The McCains: Jack and Jimmie
by Jon Marcus
as published in The Red Rock Review, March 15 edition, Sedona, Arizona
Last month, I added a taste of politics to my column, and I got such a dramatic reaction from readers, I thought I should explain further.
Even the National Review picked up my column, after it appeared on the ILoveSedona.com Web site!
The main point I was trying to get across was that the McCain family has done our area a great amount of good by identifying Sedona as their home. Not Scottsdale or Phoenix. Not San Diego, where they spend a lot of time. Sedona is part of the campaign, and that’s good for us.
Since I wrote that column, Sedona has appeared hundreds or thousands of times on CNN, MSNBC, and every other national and international news station, and in nearly every major international newspaper. The word is out.
But, this is about more than that. As I talked about in my last column, the McCain family doesn’t just talk, they do the work of this country.
John’s family includes two Navy admirals; his service and imprisonment in Viet Nam is legend; and in the youngest generation, his sons Jack and Jimmie each volunteered for service.
That impressed me.
I’ve watched those kids grow up. Smart, courteous kids, they would excel at anything they tried.
But their instinct was to stand for duty, honor, and freedom, and like their father, grandfather, and great-father, they volunteered.
I am proud to have seen them grow up from youngsters to soldiers.
Last weekend, I got to visit one-on-one, at one of the “Cabin Weekends” McCain was holding with republican heavy hitters.
I was the token radical.
The McCains were still feeling the newness of the nomination, and Cindy humbly said, “we didn’t think we’d be standing here.” I could feel the dignity and the honor and the feeling of humility that they both felt.
Cindy McCain is oneof the biggest reasons why I support John for president.
When you discuss John’s candidacy with Cindy, it quickly becomes obvious that she doesn’t have great fondness for the political barbs and the meanness of the campaign trail.
She is a beautiful, majestic woman, and she never talks tough or mean. Why put up with this?
In a nutshell, Cindy wants her family to be safe. Her two babies, now men and soldiers, are right in the thick of things in Iraq.
She is passionate that John is the only candidate qualified to lead the American military in these unprecedented times.
And she wants her children, and other children, who do the job of protecting the nation, to be properly protected. And well led.
I trust that.
One thing for certain, the next four years are going to be extremely difficult for our country because it has been trashed by the Bush-Cheney administration.
The next president will need the support of the whole country to get thru the Iraq war, the sub-prime, and the incredible shrinking dollar.
I feel honored to know John McCain and the McCain family.