Michelle Manhart Highlights Discrepancy in Military Logic

Alright, I've been leaving this whole Michelle Manhart thing alone, but I can't keep my mouth shut any longer. I want to say up front that I deeply respect everyone who has chosen a career in the military; I admire you and thank you for it. My comments are meant for the military establishment (or at least my perception of it), not the individuals who work within it.

I find it incredibly ironic that an organization that exists to protect our ideals, our beliefs, our security and our way of life would turn their noses up at those and create their own belief structure. For the most part our ideals and beliefs have been formed over hundreds of years and formalized through the establishment of laws. These, as you know, are what society has deemed as acceptable and unacceptable behavior (again, for the most part).

The people who work within the military are just that ... people. They are no better or no worse than the rest of us ... they are part of us. They are just people who have chosen a very respectable career. However, it seems as though these individuals are held to different standards than the rest of us; standards created and enforced by the military establishment. The very creation of these different standards offends me. To me, it suggests that I am part of a less intelligent, less moral sub-society.

The beliefs (or laws) that the military establishment fights to protect include things like: it is wrong to kill others, every person shall have freedom of speech and freedom of expression, etc ... It seems very ironic that the military will place weapons in the hands of our family, friends and loved ones and tell them to use them to kill others (which is contrary to our belief system, but also an exception I think is justified) BUT find it unacceptable for someone within the military to pose nude (like Michelle Manhart in Playboy); making the statement "I'm in the military and I'm proud of the way I look." Especially when this type of activity is not against our belief system ... it is only contrary to the belief system of the military establishment. What ever happened to freedom of expression?

Whether your personal opinion is that it's tasteful or distasteful, it is not illegal and it does not warrant shaming someone out of their career. Quite the contrary, if you ask me. These are people who put their own lives at risk to protect our beliefs and way of living. If anything, these individuals should be cut some slack ... not held to a standard higher than the rest of us. After all, the "regular" people ARE the military ... let's not offend our own people by creating a system that suggests civilians are lesser class citizens. The military should be absolutely modeled after what society has deemed acceptable through the democratic process; it is the very model the military is fighting to protect.




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