Tribute: His Final Legacy (In Memorium for John McCain)

The Navy HymnThe Navy Hymn

John McCain speaks to us from Washington National Cathedral.

Pictures can be deceiving; what we see is not always real.  This picture shows us a coffin draped with a flag of honor, on a cold marble floor, in repose, alone and unguarded.  Or does it?

This picture is of Senator John McCain's coffin at Washington National Cathedral.  If we could pan around the area, we would see that hundreds of invited family, friends, and dignitaries from the past and present look over Senator McCain.  They have come to say goodbye or, in some cases, just because it would make them look bad if they didn't show up.  We know who they are. 

This was not a funeral service in the norm.  McCain handpicked his speakers outside of the family and knew what the content of their speeches would entail.  His hand was in every detail of his service.  This would not be a mournful, sad, emotionally draining event.  And it would not be a religious circus.  It was, in many ways, a funeral of hope.  Hope that we, the country, the world watching, were listening to him telling us to straighten up and fly right.  After all, he was a pilot.

It was not at all what I had expected.  I watched President Kennedy's funeral procession on the streets of Washington, DC, as a child.  It was freezing cold.  Thousands and thousands of people lined the streets of DC. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen in my life.  Everyone was crying or had been, wiping eyes and blowing noses, cops on the street, guys in uniform, women, kids of all ages.    I had never seen men cry unashamedly, especially in public.  When Bobby Kennedy was killed publically, it was the same scenario.  I guess I was expecting more of the grief element at the service.  I couldn't have been more wrong.

I realize that I can't compare this funeral of a man dying from cancer to death by assassination.  I

expected that his daughter would be beside herself; she was, but she had a message, and she kept it together long enough to make the world sit up and take notice.  I will always remember this as her strongest moment.  In a few sentences, she destroyed the alibi for hateful political practices from the highest leaders.  America has always been great.  

The memories of friends and former Presidents reiterated hope and, in my opinion, a warning for all Americans to stop destroying our country for personal agendas. They were speaking not just their words but the message that Senator McCain felt compelled to leave us with.  That message was present throughout the entire service.  If McCain had been speaking the words himself, he would have been red-faced and indignant that we have stooped to the lowest level of Americanism ever displayed.  

McCain left us all a wake-up call.  If we choose to ignore it, our country will cease to exist as it has always been.  It's an individual choice.  Those who continue to destroy the country will ultimately fail in the end.  Somehow, we have to prepare ourselves for the future.  We have to clean house and remove Russia from trying to manipulate our fate, and we can only do that if we vote to save the country.  Not the distorted vision of our country that is a poorly written novel, a country envisioned thriving on freedom of choice, speech, marriage, religion, equality, and justice.

Are you willing to fight John's last battle for him?  Our country depends on it.