I’ll take my $86.5 Million in Small Bills
The Department of Defense requested that amount, $86.5 Million, in taxpayer dollars for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training for the next fiscal year.
Yeah, you read that right; $86.5 Million of your money.
Why? The same reason they use for every other unexplainable budgetary request: Readiness. It used to be Safety. If you wanted money for something, wrap it around servicemember safety and no one was going to tell you “no”. Now, it is Readiness. “We need this to be ready to fight a war!”
Uh huh. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is how we are going to win a war against China or Russia or anyone else for that matter. I don’t think so.
The US Air Force alone asked for $183,000 for a single job. Yes, that is one year’s salary for one individual who would be tasked to carry the load for the Air Force and lead the way on DEI. That is more than a one-star general makes, if you’re keeping track.
The United States Military Academy (West Point) is holding cadet run, cadre supervised, scenarios where they learn how to handle situations where people don’t necessarily agree with the use of preferred pronouns. They are dedicating time that could be used for training, collegiate level education, or professional development to WIN the next war to discuss pronouns.
Here is the kicker… all the services actually KNOW how to deal with this issue. They have for years. Let me explain how pronouns work in the military.
Every service member has a rank they are addressed by all the time. Private Novak. Sergeant Novak. Lieutenant Novak. Those titles ARE your pronoun. And they are 100% asexual. In fact, they have nothing to do with your sexual preference at all. So, that is pronoun #1.
Every service member is addressed, often, based on the service they are currently in. ALL the services, for YEARS have been using proper pronouns to address their members for a long time. And they are actual proper pronouns. Soldier. Marine. Airman. Sailor. “Come here, Soldier.” “Stop screwing around Airman.” “Please stop eating those crayons Marine!” (I kid because I love) In fact, the services have even put rules into software to automatically capitalize those words so there is no mistake. In some cases, there are other proper pronouns in certain units that are alive and well; Ranger, Paratrooper, and Agent are a few that come to mind. These are also all asexual. They don’t care who you want to sleep with. There is pronoun #2.
There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the DEI plan that has been working for a very, very long time in the military. Why aren’t we focusing on training our leaders to use THOSE pronouns like they should be? Why are we adding an extra layer of bullshit that is going to cost us all $86.5 Million? The addition of he/she/him/her/they/them does nothing but complicate things and for no good damn reason other than to placate to a very small population.
If you stood three servicemembers side by side, all of different races, sexes, sexual orientation, religions and any other demographic you can think of and called them all “Sergeant Smith, Sergeant Jones, and Sergeant Harris” no one would bat an eye and no one would have a real complaint. All the same rank and all addressed equally. Line up three more with the same varied backgrounds and said “Hey, you three Sailors, grab that gear and move it over there” you’d have the same result. No bias. No bigotry. No prejudice. Just three Sailors.
For crying out loud, we have the answer in front of us. It’s been there forever. We just have to USE it instead of making up reasons to use something else to make someone happy.
I can promise you, those Russians fighting in Ukraine aren’t overly concerned about being addressed by the right pronoun. The massive military in China isn’t spending time on DEI. They are focusing on how they can most efficiently KILL us. In case you forgot, that is the ugly truth of war. It is about killing the enemy to the point where they no longer have the will or the ability to continue fighting. It doesn’t have a damn thing to do with pronouns.
There it is. There is the solution. Use what you have. I just fixed it.
But, if the money has already been allocated….I’ll take my $86.5 Million in Small Bills.