Lt. Dan Choi interviewed in Newsweek: ‘This Is My Mission’

[deminks]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/235290

(snip)

When you walked into the courtroom after your night in jail, you were in uniform, handcuffed with a chain around your waist. You are a West Point graduate and Army lieutenant, how did you reach this point?

Being in chains, for me, matched what was in my heart the whole time I was serving and was closeted. Harriet Tubman once said she had freed 1,000 slaves but could have freed so many more if they only knew that they were slaves. People don't always know that they are in fetters. Even my feet were shackled so I could only take small steps forward. To me that symbolizes what it is to live under Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the only law that enforces shame. Those chains symbolized how my country is trying to restrict my movement, how we are only allowed incremental, tiny steps.

(snip)

What was it like in jail? Were you at all scared at where this might be headed?

I've detained people in Iraq, I've read them their rights, and I've applied handcuffs and zip ties. I've talked with people in Arabic who've just been arrested. I know what it means to arrest someone for my country's mission. But I've never been incarcerated, and for something that I thought was not my country's mission. I know my country's mission is not to make an entire group of people into second-class citizens.

I asked seven or eight times to speak with a lawyer. I was not given a phone call. I was called a liar by one officer; I was scoffed at by another one. But there were others who wanted to talk with me about their service. The first time I saw a lawyer was in the courtroom, and I didn't know who he was and I couldn't understand what he was telling the judge at first. I asked him, "Did you just plea for me?"

(end snips)

"I'm not guilty, I'm not ashamed, and I'm not finished."

[Christa]

1. A true American hero

We assign the word "hero" to people are simply (however wonderfully) doing their jobs well, to people who make lots of touchdowns, and to children who dial 9-1-1 at the right time. But heroes are those who do what they do NOT for themselves, but for others, AND who wouldn't be blamed at all if they didn't do anything. They take the chance, that their deeds will be for naught and that their names will be forgotten.

Choi and Pietrangelo, as soldiers, are putting far more on the line than I would be with a protest at the local courthouse. They could have just waited in the background for things to change and no one would have noticed.

The word "hero." Properly used.

[eridani]

2. You know, that old saw about "America's finest" gets overused a lot

In this case, there is hardly better way to put it. "I'm not guilty, I'm not ashamed, and I'm not finished."

[Solly Mack]

3. k/r