I am a Byzantine Rite Catholic who is preparing for ordination as a deacon.  I am a widower, however, so I will be a celibate deacon,and mention  this as an indication that this issue is not a personal one for me.

The imposition of celibacy on Eastern rite priests in this country was an outrage.  It had a great deal more to do with ethnic bigotry on the part of German and Irish bishops that any concern about priestly celibacy as such.  The sooner it is corrected, the better.  

That being said, I am not advocating changing this discipline in the Latin rite.  For one thing, it is none of my business.  Also and far more importantly, it is the ancient tradition of the Latin Church, just as married clergy is an ancient tradition in the Eastern churches, a tradition which the Universal Church under the ministry of the one universal shepherd, the Pope of Rome, decided that the Eastern churches could maintain when our ancestors returned to the True Church from schism.  (Except for the Maronites of course, who are Eastern but were never in schism.)  The fact that Bishop Ireland didn't like this or us should have been of no consequence whatsoever.  We certainly have no love lost on him.

On a practical level, I wonder how many Eastern married priests there will actually be if this discipline is fully reversed.  (It is often circuмvented by having American married candidates ordained in Rome or elsewhere in Europe or the Middle East.)  My son, who is a celibate Byzantine priest and who also agrees that married clergy are properly an inalienable tradition in the Eastern churches, tells me that he can't personally imagine being a priest and having the duties of marriage.