US Senator John McCain (Republican), the senior senator from Arizona, died yesterday after 13 months of treatment for brain cancer. His funeral eulogies will be, by his request, former presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama. He requested that the current president not be invited to attend.
An American hero after 5.5 years as a regularly tortured prisoner during the Vietnam war, he returned to a life of service in the US House of Representatives and then the Senate. He was respected as a politician who showed great political courage, working with political adversaries for the good of the country, and was known as a man who spoke his mind and loved his country.
Today, the US has no such selfless leaders, and the country will never have another John MCain.
This is the last paragraph of his final book:
“What an ingrate I would be to curse the fate that concludes the blessed life I’ve led. I prefer to give thanks for those blessings, and my love to the people who blessed me with theirs. The bell tolls for me. I knew it would. So I tried, as best I could, to stay a ‘part of the main.‘ I hope those who mourn my passing, and even those who don’t, will celebrate as I celebrate a happy life lived in imperfect service to a country made of ideals, whose continued service is the hope of the world. And I wish all of you great adventures, good company, and lives as lucky as mine.”
For those who would like to read a little more of this last page of Senator McCain’s 2018 book:
https://www.politico.com/story…farewell-statement-757659
