McCain’s Life and Death

McCain’s Life and Death
The Life and Times of a Great American

I spend my time doing a handful of things that I consider important to me: caring for Ginger, teaching, staying in contact with my family in Taunggyi, writing, and exercising so that I can do those items. However, interspersed amid my normal daily activities, I watched our nation’s mourning the passing of John McCain while celebrating his life with us.

John McCain

His funeral

Then I went back to teaching online. I had written a comment about Manifest Destiny and a student responded. This is a photo of Emma.

Al,

We learn something new every day. I currently finished your article, Manifest Destiny, and the title itself grabbed my attention. First things first, the painting was of an angel like figure guiding the settlers westward. It is upsetting that we caused so much hurt for Native Americans. Our use of God as an excuse to eliminate Native Americans is not godly at all.

Can I also mention that slavery ended, but we are still enslaving African Americans through mass incarceration? I really think America has come a long way, and we say that we have learned from our mistakes, but in reality, we haven’t. Look at our president.

-Emma

This was my reply.

Emma,

Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, who I think was Scottish, since I am Scottish, said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

This week, we saw the funeral of McCain. I was moved by it. There was a guy with guts. I didn't agree with everything he said, but he was honest.

However, then it happened. I thought…when Trump kicks the buck, what will that be like? Name a leader that will attend his funeral....

I'm writing an essay about that for my webpage soon.

Finally, I want you and the class to think about what we learn and should apply to our lives. If our learning isn’t applied to our lives, we really haven’t learned anything.

McCain’s funeral was one of the rare moments in time when reality slaps us in the face while shouting, “Wake up.” And for a moment, our nation saw polar opposites. One person gave 23-years of service in the Navy, which included 5 ½ as a POW in North Vietnam. He received a long list of military honors: Silver Star, two Legion of Merits, Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, and the Prisoner of War Medal.

McCain served in the House and Senate from 1983-2018, which was 35-years and ran for president twice. Both of his opponents gave eulogies at his funeral service in Washington.

That was an extremely brief summary of his life. Nevertheless, McCain is polar opposite of Donald the Dumb, our fake president. His polar opposite doesn’t like anyone upstaging him, which is not difficult. In response to McCain’s death, the flag over the White House was lowered to half-staff on August 25 and returned to full-staff at midnight of August 27. Supposedly, our fake president thought that the fake media was making too much of McCain who was never a president.

However, Donald the Dumb is 72-years old, and his clock is ticking. He never served in Vietnam. He had five deferments due to a bone spur in his heels, which kept him out of Vietnam. He never served in Congress. When Trump dies, the list will be extremely short of his friends and dignitaries that will want to attend his funeral. Many of his best friends have pleaded guilty, convicted, and/or are in jail. Some of this list below have flipped and are working with Robert Mueller’s investigation. Also, there are many more names that know Trump that are assisting in Mueller’s probe.

Who has been charged with crimes

Charges

Outcome