Good Morning.
I would like to spend an hour with John McCain, the feisty, indefatigable senator from Arizona. For those few who do not know the story of this man, Senator McCain was held for six years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, also known as The Hanoi Hilton. He was repeatedly tortured and when offered an early release ahead of his fellow prisoners, declined to take it. Whether you supported the war in Vietnam then or now, this makes John McCain a hero, even though the current president declared during the 2016 campaign that McCain is not a hero because a hero is someone who doesn't get captured. What a bunch of gobbledygook. Anyone who flies missions over enemy territory has the distinct possibility of getting shot down and being taken prisoner. Anyone who stays with his friends under horrific conditions when he could go home is extraordinary.
Senator McCain has a quick wit that is often a blessing when things get mired down in the nation's capital which is basically all of the time. He speaks his mind and I like that. On one particularly notable occasion, a woman at one of his rallies during the 2008 presidential race told the crowd that she didn't like Obama because he was an "Arab" and McCain immediately answered that she was mistaken, that Obama was a decent American with whom he disagreed on some issues. This is the kind of civility we need.
With a now well-documented thumbs down, Senator McCain recently voted against the so-called skinny repeal of the Affordable Care Act. He probably made a whole slug of people mad as hell, but he was concerned that the correct process wasn't being followed, not that he didn't want to replace Obamacare. He is now back in Arizona undergoing treatment for a ferocious form of brain cancer, and I pray for him every night. The Senate needs him.
The White House has a new chief of staff, a four-star Marine Corps general named John Kelly. People who have been concerned about the disarray in the Oval office are particularly pleased with the choice, but Kelly has his work cut out for him. He is used to order and a chain of command. This means that the inner sanctum reports to him, including presidential family members. It was interesting that the First Daughter tweeted that she looked forward to working alongside General Kelly. She did not say for General Kelly which means that she thinks she is on equal footing with General Kelly. Oh my.
And what happens when General Kelly tries to take away the presidential phone, not the one on the desk but the one in the
breast pocket near the red tie? Cell phones are now the adult form of a security blanket, that well-worn piece of fleece dragged by a toddler from place to place in an effort to feel safe from bugs and bogeymen and things that go bump in the night. I did not have a blankie as a child. I had a stuffed cat that went everywhere with me, even after all the fur was rubbed off and it looked rather pathetic. One time I left it in a hotel on a trip and my parents refused to go back for it. I was almost writhing on the floor of the car, I was so devastated, and phones have become a similarly clutched item, even an addiction. Perhaps the presidential phone will be left in Brussels or Miami or somewhere, but I'll bet there's a back-up. I never got another stuffed cat and was shortly required to make my bed, eat my vegetables, and tell the truth.
Best regards,
Elisabeth
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