My buddies Steve and Joey looked at me like I was stupid. God, I hate that look.

There’s this “health debate” going on in Congress. Joey said that the Democrats are trying to “shove something” down the Republicans’ throats.

I saw it myself on the television and heard about it on talk radio in the truck. There you go. It’s got to be true.

So I told them I hoped Oklahoma’s honorable representatives vote yes. Who could possibly be against it? Health, that is.

I said, “Let’s give ‘health’ an honest up or down vote. Let the people decide. Who’s in favor of health? I am.”

Then “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” that really weird “compromise” between President Clinton and Sen. Sam Nunn and those wild-eyed conservatives in Congress at that time, has finally come up for review. I agree with the chiefs of the Army and the Air Force. We need to go slow.

The troops are tired, God bless them.

Still I thought, “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was a real stupid policy all along.

Some fret how America’s service members can function around openly gay men and women serving right around them. They say they worry wildly about unit cohesion, troop morale and future recruitment. No son of Newt Gingrich or Tony Perkins is going to serve in a gay-inclusive army, I bet you that.

Still if we decide to repeal this ridiculous discriminatory law that allows homosexuals to serve in the military only if they can successfully hide from their comrades, and we want to know how to do it and make it work without undue stress on the straight troops, we might ask one of the nations that have done it already, such as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom or Uruguay.

Estonia? Let’s ask them how to do it. Better yet, let’s let the people vote up or down whether we ask Estonia or Ireland. It’s only fair.

Mike Dumford

Stigler