If you read, heard or watched any of the coverage Sunday of Arizona Senator John McCain’s death, maybe you learned about the time he spent during his time as a U.S. Senator in San Diego.
According to the San Diego Union Tribune, he once remarked that one of the reasons he spent time in San Diego was because that’s where so many of his constituents from Arizona, ‘Zonies’ we call them, would come to visit to get out of the desert heat during the summer.
While McCain’s death was not unexpected, with his battle against brain cancer having gone on for a while, his passing still hit a lot of people from San Diego to Washington D.C. hard.
McCain’s history as the son and grandson of Navy admirals, joining the Navy to become a fighter pilot in Vietnam and his nightmarish experience as a POW for five years, during which he was repeatedly tortured, and despite being permanently disabled from it, becoming a U.S Congressman and then a U.S. Senator and then twice running for President of the United States made him unique as a politician.
He was described as different than other politicians.
McCain was considered by many an anti-politician politician. Because throughout his career he stood for what he thought was right even if it went against Republican presidents and went against the Republican leadership, even if it cost him politically.
And while he never became president, he lived a life expressed by a president from decades ago, who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
John McCain did everything for his country and there may never be another guy quite like him.
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