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Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,842
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Full Staff Flags: Senator John McCain

[ Edited ]

 

Sen. McCain leaves a rich lagacy of patriotic service to his country. He will be honored long after he is interred.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,681
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Full Staff Flags: Senator John McCain

[ Edited ]

don't forget that the Senator is receiving the nation's high high honor of lying in State which is a rare occurrence.  

Honored Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-12-2010

Re: Full Staff Flags: Senator John McCain

Protocol Shmotocol - I will fly my flag at half staff until John McCain is buried.  

There are many elements: wind, fire, water
But none quite like the element of surprise
Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,604
Registered: ‎06-27-2010

Re: Full Staff Flags: Senator John McCain

[ Edited ]

@QueenDanceALot wrote:

Senator McCain's final letter to the American public.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbqcoQrPcUw&t=7s

 

 


             Thank you, @QueenDanceALot.   Here's the transcript:

 

The following is a farewell statement from John McCain delivered by his former campaign manager, Rick Davis, on Monday in Phoenix. 

 

“My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for sixty years, and especially my fellow Arizonans,

 

Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead.    I have tried to serve our country honorably.    I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them.

 

I have often observed that I am the luckiest person on earth.    I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life.    I have loved my life, all of it.    I have had experiences, adventures and friendships enough for ten satisfying lives, and I am so thankful.    Like most people, I have regrets.    But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else’s.

 

I owe that satisfaction to the love of my family.    No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine.    And I owe it to America.    To be connected to America’s causes – liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people – brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures.    Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.

 

‘Fellow Americans’ – that association has meant more to me than any other.    I lived and died a proud American.    We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil.    We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world.    We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history.    We have acquired great wealth and power in the process.

 

We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe.    We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.

 

We are three-hundred-and-twenty-five million opinionated, vociferous individuals.    We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates.    But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement.    If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times.    We will come through them stronger than before.    We always do.

 

Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president.    I want to end my farewell to you with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening.    I feel it powerfully still.

 

Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.    Americans never quit.    We never surrender.    We never hide from history.    We make history.

 

Farewell, fellow Americans.    God bless you, and God bless America.”

 

 

 

 

 

Few things reveal your intellect and your generosity of spirit—the parallel powers of your heart and mind—better than how you give feedback.~Maria Popova
Honored Contributor
Posts: 20,648
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Full Staff Flags: Senator John McCain

I guess somebody has forced decency and the flags are being brought down again.  *sigh*

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Posts: 42,005
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

Re: Full Staff Flags: Senator John McCain

@chickenbutt  I just read that.  

There are many elements: wind, fire, water
But none quite like the element of surprise
Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,961
Registered: ‎03-19-2010

Re: Full Staff Flags: Senator John McCain

I think it is the procedure that has always been followed.

Respected Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Full Staff Flags: Senator John McCain

remember that the Senator's body will lie in state at the Capitol - that is a high honor indeed in this nation.  very rare occurrence.

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Posts: 4,842
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Full Staff Flags: Senator John McCain


@QueenDanceALot wrote:

Senator McCain's final letter to the American public.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbqcoQrPcUw&t=7s

 

 


 

 

 

@QueenDanceALot  Thank you for posting this.  I've downloaded it to my computer so that when days seem dark and we seem so divided, I can bring it up and find hope.

~The only difference between this place and the Titanic is that the Titanic had a band.~
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Re: Full Staff Flags: Senator John McCain


@Hoovermom wrote:

I think it is the procedure that has always been followed.


 

 

I don't think so. 

It is the president's decision.

For example, after Ted Kennedy's death president Obama had the flags fly at half staff for 4 days. Until he was interred.

 

The department of defense has guidelines that can be changed by presidential proclamation.