They didn’t ask, but he would have told

When making a point particularly about a topic that makes the blood boil, Michael Faciane would use not just words but his whole small body, making fluid moves from his feet to the tips of his fingers that would make a cat jealous, they were so lithe.

There was this constant dance that he did, and it was punctuated by the fact that he would never stay in one place for long anyhow.

A good many people knew him here in Houma, and in New Orleans he was a popular disc jockey, and perhaps the fluid movements could be attributed to how there was always music inside of him, which is goes into the category of things that result in emotional responses.

He didn’t get to work much over the past few years, because his health was not in good shape. A lot of that was caused by a bad car wreck, and then there were some issues with medical procedures that took things from bad to worse.

People who knew him would sometimes forget that Mike was as ill as he truly was, because he could be so bodacious and because he never lost his smile, a smile that sometimes seemed painted on it was there so much.

This was true even though he had plenty of reasons to be sad. Not just the health issues, either. There was the matter of his bar-manager boyfriend, Robert LeCompte, who as murdered a few years back. Michael never did get over that. They weren’t together very long, but it was long enough for the pain to be quite complete, and he would often rant about the injustice of it all.

“It should have been me,” Michael would say, and, of course, everyone would tell him that’s just not true. But Michael would go on about it anyway.

Still, for someone who said things like that, Michael fought his own battle to live very hard, and nobody who knew him really believed Death would have the nerve to take him away. He was only 40-years-old, after all.

But Death did what Death does, and the memorial service was this past Tuesday, and Michael doesn’t have to ask anymore about why Robert, because all questions will be answered. At least that’s what we are promised.

People who didn’t know before will know, because of the memorial service, or a review of Facebook posts, about the things that made Michael so proud.

He was proud of his daughter, Bry Marie, and of his parents, Emile and Peggy Lapeyre.

But there was something else of which Michael was extremely proud, and that is the fact that from 1993 to 1997 he served his country as a Marine.

And you’d better not have ever told Michael it was cool that he was a Marine, because he would tell you there is nothing in past tense when it comes to that status. Once a Marine always a Marine and that was it for Michael, who left the Corps as a corporal.

During his time as a Marine, Michael has said, he never tried to hide anything about himself, including those things which at one time could get you booted out of the Marines. He was not any kind of a crusader for specific causes, like, say, the elimination of the old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

But he was always in favor of speaking the truth and having others speak it, regardless of the consequences. This caused him a number of problems with a number of people, but it never entered in to his relationship with the military, which was to him an extremely important component of self.

Michael’s military service is one aspect of who he was that has been honored this week. Like all veterans, he is entitled to that.

But what must be remembered about Michael is that, at the time he served, being unafraid of people surmising or knowing who you truly are was something that could be downright dangerous.

Even now, with the non-discrimination policies and the elimination, specifically, of “don’t ask don’t tell” there are likely Marines and soldiers, airmen and sailors who are afraid of the ostracizing, the judgment, the unfortunate things that come with honesty.

And Michael is a reminder that in our military history, there are many who served in all the wars and in all the branches, who had secrets to keep.

Michael’s death is a reminder to me at least that it’s a good thing that, at least as far as official policy goes, these heroes don’t have to lie to their country anymore.