Thursday, August 30, 2018

SERVICE

I'll admit to indulging in a pleasurable bit of quiet malice this week, imagining the fury that "president" Trump must be nursing as he watches (on television, of course) the adulation accorded the late Senator John McCain--and the cost to himself of the air time to which he is addicted.

I hold no brief for the late senator's politics; and I frankly find it hard to forgive him for having invited the Tea Party into the Republican establishment in the form of Sarah Palin--which act I believe to be a lapse in his celebrated integrity, and one that promoted precisely the kind of partisanship he deplored.

I do, however, honor this man for his mission of service, both in the military and in civilian life. At a time when the whole idea of service has become a mockery at the hands of Donald Trump, who appears to serve no one other than himself, this is a rare and precious quality. It is, in my view, what defines a man.

Whether conscious or not, the "heroism" so widely attributed to McCain is a manifestation of the national hunger for this quality. We are so busy serving our own interests that we too often forget the value of serving others. I believe that we are in for more dire times until we learn this lesson.

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