A profile in courage

The internet is full of tributes to the late Arizona Senator John McCain. While I disagreed with him on many issues, I'd like to note four specific things about him that I appreciate.

*First, he put his body on the line. I'm not a fan of wars and I think the one in Vietnam was one of the worst ideas of the second half of the 20th century, but in this age of cheap and jingoistic "patriotism" as promoted by rich chicken-hawks who never took a risk (those who have ears, let them hear), McCain stands out.

*Second, he had a moral core, which isn't something you see a lot of in politics today.

*Third, at times he really was a maverick. One time when he went against the stream that really mattered was in the vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act last summer, which I discussed in this blog post at the time. He had this to say about the rush to repeal:

“I’ve stated time and time again that one of the major failures of Obamacare was that it was rammed through Congress by Democrats on a strict-party line basis without a single Republican vote. We should not make the mistakes of the past that has led to Obamacare’s collapse... We must now return to the correct way of legislating and send the bill back to committee, hold hearings, receive input from both sides of aisle, heed the recommendations of nation’s governors, and produce a bill that finally delivers affordable health care for the American people. We must do the hard work our citizens expect of us and deserve."

 By that one vote, he helped to preserve health care, including recovery treatment, for millions of Americans, at least for the time being, infuriating many of his supporters in the process.

*Fourth, he faced death with courage and dignity. Not for the first time.

To quote from Hamlet, "He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again."

Courage vs. heroism

I hit the road for several days today, including what the composer(s) of Beowulf might call "the bird road," which consisted of a lengthy stint in and around airports and airplanes.


At such times, it's important to have good reading matter. While dropping by a public library yesterday, I saw an intriguing book titled Smile at Strangers and Other Lessons in the Art of Living Fearlessly by Susan Schorn. The author and I have something in common in that both of us found our life path in a karate dojo and applied what we learned there in other parts of our lives.

Midway through the book, she makes an interesting distinction between courage and heroism. In the context of discussing the art of intervening to prevent violence, she said the following:

...we tend to want to act heroically against violence, when more often, what's needed is simple courage. The difference is plain. Heroics make you look cool. Courage more often makes you look silly, at least puts you at risk of looking that way.

I think she might be on to something.

LINK TRUCK BROKE DOWN AGAIN. Maybe tomorrow.