European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 28, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday december 28, 1991 the stars and stripes commentary James j. Kilpatrickcongress7 Reform talk must be joke of year shortly after Congress adjourned last month the  e. Petersen superintendent of the Senate press gallery posted the Senate a Calendar for 1992. As the joke do Jour it prompted a Good Deal of hilarity among the few Ink stained wretches still around. It appears that the Senate will reconvene at 11 55 . On Friday Jan. 3, to commence the second session of the 102nd Congress. This is an inside joke because the Senate will not really reconvene at All. Majority Leader George Mitchell will extend seasons greetings to anyone who happens to show up. There May be one or two Brief statements. Wishes for a Happy new year will be cheerily exchanged. Such strenuous labor will leave the Senate exhausted. Members will be in a state of total fatigue. As a humane gesture sen. Mitchell therefore will move that the Senate stand in recess until tuesday Jan. 21. Without objection the motion will pass and the weary statesmen will retire to their lodgings or to the nearest bar. So begins the second session. Picking up on Jan. 21, after hearing the presidents state of the Union address the Senate will plunge into a period of furious labor. This will last for three whole weeks through feb. 7. Once More exhausted the senators will recess until feb. 18. Back they come their batteries have been recharged the juices of Spring Are flowing thus reinvigorated the Senate will labor through March 6. Alas the labors will prove More than senators can Bear. They will take another 10-Day recess. You get the idea. The Senate will take two weeks vacation at easter another few Days at the end of May and a further period of rest and relaxation from july 3 to july 20. Once again recharged Mem Bers will return to Washington just Long enough to reconvene on july 21 before closing up shop in Early August for a month. In october wrung out and done in they will adjourn for Good. They will then Campaign for re election. Nearly All of them will win. Preposterous of course its preposterous. During the first session of the 102nd Congress the Senate was in session Only 157 Days the House Only 153. Members introduced 7,640 Bills and resolutions some of them of an unbelievable frivolity. The Good news is that Only 166 Public Bills were enacted into Law. For this labor members Are paid $125,100 a year plus perquisites. It will be said a i can hear it being said now a that the legislative Burden ought not to be calculated in hours and minutes actually in session. Most of the work is done in committee. Members and their staffs work 10 to 12-hour Days just answering constituents demands. Vacations Are not really vacations a they arc a Home work  All right All right. If an incumbent member of the House faces opposition fully one third of his time will be spent directly or indirectly in fund raising. Senators have it a Little easier but not much. Both Chambers schedule their work with such irresponsible indifference that annually we witness the spectacle of last minute sessions that run until Dawn. The 1992 schedule is a bad joke but an even funnier one is circulating. Senate and House committees Are holding hearings on congressional Reform. Wow there is talk of abolishing some of the 301 committees. There a a real Knec slap per for you. And cutting staff Reform Congress you  ask for a better laugh in 10 weeks of saturday night live. C univ Oral Pross Syndicate Colbert i. Kin military singing same old discriminatory tune a men on Board ship live in particularly close association in their messes one Man sits beside another their hammocks or bunks Are close together in their common tasks they work Side by Side and in particular tasks such As those of a guns Crew they form a closely knit highly coordinated team. How Many White men would choose of their own Accord that their closest associates in sleeping quarters at mess and in a gun s Crew should be of another race How Many would accept such conditions if required to do so without resentment and just As a matter of course the general Board believes that the answer is Tew if any a and further believes that if the Issue were forced there would be a lowering of Contentment teamwork and discipline in the  a from the chairman of the general Board to the Secretary of the Navy Jan. 16,1942. Subject enlistment of men of coloured race in other than Messman Branch. A homosexuality is incompatible with military service. The presence of such members adversely affects the ability of the military services to maintain discipline Good order and morale to Foster Mutual Trust and Confidence among service members. To facilitate assignment and worldwide deployment of service members who frequently must live and work under close conditions affording minimal  a department of defense directive 1332.14, Jan. 28, 1982. The quoted Dod regulation which rests on some of the same stereotyping and myths around which the military a earlier social biases and fears were based was cited by . District judge Oliver Gasch in his dec. 9 decision to uphold the Navy a right to expel a Gay midshipman from the . Naval Academy at Annapolis. The midshipman who was within months of graduation had done nothing wrong had made no sexual advances on anyone or otherwise offended. He simply admitted he was Gay to a classmate. His offence was being something that the majority was not. That is where the analogy with the earlier Bias against Blacks comes into play. The Mere status of being homosexual is regarded As enough to warrant Banning from the military. This is wrong. The treatment of Gays by the military keeps company with racism. The defense departments policy on Gays approves the subordination of men and women not on the basis of their ability to perform As sailors soldiers marines or airmen but soley  an invidious distinction a their sexual orientation. Fifty years ago it was skin color that allowed the military to a a lawfully Mark certain americans As fair game for contemptible treatment and exclusion. Today a policy allows the military to Cater to prejudice against Gays As illustrated by the midshipman a forced resignation. The record was Clear that the Young Man whose diploma was snatched was in excellent standing. He was within months of finishing the Academy in the top 10 percent of his class. He had been tapped for a prestigious postgraduate assignment on a nuclear submarine. His talents As a Singer enabled him to sing the National Anthem before the army Navy game on nationwide to in his senior year. Nothing that he did at the Academy set him apart from his classmates except his Superior talents. Once he admitted he was Gay however he became unfit to associate with his classmates. And if the defense department regulations weren to bad enough comes now Gasches ruling which took traditional Legal thinking beyond the Pale through his introduction of an extraordinary rationale for the military a ban on Gays. The exclusion of homosexuals by the defense department is also justified the judge asserts because it is directed against the spread of aids. The military has never asserted any such thing. The armed forces guard against aids by testing prospective recruits for the human immunodeficiency virus or by medically discharging those on Active duty who Are found to be too sick to serve. Contrary to the judges thinking even the military has shied away from the morally offensive act of stigmatizing an entire group because of the experience of some. That this judge would come out of left Field with his own off the Wall arguments really should come As no Surprise. After All the 85-year-old judge May have telegraphed his punch during the hearing by his reference to the midshipman Ana other Gays As  this Case most certainly will be appealed and if there is any Justice a higher court will find that the ban on Gays offends the Constitution. The defense department  wait around for that to happen. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Gen. Colin l. Powell ought to be leading the charge to eliminate the military a bigotry against Gays. Fifty years ago the armed forces conventional Wisdom As reflected in the general Board memo said a if negroes Are recruited for general service it can be said at once that few will obtain advancement to Petty officer. With every desire to be fair officers and leading Petty officers in general will not recon Jend negroes for promotion to positions of authority Over White  get my Drift Gen. Powell c the Washington Post the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United slates government