I just want to say a few words about this, because I have felt somewhat unsettled with the tone of jubilation this appears to have been expressed with the imminent demise of another human being, albeit an extremely flawed and dangerous one such as Senator McCain is.
I come at this from the medical perspective of an Emergency physician, an Eastern Orthodox Christian and as humanist/humanitarian. Whilst I do not at all disagree with the sentiment that Senator McCain is better gone from public life for the sake of world peace and reducing suffering (esp from war), I feel uneasy that his personal tragedy has been openly mocked and gleefully “celebrated” by some, including my Journalistic hero Caitlin.
I work as an Emergency Physician and often experience other people’s unexpected and dramatic personal tragedies on at least a weekly basis. Nobody comes to the Emergency Department having made a prior appointment. Nobody awakens with the knowledge that later on the same day they will suffer a life threatening or life altering situation which will spin their whole life, and the lives of their loved ones, out of control like a horror nightmare. Being diagnosed with a devastating brain tumour whilst having brain surgery would be such a situation. That in itself is enough torture, in my humble opinion, for even the most evil of person, to be left to deal with the tragedy without adding to the horror with gleeful dancing on the person’s illness bed.
As a doctor, I believe and aspire to offering humanitarian help and relief of suffering to even my/our worst enemies. In the end, we all bleed when cut; we all feel pain when injured; we are all frightened when looking into the abyss of our own mortality, even if we neglected to appreciate the same in others via our actions in life.
As an Orthodox Christian, I believe what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote:
“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains … an unuprooted small corner of evil.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956"
A catastrophic life threatening diagnosis is burden enough, in my opinion, to humble even the most blackened soul. Senator McCain is a spent public figure. He will unlikely make it back into public life, but his test of human character may yet to be fulfilled. Jubilant triumphalism at his tragedy does not seem humane to me……………….just saying what i feel in my heart.
Cheers
Spiro