Progress
by David Atkins (“thereisnospoon”)
There’s a new commander on this sandy, swampy spit of land that has transformed rawboned recruits into macho Marines for nearly a century. Brig. Gen. L.E. Reynolds, a 6-foot-tall Baltimore native and a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, is the latest in a long line of no-nonsense leaders to take charge here.
But she’s the first woman.
And for the tradition-bound Marine Corps, which endlessly promotes a tough-guy image and built its recruiting on the search for “a few good men,” the idea of all those ruthless Parris Island drill instructors having to salute a leatherneck named Loretta could take some getting used to.
But get used to it they will. And in a decade or two, they’ll write the same story about openly gay drill instructors.
And yet no one will hold conservatives to task for denying the career choices of countless qualified women, gays and others whose lives were ruined by official discrimination.
The world moves on, and progress is made. But it would nice if it came with accountability for those who wrecked people’s lives as well.