Of Banning Women and LGBTQ+ From Military and Public Service

If we invited all the talented, brave, and good people we could be a world force for a more peaceful planet.

Let’s say you have a war. You need warriors. You need, as the MAGA commander in chief said, to : Fight Fight Fight!

Well, to have persuade anyone toward that fight, you need motivation. It has to be seen as a worthy cause, a noble endeavor. Or, the fighters need to feel they belong. They are fighting for their own freedom, their own justice, their own peace-loving community.

The problem with noble causes

And maybe, some causes are noble; we cannot judge most of history. But I do know that World War II often paints Nazis as pure evil. Men are either heroes, or villains. A very binary view. It is also true that when we talk about non violent wars — such as the struggle for civil rights — we hear that non-violent movements as being even more noble. Perhaps this one is true, and we can program humanity to believe that the arc of time does bend toward justice.

If we examine history with even a slight attention to detail, it becomes obvious that one of the problems with noble causes is how much energy a populace can sustain for defense of that cause.

There are noble causes on Earth, but most are prioritized with powerful men, rich men, famous men, conquering men, being recognized before poorer men, men of color, and only lastly, women. Women of color usually bear a double burden.

If we bar certain people from public service we are telling them that “This is not your cause.” We may even be telling them: “You support an enemy on the other side!”

Not only that, but if you invite people of color, or women, or LGBTQ+ people to fight for “your side” , Or say you provide green cards, or student visas, or immigration incentives for those displaying ardent hope to be become citizens of your nation, it’s brutally cruel to then say, not any more, or now you’re a vet and we don’t want to care for you.

It’s important to always examine who, when, and where we invite soldiers to fight on the right side of history.

Soldiers, or members of organizations hired to bust unions, beat suffragists, terrorize communities of color, round up “suspects” for detention camps — or even prisons — these soldiers may serve, but they are not serving on the best side of history.

Women are seldom the cause for which the right side of history is known to step up. Yes, fierce women have historically stepped up, and even a handful of noted male feminists. But blend patriotism, faith, and noble cause together and you usually get intense attention on the historical priority that is framed as heroic “good men” and sacrificing, supportive women.

Earning equal pay is good, but equal respect to all people as heroes is even better. When gender or race divides us, we lose too much talent and innovation.

At the time of the American revolution, and even the U.S. civil war, it was held as common sense that all men are created equal. In the struggles for abolition, seeing all men as equal also eventually prevailed. When Hitler marched to honor white Europe, and strengthen the “master race,” women were thoroughly subordinate. Manly men and weaponry are enduring symbols of might. Manned jet planes and patriotic flags often surge together loudly in all the propaganda. But what if being a school teacher or sous chef is just as important — for males and females?

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While all eyes are on fighting for an end to such prejudice as antisemitism and racism, few may note that BIPOC or Jewish women, throughout most struggles, are expected to be wives, mothers, and delicate flowers to be protected and defended by aforementioned “manly men.”

They are only taken for the “noble cause” when the cause is not truly about them. Then, all men and women suffer the consequences. Women were not as welcome to serve after the world wars, or as police, firefighters, and more. And, because women were seen as “weaker” those in power also drummed out any man who was gay, or suspiciously non-white, or non “male.”

History records something we often ignore, unarmed combatants, very often women and children, are the primary victims of most conflicts. To say little of sexual predation, war crimes — or even domestic violence.

To exclude anyone brave enough to fight for a cause is to invite disaster.

One cannot focus on the plight of the German hausfrau condemned to what Hitler called “the smaller world,” To make a timeless thriving third Reich, women were to be helpers, wives, mothers, mistresses, but not leaders. But, women, like men, come in all shapes, sizes, talents, and strengths. We need that in our fight for world unity and sustainability.

History tells us to ignore inequality at great risk. Even today, there are billions of people, including women, who support inflexible roles. Under patriarchy, many of us learn that women should not control their own bodies; have stellar careers; attain sports, political, tech, or high faith callings because it might dethrone, or diminish men. Just one example of this is the raft of hate-fueled diatribes that blame Bishop Budde, or rape victims such as E. Jean Carroll, for straying outside traditional, compliant roles.

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Meanwhile, atrocious behavior of powerful men, including many of the present cabinet’s members, is given a pass. Credible victims of varying degrees of abuse are forgotten under such social rules.

The good men who step up to help are often shouted down. Bullying is not at all the same as leadership.

As is typical, Bishop Budde does not wear a military uniform, and yet she gets death threats. Her hecklers, meanwhile, continue to trample over the constitution and the very cause for which all who serve are asked to defend.

MAGA Et al. extol such injustice. In their world,Masculine men are the fighting men, and masculine women do not exist except as outcasts. Men without drive to fight and die are considered cowards. Women who do fight and die are considered outliers, viewed with suspicion.

Racism causes so much distraction and uproar, that history tends to forget the other factual reality of sexism. Half of all Nazis, after all, were women. Women were expected to have Aryan babies, keep hearth and home, and support the men out to “protect” women folk from Jews, BIPOC, Romani people, and homosexuals. (now called LGBTQ+ ) Why are these scapegoats presented as such a threat to manhood and womanhood? It is entirely because we so often are programmed to accept outdated notions of roles and gender altogether. To ensure all men are upheld, women must be presented as another sacrifice to the cause. It’s zero sum game thinking based on domination style societal pressures. It’s easy to forget fairness when any cause is presented as having only two possible outcomes: win or lose. Conquer or be conquered. The powerful or the weaklings.

Never mind that women are fierce and powerful too.

To ensure people will fight and die for freedom, regimes must force them to polarize and take sides. Conflicting priorities arise which renders resistance defenseless in the ensuing disarray.

The new administration and project 2025 seeks to use authoritarian dictates; not just brow beat the weary, but to create chaos, confusion, and collaboration between the broligarchs and those with global power.

To value tenderness as well as toughness gets forgotten.

Fighting WOKE, and DEI, makes a certain sense to those in power. Claiming that meritocracy is how the world’s richest and most powerful came to rule embraces the so-called strongman theory of history which celebrates the more toxic elements of being manly and entirely dismisses the positive male traits we could admire such as being sensitive, articulate, cooperative, emotionally expressive, embracing creativity as art and culture, and so on.

To value tenderness as well as toughness gets forgotten.

Leaders who achieve a balance between being assertive and cooperative usually progress forward steering that “arc of time that bends toward justice.” Yet, many such leaders are more defined by their calm — even boring, resulting atmosphere — than they are by their gender or sex.

Just as racism threatens to take us to fascism, so too does sexism.

When oppressing the poor, other races, other classes, and other foreigners, it’s extremely important that people can also see the clear intersection of sexism with racism and classism. Perhaps it helps to always note there are no other races, (all other humans were driven to extinction long ago.) And, men and women have little choice but to struggle together.

Let’s learn to learn the lessons of natural, and human history.

I often write that we need a war. It’s a war on the war against nature. Polluters fired first. The attacked and invaded us. Killed our rivers and forests. They threaten to take all resources for profits rather than to put them to use for universal peace.

That is, we don’t need a Space Force so desperately as we need a Climate Force. National or International. Inviting all citizens to serve and galvanize the New, Clean Green Revolution.

What if instead of banning or arresting immigrants or sincere activists, what if we allowed citizenship after two years of quality service?

What would happen is that belonging would no longer be about exclusion. Freedom and justice would taste sweeter then just propaganda words pouring from the mouths of those who always seek an enemy.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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