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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJohn McCain, in final message before death, says 'do not despair of our present difficulties'
"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."
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/27/john-mccain-in-final-message-before-death-says-do-not-despair-of-our-present-difficulties.html
leftieNanner
(14,966 posts)Thank you for sharing this.
Let's all make it so.
nolabear
(41,902 posts)Its pretty damn courageous to look death in the eye and say what you want to say to the still living. Not to mention poking a stick in that s.o.b.s eye from beyond the grave.
hlthe2b
(101,540 posts)I won't defend his politics, but I surely will defend the entirety of his life and the honor he has displayed.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)saidsimplesimon
(7,888 posts)I thought I would not weep.
After all, we did not travel in the same social or political circles. I knew him only through the written correspondence over the years. He, or his staff, would responded when I disagreed with his reasoning for supporting another war, military spending or other positions. These letters were often 3 pages or more, were always respectful and well written.
Tiggeroshii
(11,088 posts)backtoblue
(11,296 posts)CaliforniaPeggy
(149,181 posts)Thoughtful, gracious, intelligent............
And to write this on the eve of his death! Most of us would not even think of doing such a thing.
He has left us this powerful message as his legacy.
I rejoice in it and in his being!
montana_hazeleyes
(3,424 posts)Thank you Senator McCain for your encouraging, uplifting and caring words.
calimary
(80,522 posts)And honesty. So rare nowadays a lot of people don't even recognize it anymore.
I wish HE were President now, and trump was some itty bitty footnote.
magicarpet
(13,881 posts)calimary
(80,522 posts)VERRY well-taken, magicarpet.
McCain was hardly perfect but sometimes a standout from his colleagues. But there were indeed many ways he failed to measure up. That made him a glaring contrast to most of his GOP colleagues. So then, what does that say about the rest of THEM?
I guess I sometimes fall toward the sunny side of someone who died. I dont feel motivated to dance on his grave. Not like I bet Ill do whoever it is that trump goes. Frankly, because of trump, I no longer see myself celebrating when dubya goes. And thats merely because in comparison to trump, dubya looks somewhat decent! Now, cheney is another matter entirely!!
I did look up the USS Forrestal fire on Snopes.com to see if McCains piloting caused that horrible conflagration in which 134 sailors were killed and 161 injured. Nope. Debunked.
But I will always be bothered by the way he threw away his first wife for a younger, prettier, blonder, richer replacement. This, after Wife #1 waited patiently at home while he was in Vietnam and the Hanoi Hilton - but her sin was having been in a car accident which ruined her looks and her model-perfect legs.
Ill always be bothered by his involvement with reckless wheeler-dealer Charles Keating.
And I will never forgive him for shoving Sarah Palin on the rest of America. Thats something NOT to forget. She wouldnt have had a national profile OR platform if he hadnt plucked her out of obscurity. Youre totally right about that!
MBS
(9,688 posts)Shaddox
(384 posts)Peachhead22
(1,077 posts)"We are citizens of the world's greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil."
"Blood and soil" is one of the things the Charlottesville neo-nazis and alt-right rioters were chanting. I doubt the inclusion of that specific phrase was a coincidence.
Mosby
(16,117 posts)mcar
(42,179 posts)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.
Hekate
(89,977 posts)You know what? This man's greatness *will* be remembered.
I'm with our Nance Greggs when she claimed him for our own, now that the GOP is too rotted at the core to even acknowledge his passing properly.
sarge43
(28,935 posts)CAVU, sir.
Initech
(99,881 posts)Zing Zing Zingbah
(6,496 posts)Thinking of his country even on his death bed.... Far more honorable of a man than the current president.
DesertRat
(27,995 posts)gademocrat7
(10,617 posts)Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)N_E_1 for Tennis
(9,551 posts)As a Vietnam vet his passing saddens me as a brother in arms, though at the same time gladdens me as we get to experience what a true patriot is supposed to be.
WheelWalker
(8,940 posts)2naSalit
(85,639 posts)orangecrush
(19,151 posts)sandensea
(21,460 posts)He should have been the Majority Leader - not Mitch McCocaine.
But such are our times.
sunonmars
(8,656 posts)Pacifist Patriot
(24,647 posts)That was beautiful.
kpete
(71,867 posts)red dog 1
(27,575 posts)That WAS beautiful.
joshcryer
(62,265 posts)Reminds me of Hitchens.
RIP.
red dog 1
(27,575 posts)The transcript is available here:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/full-transcript-face-the-nation-on-august-26-2018/
The transcript includes this:
BOB SCHIEFFER
"Americans were shocked during the 2016 campaign when Republican candidate Donald Trump attacked McCain, saying --"
TRUMP
"He's a war hero because he was captured..I like people who weren't captured."
Az_lefty
(3,670 posts)bucolic_frolic
(42,481 posts)He almost sounds like Obama, and it is remarkable that those two saw some of the same things in America, an unbridled belief in the country's ability to triumph over adversity. We are too vast and diverse to succumb to autocrats.
RIP John McCain. A life well lived.
kentuck
(110,916 posts)...one is being written from his death bed.
bucolic_frolic
(42,481 posts)kentuck
(110,916 posts)Thanks John McCain, a proud American.
kentuck
(110,916 posts)one time.