RUTHFULLY YOURS

There’s a huge difference between the solemn, sorrowful citizens who lined the streets to say good-bye to Ronald Reagan, John Kennedy, and FDR and the rubberneckers hoping to catch a glimpse of celebrity politicians putting in a public appearance for the late Senator McCain’s multiple memorials.  Releasing those men we loved from afar to a higher and happier place bears no resemblance to spectators taking part in one of the “scheduled events” posted strategically on the Fox News website and elsewhere.

Despite of the wall-to-wall media coverage of a seemingly unending series of funeral services (five at last count), this nation does not mourn the passing of a hero. Yes, dignitaries showed up and slid fake praise into orations meant for something other than a heartfelt memorial to the dearly departed.  John McCain may have been dear to a few people, but for the rest of us (and most likely 99% of the people invited to be part of his ostentatious Display of the Dead), he remains a clear and present exemplar of a petty plutocracy and blatant self-service.  One ecstatic writer called it the “biggest resistance meeting yet” as Her Father’s Daughter saddled the next generation with the bitter Sins of the Father and was celebrated for embracing what many have called a world-class grudge.  Somehow, she missed the message that “John called on us to be bigger… and better than that.”  Others, disgusted by the “political theatrics and cheap shots” recognized her father’s signature spitefulness — nasty to the end and beyond.  Yet it was the observation of a high-school junior that explained a certain hollowness to every news anchor’s claim that a nation mourns.  CJ Pearson wrote: “At most funerals I’ve attended, it’s God’s love that fills the room, not hate and animus for a person who is not even in attendance.”

This nation does not mourn John McCain who in a final act of self-aggrandizing mythmaking, personally planned a weeklong spectacle to weaponize a sacred cultural tradition meant to remember and honor the dead.  This may become his most enduring legacy.  An insatiably vindictive man, his equally malicious family, and all those eager to participate in a six-minute trash-talk tribute have radically transformed one of the last public opportunities to share our humanity.  We do not mourn, we cannot mourn, and we should not mourn one who in death chose to even a score only he was keeping.