R.O.T.C in the U.S.A

The battle over the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is being fought again in the City by the Bay for the obvious reason that the policy shows that the military doesn't love Johnnycakes. And yes, the entire reason we wrote that last sentence is so we could have the first official SFist "Johnycakes/Sopranos" reference because in another couple of weeks, the whole Johnnycakes thing will be totally played out.

First up, the School Board, as a member of the Board, Mark Sanchez, has introduced a measure that will ban JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps) programs. Apparently, every school child in the San Francisco school district can now read perfectly, score 1600 on the SATs, and knows the difference between Petrarchan sonnets and Spenserian sonnets. Reasons for the move: discrimination is bad. The military is bad. And sucking up money and resources for non-school related things is bad. Reasons against: the kids seem to like it and it makes a difference in their lives. But what do a bunch of kids know? Don't they understand the importance of making statements!

For what it's worth, while the JROTC does, obviously, discriminate against gays & lesbians in that they won't allow gays or lesbians to be instructors, the program itself doesn't discriminate-- gay and lesbian children are allowed to participate and it is apparently, by all accounts, no big deal.

Also, our Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, currently running against Katherine Harris on Wonkette's Congressional Cat Fight, suddenly remembered who she represents and signed onto legislation trying to end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. We're not sure why she's suddenly getting all ballsy, but if we were here, we would be thinking that if the military is so desperate for people they'd try and recruit an autistic kid, they should probably end their stupid anti-gay ban.