Honor
and Valor
“In the
real world, as lived and experienced by real people, the demand for
human rights and dignity, the longing for liberty and justice and
opportunity, the hatred of oppression and corruption and cruelty is
reality.”
John
McCain
I read an article this
morning about fascism. It made sense to me in light of human
history—when the people in power feel threatened by the changing
fortunes of what they consider lesser beings, they begin to turn the
screws of oppression to curtail that change. They round up the
immigrants and the refugees and toss them out, they limit the power
of the free press to criticize them, they curtail the potential
upward mobility of minorities by undermining their education,
limiting their opportunities, incarcerating them for minor offenses
and not providing adequate representation for them in courts of law.
In short, they box-in the people who threaten their world dominance,
and take away what few rights they may ever have had.
Senator John McCain stood
as a bulwark against such corruption of power. He was a man who had
suffered much, who overcome his personal pain and suffering, and by
the strength of his own moral authority and gravitas, made his way to
the halls of power. There he stood as a singular voice for the simple
democratic ideal of, “Do what is right for the American people.”
He said “no” to any and all bills, whether from the left or from
the right, that he felt were wrong-headed or misguided, and he
reached across the aisle to work with anyone who supported the ideals
he valued. He was an American hero, not so much because he survived
torture as a Vietnamese prisoner of war, but because he was his own
man, no matter what challenges confronted him.
It is my hope that by
celebrating his life, and mourning his death, we will also remember
what he stood for, and honor him by standing for it ourselves. I feel
deep gratitude for the life of John McCain. Go with God, Senator.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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