The Man From Arizona
He could’ve gone home.
That’s what Mr. Trump didn’t know in 2015 when he said John McCain wasn’t a war hero “because he was captured. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.” No, sir. He was a hero because quite simply, he wouldn’t leave his fellow soldiers.
In October 1967, John McCain was in Vietnam. On his twenty-third mission, something went wrong with his plane and he had to bail out, almost drowning in the Trúc Bạch Lake in Hanoi. He was surrounded by Vietnamese, who pulled him ashore. After they stripped him of his clothes, they tortured him. Then he went to the Hỏa Lò Prison. American Prisoners of War gave it another name: The Hanoi Hilton.
The torture continued until they found out who his father was: John McCain Senior, a high ranking Navy officer. Only then did they give McCain medical care. Because of his father was well known, McCain ended up on the front page of the New York Times. Months later in 1968, his captors offered him freedom.
It would’ve been easy to say yes. The torture was getting worse. He had lost so much weight and was in so much pain. He had a wife and three children waiting for him at home. But he also knew this: there had been men captured before him. Men who didn’t have high profile fathers in the military. Men who were being tortured. How could he leave them? He refused. Until they all could leave, then he would leave. He was put in solitary confinement for two years. The torture and beatings continued until March 14, 1973. The New York Times reported when he returned home, “his hair was gray, white in patches… as he limped off the plane, he gripped the handrail.” This the man that Mr. Trump says wasn’t a war hero, the man who had those darned bone spurs to deal with and just couldn’t serve his country. In no way do I condone the Vietnam war. Yet I’d never say a person wasn’t a war hero simply because he was captured.
McCain tried to rebuild his life. After his divorce from his first wife, he married Cindy Lou Hensley, a teacher. They had three children, then adopted a daughter, Bridget, a baby girl Cindy saw in Mother’s Teresa’s orphanage. Remember Bridget. She’ll come up later in this essay.
He ran for Congress and won. He made mistakes. He opposed making Martin Luther King Junior’s birthday a holiday. To me that was a head scratcher. Why would anyone oppose making Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday? That’s like replacing Mr. Rogers Neighborhood with Hanging out with The Kardashians on PBS. Yet years later McCain admitted he made a mistake in 2008. Again, something else many politicians wouldn’t admit.
Eventually he ran for the Senate and won. In 2000, he launched his first presidential campaign. He was expected to win the North Carolina primary, but Bush strategist Karl Rove created a nifty little fake poll. The question? “Would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain…if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?” Since Bridget was dark skinned, many assumed she was the child. The Nation reported that thanks to this poll, George W. Bush won the North Carolina primary. Years later, Bridget McCain googled herself for fun, then learned what Karl Rove did to her father in her name. She could’ve gone on Facebook and ranted, or Twitter. She had every right. Instead, she went to her father’s aides and asked them to be different. If you need a definition of grace and class, look at Ms. Bridget McCain.
Full honesty here: I didn’t vote for John McCain. Trust me, I didn’t despise him. I truly did admire him. However, I knew after I heard Sarah Palin make speeches and she made women pay for their own rape kits, there was no possible way I wanted her a heartbeat away from the White House. Many have said having Palin on the ticket was a game change, but not in a good way. Yet he never badmouthed her publicly, even when she endorsed Donald Trump for president, even after he badmouthed the man who brought her to national attention.
Last year McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer. I knew it was bad. While people wished him miracles and to get well soon, I wrote him a letter through his website. At the time Trump was trying to get rid of Obamacare. I wrote that because of Obamacare, I was able to leave a terrible job to one that didn’t offer benefits but I didn’t have to deal with difficult people all the time. When I was laid off that job, I was able to still see doctors and keep taking my medications. I was able to save money, apply to grad school, and continue writing about the cold case of Suzanne Bombardier. In no way did I want to tell the man how to vote. But I wanted him to know that if hadn’t been in Obamacare, I could’ve stayed stuck in a terrible situation. Two days later, he vetoed his own party’s bill and Obamacare was saved.
Friday morning it was announced that McCain wasn’t going to continue medical care for his cancer. It wasn’t a surprise, yet I felt a wave of sadness. God knows I disagreed with the man. Yet I knew something else was dying. Decency in politics, admitting you were wrong about an issue. Being brave and speaking out against people indoor own party. This is something I’m hoping I’m wrong about. I don’t think so though. But I’m hoping.
Jennifer Kathleen Gibbons has been published in Salon, Stereo Embers, and The Billfold. She has also written about the cold case about Suzanne Bombardier, which was solved in December 2017. She is writing a memoir about her involvement with the case, along with a collection of essays. Both are seeking agent representation.
