John McCain liked to tell that story that his North Vietnamese captors offered to release him early, but he heroically replied, "Not without my brothers!"
Consider that scenario: "John, we're thinking about making a move, but first we wanted to get your input. Is this okay with you?" I have a hard time picturing that, myself. It seems unlikely.
He was a "maverick" who voted the party line in the upper ninetieth percentile, a "hero" who knowingly bombed civilian targets.
It made a nice story, I guess, if you're in to that sort of thing.
I have a theory we make heroes out of politicians because we feel we need heroes, not because there are many who deserve to be considered such.
ReplyDeleteI forget his name (and so do most people), but he died ten years ago. Invented new strains of wheat and other crops. Is credited with thus saving tens of millions of lives from starvation. It's a shame I forget his name. A bigger shame, perhaps, is that there are no statues to him, no streets named after him. Maybe a lab or two on a university campus here or there.
Googled him. Norman Ernest Borlaug, "The Father of the Green Revolution". Strange how we make mediocre politicians heroes, but not men and women like him.
By the way, I just now posted on McCain here -- inspired by your post.
ReplyDeletehttps://cafephilos.blog/2018/08/26/on-heroes-and-the-death-of-john-mccain/
[…] This post was inspired by a post on Abbie’s Tree House, which can be found here. […]
ReplyDelete