John McCain touches the hearts of all Americans. I was hooked when John McCain took his 2000 loss to George W. Bush and returned to serving his Country with Courage and Dignity. I vote Democratic Party, but I will vote for John McCain. I will vote for America.
John McCain took positions based upon his understanding of finding the best possible way out of a problem for all Americans, whether it was cutting wasteful Federal spending, campaign reform, immigration, health care, improving the quality of the American environment, and especially helping fight the global war on Islamist Terror.
John McCain stuck his chin out for his country and took the blows of political enemies on the left and the particularly ugly shots from the extreme right.
John McCain is no Mitt Romney - McCain has the scars and bruises of a guy who gets into the combat of living and Mitt looks like Central Casting's pick for the next HBO mini-series adaptation of The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit - Hollywood wishes it could look like Mitt Romney.
John McCain looks like CPD Homicide Detectives Marty Tully and Billy Higgins; Cook County Sheriff Community Service Director Willie Winters; Veteran Grayslake Coach and Teacher Charlie Olson; ER Nurse Mary Terese Riordan; Carpenter J. C. Gutierrez; Roofer Eddie Carroll; 399 Stationary Engineer Dewey Sheehan;Coffee Shop Owner Kristi Martens who was run out of business by a greedy landlord; Grocer Tom Baffes - naw Tom's too good looking; Plumbing Contractor Tommy Hopkins; CFD Fire Capt. Mike Miller and former Fire Superintendent James T. Joyce;Special Education Teacher Ms. Pat Rosenhagen; Laid Off Veteran News Editors John Hector and Ed Koziarski; Labor Leader Brian Hickey; Leo High School President Bob Foster; Professional Boxer and CPD Recruit Thomas 'The Hit man' Hayes (27/1)and Thomas's coach attorney Mike Joyce. These are Americans I love and respect.
John McCain looks like all of the courageous people listed above who are scarred from Vietnam, burned on the job and because of job, bruised by disappointments, and burdened with responsibilities. Higgins and Tully caught the people who murdered little girls and allowed them to decompose in the trunk of a car for most of the hottest summer Chicago ever experienced. Kristi Martens who lost her business though she paid every bill and met every payroll because a real estate developer exacted an excessive rent on her; James Joyce ordered every firefighter in his command out of a building and waited until his order was obeyed - the building fell in on Jim Joyce and turned his tough athletic body into jelly. Jim Joyce went to rehab for years and returned to lead the entire Chicago Fire Department. Bob Foster stepped in and went sleepless and exhausted for years in order to save failing Catholic high school so black young men would have a school that would provide them an opportunity to succeed. Charlie Olson resigned as tennis coach rather than act against the interests of his students - though it cost him a place in the IHSA Coaching Hall of Fame.
Most Americans understand fear and face it down. They understand loss - grieve and go back to work. Americans suffer set-backs and disappoints and shake it off to move up the next grade with greater determination. Americans see what is the ugliest and most horrific in human experience and exert every effort to make sure that none of that reaches the people they love.
They understand what William Butler Yeats wrote 'A King is but a foolish laborer who wastes his blood to be another's Dream.' Heroes bleed. Most heroes say 'it hurts a bit.' ( Click my post title for this beautifully wonderful and under examined poem - its speaks to the nature of heroism)
They do not live to 'Be Somebody, but to Serve.' John McCain said that last night.
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