The Price of Liberty

Although those who have fallen in the defense of our Nation's ideals are remembered on a special day - Memorial Day - it is also appropriate to pay tribute to them on Veterans' Day.

These Marines paid the ultimate price. The names I'm posting here are those affiliated with my old unit, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion (formerly 1st Reconnaissance and 1st Light Armored Infantry battalions) and our sister units 2nd and 3rd.

Lance Cpl. Brian E. Anderson 26 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division Durham, North Carolina Killed in a vehicle accident west of Nasiriya, Iraq, on April 2, 2003


Lance Cpl. Jeremy L. Bohlman 21 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Sioux Falls, South Dakota Died from hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on June 7, 2004


Lance Cpl. Daniel Scott R. Bubb 19 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Grottoes, Virginia Killed by small-arms fire during combat operations against enemy forces in Al Rutbah, Iraq, on October 17, 2005.


Lance Cpl. Kyle W. Burns 20 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Laramie, Wyoming Died as the result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on November 11, 2004


Pfc. Nathan B. Clemons 20 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force Winchester, Tennessee Died of from wounds sustained when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle during combat operations against enemy forces near Ar Rutbah, Iraq, on June 14, 2005


Lance Cpl. Timothy R. Creager 21 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force Millington, Tennessee Died due to hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on July 1, 2004


Lance Cpl. Tenzin Dengkhim 19 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force Falls Church, Virginia Died as a result of hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on April 2, 2005


Cpl. Nicholas J. Dieruf 21 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Versailles, Kentucky Died due to injuries received from hostile fire in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on April 8, 2004


Lance Cpl. Scott E. Dougherty 20 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force Bradenton Florida Died as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on July 6, 2004


Lance Cpl. Mark E. Engel 21 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force Grand Junction, Colorado Died on July 21, 2004, at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, of wounds he received as result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on July 6, 2004


Pfc. Christian D. Gurtner 19 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division Ohio City, Ohio Killed by an accidental weapons discharge in southern Iraq on April 2, 2003


Lance Cpl. Chad R. Hildebrandt 22 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Springer, New Mexico Killed from small-arms fire during combat operations against enemy forces in Al Rutbah, Iraq, on October 17, 2005


Lance Cpl. Justin T. Hunt 22 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force Riverside, California Died as a result of hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on July 6, 2004


Cpl. Jeffrey D. Lawrence 22 Company D, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force Tucson, Arizona Died as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on July 6, 2004


Lance Cpl. Gregory E. MacDonald 29 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve Washington, D.C. Killed when the light armored vehicle he was traveling in rolled over on June 25, 2003, in Iraq


Lance Cpl. Blake A. Magaoay 20 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Pearl City, Hawaii Died as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on November 29, 2004


Lance Cpl. John J. Mattek Jr. 24 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force Stevens Point, Wisconsin Died on June 13, 2005, of wounds received in an explosion during combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on June 8


Staff Sgt. Jorge A. Molina Bautista 37 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Rialto, California Died as a result of hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on May 23, 2004


Sgt. Bryan J. Opskar 32 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force Princeton, Minnesota Killed when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb during combat operations near Ar Rutbah, Iraq, on July 23, 2005


Lance Cpl. Justin D. Reppuhn 20 Headquarters Company, 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Hemlock, Michigan Died as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on November 11, 2004


Cpl. Scott M. Vincent 21 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force Bokoshe, Oklahoma Died due to hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on April 30, 2004


Pfc. Nachez Washalanta 21 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Bryan, Oklahoma Died from injuries received due to hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, on August 21, 2004


Pfc. Rodricka A. Youmans 22 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force Allendale, South Carolina Died as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province

From the unit veterans' message board. Visit 1 of the Few for our story.

Michael Totten is in Beirut.

And he's wondering what it must be like to live someplace really crazy ... like, say, Paris.

But I'm a cheerleader!

You just never can tell.
Soundtrack: The Epoxies - "Bathroom Stall".

(Hat tip: Argghh!)

Rabbi Natan Gamedze: Getting Off the Conveyer Belt

Swazi prince on his conversion to Judaism. Aish has the story of 40-year-old Natan Gamedze, born into a royal family in Swaziland. (Hat tip: Winds of Change.)

Aish.com: It is unusual, to say the least, for someone of your background to find his way to Judaism.

Gamedze: I was never interested in religion, per se. I was interested in what was going on in the world. What is our reason for being here? Okay, so you get up in the morning, you eat, go to work, have a shower, watch TV, go to bed, get up and start all over again... Hey, I did that yesterday!

I felt that life was like being on a conveyer belt, and eventually you get off. So what was the point? I couldn't accept that.

Aish.com: An existential question.

Gamedze: Yes. In other words, I wasn't searching for a way to give my life meaning. Rather, I was trying to find out what was going on, like a detective. I felt there's something going on in this world, something behind the scenes. And I wanted to know what it is.

Aish.com: If you weren't looking for religion, how did you find it?

Gamedze: I was sitting in a boring Italian literature class one day. I think we were studying D'Annuncio. And as people do when they are bored, they look around, and I noticed some guy was writing backwards in funny letters. So after class I asked him what he was doing. He said he was doing his Hebrew homework. I thought: That's really interesting. Imagine if I could write like that! And then I forgot about it. But later on, I needed a credit to complete my degree. I wanted to take Russian, but I had a scheduling conflict. Then I remembered about Hebrew. It fit my schedule, and so I began studying it.

Aish.com: So what was the moment of awakening?

Gamedze: The first text we got was the biblical passage of the Binding of Isaac. Coming as I did from a moderately Christian home, I was familiar with the text, but I was surprised at how Hebrew appeared to convey much more than could be conveyed in any other language. I couldn't figure it out.

But what was so compelling was that I thought it was telling me something about myself. It was like opening an inner dimension that perhaps many people don't even know exists. It wasn't like an archeologist trying to find out about, say, ancient Incans, an interest which has really nothing to do with him. Here, I felt it was telling me something about myself. I thought it had to do with the language itself. I didn't know at the time it was the religious dimension.

Aish.com: And from there?

Gamedze: I began to discover the beauty of Judaism. I got interested in Maimonides' Mishneh Torah. ...

Read the rest at the link, and be sure to read the comments (scroll down, then click link for more) for stories of other Jews from nontraditional backgrounds.

Retraction and Apology from PSU Vanguard

Portland State University's student newspaper, the Vanguard, has withdrawn a virulently anti-Semitic article that appeared in its Opinion section a few days ago. The editors are to be commended for doing the right thing in response to public outcry.

The editorial staff write: "Column 'A City Divided' Should Not Have Been Published":

On Oct. 18 the Vanguard published an opinion column by Caelan MacTavish, titled “A city divided,” about conflict over the city of Jerusalem.

The column was riddled with factual inaccuracies and overbroad generalizations of the Jewish faith, people and history.

The column was met with an outpouring of response from members of the student body, academia and the Jewish community, expressing outrage and disappointment at the column’s publication.

Our goal in publishing opinion columns is to advance educated debate about issues that impact or are of importance to our readers. To fulfill that goal our mission is to publish thoughtful, well-researched commentary that provides a unique or interesting analysis of complex situations.

In the case of “A city divided,” we find that the column failed gravely to meet that goal or to meet the editorial standards that we at the Vanguard aim to uphold. ...

The Vanguard deeply regrets that the column was not given as much editorial attention as it deserved, and realizes in retrospect that the column simply should not have been published. ...

Giliad Ini of CAMERA writes, Provocative Ideas Require Civil Discourse:

It is probably clear that the false and contemptible statements ideas in Caelan MacTavish’s Oct. 18 column, and the Daily Vanguard’s decision to publish his piece, are protected by the first amendment [“A city divided,” Oct. 18.]. Because the Bill of Rights established that “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech,” MacTavish’s offensive words are legal — and, most agree, they should be.

What might be less clear is whether the legal right to “free speech” requires a newspaper to publish every idea. ...

PSU's Jewish Student Union see a city divided, a campus united:

The writer’s justifications for the Holocaust are appalling, as well as the reference to it as “The Great Burning.” He was factually wrong on numerous accounts, including statements such as “Nobody can really convert to Judaism—you are born Jewish, or you are not.” There are in fact several converts to Judaism within our student group alone. There are too many false statements to address here. ...

As students we have a responsibility and a right to attend classes in a safe and hate-free environment. The Code of Conduct states that, “the University recognizes the intrinsic value of individual differences and diversity. The University supports the right of all people to live and learn in a safe and respectful environment that promotes the free and vigorous expression of ideas. Policies and procedures are designed to protect these freedoms and the fundamental rights of others. Students are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with these principles.”

Freedom of opinion is allowed, as long as it does not impinge upon another’s right to that “safe and respectful environment.”

In that spirit, the Jewish Student Union would like to encourage more constructive dialogue about religious and cultural difference, especially among student groups, with the support of our professors and the administration. We are proud of our beliefs and our way of life. We also respect the beliefs and rights of others. But the presence of multiple beliefs and cultures is worthless unless it is partnered with an ongoing dialogue that acknowledges the differences, and then celebrates them. ...

And finally, there's this response from PSU faculty:

In the course of his essay, Mr. MacTavish tells us that: "Nobody can really convert to Judaism — you are born Jewish, or you are not." This is simply untrue, as anyone with a passing familiarity with the Jewish religion knows. This sentence is found in a paragraph beginning, “Currently, Jerusalem is deep inside the West Bank…” In fact, Jerusalem is not “deep inside” the West Bank as commonly understood, but on its perimeter. (And since there are no plans we are aware of to move the city to another location, we expect it will be there not only “currently” but for a long time to come.)

In between these two sentences of demonstrable falsity, Mr. MacTavish offers a summary of Jewish history that makes one cringe in embarrassment for its historical and moral distortion. Ignoring or unaware of a rich, millennia-long history of cultural exchange with other groups, Mr. MacTavish leaves out 2000 years of Jewish history since the first-century Diaspora, with the single exception of the Holocaust, which he perversely suggests the Jews brought upon themselves because of their “exclusive religion.”

Later in his essay, he refers to Jews as a “race,” a falsely biologistic notion discredited since the Nazis gave such thinking a bad name.

A few comments:
It's good that the editors of the Vanguard have done the right thing here. What remains, of course, is a frank and open discussion of anti-Semitism in today's world. I hope that the repercussions from this incident will wake up some of the students and faculty - not only at PSU, but throughout the academic world.

It has become very easy in recent years to become complacent about anti-Semitism. I know I have been guilty of this myself. Even 9/11 did not, I think, immediately bring the message home; certainly there was vile Jew-hatred at work among the terrorists, but it was harder for some of us to think of judaeophobia as a home-grown phenomenon.

A second perception that may need to be re-considered is the idea that anti-Semitism is the exclusive province of the uneducated (or of "rednecks", "hillbillies", insert your favorite stereotype here). I've read enough and learned enough that I now no longer believe this. There are some highly educated people who are profoundly anti-Semitic. Beyond this, many Jews with connections to the academic world are becoming concerned that anti-Semitism has acquired an aura of "respectability" on the campus.

The author of our Vanguard piece is certainly no scholar; but we need to ask: How did this screed get approved for publication? In other words, how was the message sent that it was "OK" to publish this kind of stuff in a university newspaper? What kind of climate exists that fosters the notion that this drivel constitutes a contribution to intelligent discourse?

My first experience with overt anti-Semitism at PSU did not come from other students. It came, instead, from a rap artist who'd been invited as a guest speaker in a Women's Studies class. The gentleman delivered himself of a "performance piece" that consisted of a lengthy rant against the Government in general and, wait for it, "Zionists" in particular. The guest waxed eloquent about the suffering of Palestinians (one of only two nations mentioned by name - guess what the other one was) but could find no time to mention the African victims of Arab genocide in Sudan. Violence, it would seem, is only a crime when it is committed by Jews.

Finally - and without getting too political - I would submit that anti-Semitism is not confined to a particular area of the political spectrum. It's amazing how right-wing skinheads and left-wing anarchists sometimes sound a lot alike. Whether your politics are liberal, progressive, conservative, libertarian, or none-of-the-above, remember that no ideology is exempt from crackpots and crypto-fascists.

UPDATE: Please read Caelan MacTavish's response at the link. I will post comments on this shortly.

Ex-Leftitsts Speak Out

Also via Tammy, five former leftists speak on their political journeys in this symposium on "Leaving the Left" at FrontPage. The guests are Tammy Bruce, Phyllis Chesler (another hero of mine), Dr. Paul Kamolnick, John R. Bradley, and Keith Thompson.

Condi Photo Manipulated

Demonic, triangular-shaped, black-centered eyes were added to a photograph of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as From the Pen demonstrates.

The USA Today version on the right was deliberately altered to make Condi Rice look more menacing. Notice how the whites of the eyes are highlighted to make her BLACK eyes look BLACKER and HATEFUL.

Go to the link to see a Rathergate-style animation of the original and retouched photos.

Powerline and Michelle Malkin are on it.

Times of India on Communist Chinese threat to US

An article on the PRC threat to the United States appears in The Times of India:

The greatest threat to America is not terrorism but a belligerent communist nation that is over billion strong, says Constantine Menges, an unknown figure even to the scrupulous China experts, in his recent book, China: The Gathering Threat . ...

... Bill Gertz, the national security reporter for The Washington Times and New York Times reporter writes in the foreword, "Menges explains why we need to go on the political offensive against Beijing's communist rulers and bring democracy to China."

In fact Gertz opens his foreword by saying that the challenge posed by the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Russian Federation represent the most serious long-term threat to American national security, now and for the foreseeable future.

Full article at the link.

Saddam on Trial

Iraq's deposed fuehrer went on trial today. Saddam Hussein pleaded "innocent" to the first charges brought against him, stemming from the 1982 killings of more than 150 people.
MSNBC:

A judge on Wednesday adjourned the trial of Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants until Nov. 28, after Saddam pleaded innocent to murder and other charges, questioned the court’s authority and scuffled with guards.

The main reason for the adjournment was because some 30 to 40 witnesses had been too scared to show up, the presiding judge said.

“They were too scared to be public witnesses,” Rizgar Mohammed Amin told Reuters. “We’re going to work on this issue for the next sessions.” ...

The first session lasted just three hours, during which presiding judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin read the defendants their rights and the charges against them — which also include torture, forced expulsions and illegal imprisonment in a case involving the massacre of nearly 150 Shiites in 1982. ...

Mohammed at Iraq the Model:

“Does he deserve a fair trial?” this was the question that kept surfacing every five minutes…he wasn’t the least fair to his people and he literally reduced justice to verbal orders from his mouth to be carried out by his dogs.
Why do we have to listen to his anticipated rudeness and arrogant stupid defenses? We already knew he was going to try to twist things and claim that the trial lacks legitimacy or that it’s more a court of politics rather than a court of law, blah, blah, blah…

“Why do we have to listen to this bull****?” said one of my friends.
“I prefer the trial goes like this:
Q:Are you Saddam Hussein?
A:Yes.
Then take this bullet in the head.”

Everyone could find a reason to immediately execute a criminal who never let his victims say a word to defend themselves “let’s execute him and get over this” sentiments like this were said while we watched the proceedings which were rather boring and sluggish for the first half of the session.
At the beginning we were displeased by the presentation of the prosecution which was more like a piece of poetry in the wrong time and place and this is what encouraged the defense to give us a worn out speech about objectivity and how the court must not go into sideways; the thing which both the prosecution and the defense were doing.

Anyhow, the prosecutor began reading the facts and figures about what happened in Dijail. The defendants went silent but Saddam objected on some details and then prosecutor said “Do you want me to show the film where you said and did that?” Saddam stopped talking and the prosecutor asked the court to allow showing the film, we don’t know if it was played there as transmission was paused for a while.

As the prosecution went deeper into details and facts, the way we viewed the trial began to change an d those among us who were demanding a bullet in Saddam’s head now seemed pleased with the proceedings “I don’t think I want to see that bullet now, I want to see justice take place as it should be”.
We were watching an example of justice in the new Iraq, a place where no one should be denied his rights, not even Saddam.

Tammy Bruce points out an unsettling episode.

Go read the full posts at the links.

Headline of the Day

First, the text of the article:

TRIPOLI, Libya [AP] - Several hundred Libyans demonstrated Tuesday in the Libyan capital to protest President Bush's call for the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death for allegedly infecting 400 children with the AIDS virus.

The United States and European Union have been pressuring Libya to free the six, who were sentenced to death in May 2004 on charges they infected Libyan children with HIV-contaminated blood in an experiment to find a cure for AIDS.

The defendants have appealed the verdicts, and international observers say the charges were contrived and extracted by torture. ...

And now, the headline:
Libyans Demonstrate Against Bush's Stance

Well, that tells you everything you need to know, right?

Chinese Dissident Protests Yahoo/PRC Collusion

David Kopel at The Volokh Conspiracy:

A few weeks ago, I criticized Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and Cisco for cooperating with evil, because each of those companies assists the Chinese suppression of dissent, in order to be able to make money from the lucrative and growing Chinese market. Some apologists for the companies replied that, even though the companies were assisting repression and making it more efficient and pervasive, the companies were somehow encouraging the long-run development of freedom in China.

Today, the Financial Times reports on a letter which a leading Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo, has sent to Yahoo. Having spent time in prison for speaking the truth about China's ruling Communist Party, Liu "says Yahoo has enough market clout not to need to toady to authorities." He explains the corporate-communist deal: coporations make profits at the expense of human rights; the communists are given Internet control, and new means to squelch dissent. Thus:

“The collusion of these two kinds of ugliness means that there is no way for western investment to promote freedom of speech in China, and that in fact it greatly increases the ability of the Communist party to blockade and control the internet,” he writes.
“You are helping the Communist party maintain an evil system of control over freedom of information and speech,” he writes.

Simply put, there appears to be no way to be an ethical Internet company in China today, just as there was no way to be an ethical supplier of spy equipment to the USSR or Nazi Germany.

Read the rest at the link.

Guerriero: Time for Gay Conservatives to Come Out

From Patrick Guerriero of Log Cabin Republicans:

News Release
For Immediate Release
October 14, 2005

Contact: Christopher Barron
Log Cabin Republicans
(202) 347-5306 or
(202) 297-9807 (cell)

It’s Time for Gay Conservatives to Come Out

Op Ed by Patrick Guerriero, President

This critical moment in the history of the LGBT movement's fight for equality demands that a new generation of Americans come out of the closet—gay conservatives. Now is the time for closeted gay conservatives to find the courage and personal strength to stand up and be counted. Now is the time we can really make a difference. If every gay conservative came out of the closet today, the journey to full equality would be over in years instead of decades. It would soon become ineffective to use gay and lesbian families as wedge issues in campaigns. The cynical efforts to amend our federal and state constitutions would eventually stop. The hypocrisy of anti-gay political tactics being used by way too many Republicans and some Democrats would be finally exposed.

One of the biggest un-kept secrets in Washington, DC is that closeted gay Republicans are everywhere—the White House, Republican Party organizations, the halls of Congress, the most influential law offices, and the most powerful lobbying firms in our nation's capitol. Some of those who remain closeted have chosen to be either passive bystanders or, in some cases, active critics of our movement while comfortably partaking in the fringe benefits of our community work—all the while sipping the finest martinis in our trendiest gay bars.

Coming out is an intensely personal journey. As someone who struggled long and hard with how and when to come out of the closet, I unequivocally oppose outing. I am unaware of a single forced outing that led to passage of a single piece of pro-LGBT legislation. Coming out on one’s own terms, with free will, and with personal courage is a positive catalyst for change. Forced outings don’t advance our movement because they’re motivated by vengeance.

Over the years, many closeted gay Republicans have discreetly and impressively helped advance equality. In spite of attacks from too many on the partisan gay left, some gay conservatives work behind the scenes to pass equality legislation, increase funding for HIV/AIDS, offer vital counsel to LGBT groups, and help defend us against anti-gay legislation. These gay conservatives have quietly come out to their bosses and colleagues—changing some into gay allies and challenging others to soften their positions over time. These individuals have been quiet heroes, not asking for or wanting public credit.

Other gay Republicans, however, simply have failed to stand-up—more concerned about keeping their title, their paycheck, their chance for promotion, or their chance to attend another White House cocktail party.

During this moment in the culture war, we face a fight that will determine how LGBT Americans are treated for decades to come. Those who choose to be missing in action are running from the most critical fight of our generation. During these historic times, the closet is not only a place which suffocates personal dignity, it is also a place which suffocates the powerful force of personal integrity that can change the hearts and minds of even the most conservative Americans and most conservative politicians. Coming out doesn’t have to mean putting a sticker on your car, flying a rainbow flag from your front porch, or marching in a parade. Coming out means different things to different people. It may be as simple as putting a picture of your partner on your desk at work, sharing your personal story with your boss, or speaking up when someone says something anti-gay. For others, it may be as difficult as offering a letter of resignation instead of implementing or assisting with an anti-gay campaign strategy.

For many conservatives, coming out will come with real and profound sacrifice. Thankfully, we can find role models in and inspiration from a new generation of Log Cabin members who are coming out in some of America's most conservative places, joining new Log Cabin chapters in places such as Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Kentucky, New Mexico, and the Carolinas. They are coming out to family members who sometimes turn them away from the Thanksgiving dinner table if they insist on bringing their partners, in towns where they’re the only openly gay person, in traditional churches where they’ve heard intolerance from the pulpit, in high schools without gay/straight student alliances, and in workplaces where there are no protections that prevent them for being fired for simply being gay. They are the real heroes of today's LGBT movement and they need and deserve to be given a helping hand in the days ahead.

That helping hand needs to come from gay conservatives. We hold the key to changing the hearts and minds of fellow Republicans, conservative Democrats, and people of faith. In the not too distant future, the history books will record who had the courage to come out of the closet and lead us to victory when it mattered most. Only with the help of gay conservatives can our movement achieve victory over the radical right. Only with the help of gay conservatives can we prevent the radical right from hijacking the Republican Party. Only with the help of gay conservatives can we defeat the voices of fear and intolerance that are feverishly working to deny any and all civil recognition for gay families. The history books will note not only those who had the courage to stand up, but sadly also, those who remain silent. The time is now.


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Log Cabin Republicans is the nation's largest organization of Republicans who support fairness, freedom, and equality for gay and lesbian Americans. Log Cabin has state and local chapters nationwide, a full-time Washington office, and a federal political action committee. www.logcabin.org