John McCain's Farewell Statement

Senator John McCain died this past week. He was 81 years old. There was once a time when I was younger where I would say openly that if John McCain ran for President, then I was likely to vote for him. Sadly, his presidential campaign in 2008 became overrun by the idiocy of far right conservative politics in America. Adding Sarah Palin to the campaign and paying lip service to the fundamentalist right definitely weakened the campaign. Yet, there were still powerful McCain moments. The "No Ma'am Moment", when McCain responded articulately and strongly to a woman who claimed Obama was an Arab and she couldn't trust him, will probably be the best-remembered moment of his presidential run. Yet, his farewell statement, released to the American public following his death, may one day be his best remembered statement, especially as the words are poignant and meaningful at a time when the Trump Administration, xenophobia, and extremism (on both sides) are threatening the future of American democracy. I've copied the words of the statement below, for anyone interested in reading them. The bold highlights of the text are mine, but, truly, all the words are those of the now deceased Senator John McCain.

2008 presidential candidate John McCain, before a rally in Cedar Falls, Iowa (Oct. 26, 2008; AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

"My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for sixty years, and especially my fellow Arizonans,

Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.

I have often observed that I am the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I have loved my life, all of it. I have had experiences, adventures and friendships enough for ten satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else's.

I owe that satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America's causes -- liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people -- brings happiness more sublime than life's fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.

'Fellow Americans' -- that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world's greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have acquired great wealth and power in the process.

We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.

We are three-hundred-and-twenty-five million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.

Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening.

I feel it powerfully still.

Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.

Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you, and God bless America."

"Get Out of Boulder"

"Get out of Boulder!" Those are words that were said to me today at Alfalfa's Market by someone, based solely on her ridiculous assumption that I support Trump's presidential candidacy due to the fact that I was whistling a Beatle's tune while standing in line to order coffee. The woman and I had had a heated exchange of words after she heard me whistling. She said, "The only people I know who whistle are Trump supporters." I thought she was joking. I said, "Oh ya?" But then she got angry and said, "Well, are you?" I could see that she had a hate and an anger in her, and she thought she was somehow something special. I told her it was none of her business who I support in American politics. She then said to the clerk at Alfalfa's and another customer ,"This guy here is a Trump supporter!" 

I think in her mind she wanted them to riot against me and break out their pitch forks and torches. I told her to fuck off (and I said it loudly, which, it turns out, scared the cashier). She said, "You know, you're a fucking asshole" into my face (and, conveniently, so the cashier couldn't hear it), so I told her that she was ugly on both the inside and the outside. 

Later, this woman got the store's manager involved in the hopes that they would kick me out. That's when she told me I should 'get out of Boulder'. Think about that. Think about the hate and the anger and the fear and the ignorance in this woman's life for her to say something like that because she thought I was a supporter of Trump. Now, it truly is none of that woman's business, but I don't support Trump's candidacy. However, even if I did support Trump, the very idea that this woman thinks that anyone who disagrees with her should be kicked out of town is absolutely disgusting. That's no different than white bigots telling black people to 'get out of our town' based on the color of their skin. It's no different than Christians telling Muslims to 'get out of our town' based solely on what they believe. Telling someone to 'get out of our town' because of their political ideology (even if it's only your own unsupported assumption about their political ideology) is part of the problem with this nation. It's exactly that kind of ignorance and hate that has allowed us to get to the point where we may actually have a presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. We can do better as a nation. We can be more accepting of our differences while using reason, argumentation, and compromise to find a way forward. 

Sure, this is just one situation that happened to me (and the plural of anecdote most certainly is not evidence), but we've all seen this happening around the nation: die hard conservatives hating on liberals, using terms like "libtard"; people opposed to firearms automatically assuming that anyone who owns guns or is opposed to certain forms of firearm regulation are somehow "gun nuts"; Democrats and Republicans swapping insults of character as opposed to thoughtful considerations of positions; and the continued division of this nation through our politics and media. 

I most certainly won't "get out of Boulder" to assuage this woman's fears, nor should anyone in this nation be told to 'get out of our town" if they are contributing members of society. This stupidity and arrogance, driven from the very depths of our ignorance and fear, needs to be replaced by intellectualism and humility. I'm still pretty angry and frazzled over my altercation with that woman, but I won't let that drive me down to her level. If anything, it's just another indication to me that the time to work towards a better nation, steeped in education and enlightenment, is now.