My story on John Warner who died today...

[Grins]

John Warner died today. I think, all-in-all, a decent man.
My one story on him.

He was Nixon's Secretary of the Navy, 1972-1974.
Sometime while he was SecNav, he went on a trip to Africa.
While he was in another country, Warner would meet the US Ambassador and other US Embassy people.
In those years a close friend of mine was a State Dept., Foreign Service employee.
She was an RN and the senior medical officer for the Embassy staff and their families because doctors were not assigned to the embassies of smaller countries; only to places like Paris, Rome, London, etc. (I'm guessing the embassy in this telling was in Accra, Ghana.)

So Warner came to the Embassy and went out of his way to meet all he could, asking if there was anything he could do for them.
He meets my friend. "Anything I can do for you?"
Her:

"For me, no. But look over there. Those are the Marines who guard this embassy. They do more beyond their normal duties, but too often they are taken for granted. No one ever thanks them for what they do. You should go over there and thank them."

Sumbitch! Warner immediately turned around and went directly to those Marines and chatted them up royally!! Talked and thanked them, asked about their assignment, what could he do for them, where were they from, etc., etc. He took the time.

When Warner returned to Washington he called some of the families of those Marines to let them know he had met their son/brother/husband, and that they were fine. A simple thing to do - but Warner did it!

To this day my friend brags she told the SecNav what to do - and he did it!!

[soothsayer]

1. That's really cool

[abqtommy]

2. Warner certainly sounds like a decent man. It's very telling on the state of any society when

news of such a man is the exception and not the rule.

[WarGamer]

8. President Biden had deep respect for him. That means a lot.

[NBachers]

3. I think Warner laid the ground for us to be able to hold Virginia.

[Duppers]

4. Wonderful man.

Decades ago, while Senator, he toured a small Methodist college in the eastern part of the state, one where a close friend of ours taught. Warner was still married to Elizabeth Taylor at the time & she was traveling with him.

Story goes that when they were in the college library, Mrs. Taylor/Warner brought her lit cigarette in with her and some brave soul had the temerity to tell her that smoking wasn't allowed in the bldg. Apparently she was quite offended and responded by immediately dropping the cigarette where she was standing and put it out with her foot! This greatly offended them. The story was told for years & made the student paper.

Our friend is a Dem but being quite religious, he still holds socially conservative values as did the staff. Their attitude was women should not smoke, much less in public, especially in their library. I agree, she should've ditched the cigarette before entering the bldg.

The story didn't detract from my respect for Sen. Warner in the least - he was a good person. And I don't think Liz was a bad person - she just wasn't using the wisest judgement there.

[Raine]

5. That was in the days when people worked to get along with each other,

could listen to a different opinion and could still like the person even though they didn't agree. I sure miss those days. 🤔

[SleeplessinSoCal]

9. The pre-Putin days.

The leak happened on 9/11. But instead of fixing it we went after each other. Seeing this happen, Putin simply helped pass the ammunition.

[trof]

6. Republican politicians, most of them, used to be decent people.

Joe McCarthy excepted.
I think that pretty much ended with Nixon, Watergate, etc.
From then on they've been trying to 'get even'.
They impeached Clinton "because we could" - Newt Gingrich

[Hulk]

7. Back in the day when gop politicians were Americans first

No longer the case. What we have in the goPutin party today are a bunch of deplorable political party hacks. Party is rotten to the core.