe the whole notion of diversity and inclusion, going back to the point where we stopped winning wars, actually doesn’t contribute to a better fighting force. Even though I think very highly of anyone who wants to and does serve in the military. Can the case be made that more diversity and inclusion will/won’t win the next war and how come having that discussion is out of bounds?
Come to thinking it, while the Navy seems to relieve commanders every few weeks, we don’t seems to relieve commanders anymore for incompetence or lack of aggressiveness. Rather today, it’s about inappropriate relationships or a harsh command climate where subordinates have been reduced to tears. To tears??? WTAF?
Anyway…sorry not sorry for the long post.