President Trump and John McCain--Sometimes You Can't Be Silent

photo by Gilbert Mercier / flickr

Did you find it as strange as I did that President Trump stood before a cadre of tanks and bashed not once, but again and again one of the great heroes of the Twentieth century. John McCain. Maybe he thinks if he says : “I love my veterans” enough that many out there will believe him. Maybe he is just trying to convince himself.

We should have known it was coming. Before he was elected President remember his horrifying statement about Senator McCain. Smearing his good name he said, “He wasn’t captured. He surrendered.” And this was followed by the words that few could believe: “I like soldiers that were not captured.” John McCain was held captive for over years and tortured unmercifully. When he had a chance to be released from that Vietnam prison he refused until all his comrades were released. 

As Senator McCain was dying Trump said mean and cruel things about this great man. And yet seven months after his death our President has the audacity to talk about how McCain was last in grade points at West Point. Not true. Not smart, he said. Until the President was pushed against the wall did he only allowed the flags over the White House and other places to be lowered after Senator McCain’s death. He claimed credits for the planning of McCain’s funeral and lamented he did not even get a thank you note from the family.

This man who dodged the draft under the pathetic malady of a bone spur tries to erase his own cowardice by belittling someone who served courageously. Maybe he thinks if he hugs the American flag long enough and yells: “I love my veterans” we will forget his own lack of patriotism. 

I keep remembering what the great Martin Niemoller said, again and again when he stood against Hitler. And we must not forget he was a Pastor during those terrible days.

“First they came for the Jews

and I did not speak out

because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists

and I did not speak out 

because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists

and I did not speaks out

because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me

and there was no one left 

to speak for me.”

Why the silence Senators? 

Why the silence Congressmen?

Why the silence of all the evangelicals?

Why the silence of so many in this country?

Years ago someone asked Dick Gregory why he marched and spoke again racism and injustice and our country and around the world. He had received many death threats and many people despised him. He answered that question of ‘why” like this. , “When my grandchild watches on TV what was happening during those days she will say: “Grandpa what did you do when all that was going on?” “And this is why I did what I did.”

(I took this picture in the cemetery in Luxembourg, Germany where over 5,073 American soldiers are buried. General Patton is buried there.)

—Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com