Roy Exum
For most of the years in my life I have read and watched John McCain, long before his up-and-down years in our nation’s Senate where for 30-plus years he followed Barry Goldwater in 1987. No, our deal started my senior year in high school when his A4-E Skyhawk was shot from the sky over Viet Nam and he spent the next 5½ years being constantly tortured at the closest place to hell ever on planet Earth -- the H?a Lò Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton."
I have known several pilots who were POWs there and have read much more about when evil dared to outdo good. Unlike any of the other prisoners, though, McCain was offered a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card because his dad and his granddad were Navy Admirals, but the moment he refused to leave before the others, he entered a lofty throne room where only the most sacred warriors of any nation rightfully belong. Had he been Catholic he would already be a saint.
As I have said … I watched his daily story unfold for almost 50 years. I enjoyed much that he did, despised some of what he did, and loathed a little of what he did, but whether I like him or not makes no difference. What matters is that I will always carry every bit as much respect for John McCain as for any of the world’s greatest human beings you can name. There is no higher pedestal.
Between 1967 – about when I settled behind the wheel of my first car and would soon write “by Roy Exum” for the very first time – and March of 1973 when the world seemed evermore my oyster, John McCain was systematically tortured twice a week in the Viet Cong hellhole. While my early life was fast, fun, and furious, his was being left for dead, time and time again.
As my years have grown I have thought more and more about the sacrifices, those knockdowns and that only a “cowboy” can drag himself up out of the dirt, and the fact that of all the bad we find in our lives, it never fails that something better will come of it. My life’s warm moments are easily forgotten but those forged by heroes like McCain are now more vivid. To me that’s the face of the United States of America, and John McCain is my “Exhibit A.”
In grammar school, where we first read Harriett Beecher Stowe’s classic, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” we learned the author has also written a small poem. “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems you cannot hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time the tide will turn.”
I memorized what Harriett wrote, but for my entire life I have idolized what John McCain actually taught; a man who brought it to life, and his lessons, his courage, and his true character overwhelm any mistakes or misdeeds his critics may still dare to crow.
On Monday his family shared his goodbye to the land he loved.
* * *
MY GOODBYE TO AMERICA
By John McCain (August 29, 1936 - August 25, 2018 (aged 81)
"My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for 60 years, and especially my fellow Arizonians, 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've tried to serve our country honorably.
I've made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them. I've 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've loved my life, all of it.
I've had experiences, adventures, friendships enough for 10 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 anybody else's. I owe the satisfaction to the love of my family. One man has never 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 with America's causes, liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people brings happiness more sublime that life's fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but are 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 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 progress. We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with 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 325 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'll 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 heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening. I feel it powerfully still. Do not despair of our present difficulties, we 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."
* * *
The boy who is going to make a great man must not make up his mind merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses and defeats.” -- Theodore Roosevelt
* * *
“DON’T QUIT”
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.
- - -
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.
- - -
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
- - -
Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.
royexum@aol.com