Would the Real Political Hero Please Stand Up?

     In this rare and extraordinary presidential campaign where Americans will elect either the first African American, or the oldest person ever to be elected president with the first ever female vice-president, we have been witnesses to an arraying amalgamations of all kinds of pundits and media. But what makes a politician courageous? What sets apart one who would want to serve in such a demanding role? Americans want to know who would best serve the nation, and courage is a character trait that must not be ignored.

     Through all the hype, the rhetoric, the political posturing and human spin machines spewing forth proclamations, to me the most courageous act before the official nominations is one that has been little noted. I’m not speaking of Obama’s speech on race, it was very defining and a blessing for the nation. Just as Lincoln said, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” So, the brief words this candidate spoke were not meant to be remembered, but it was in the geopolitical location and context that these words were made more profound---and dare I say, monumental if destiny so desires. Because these simple words spoken authentically from an unlikely source in one short speech in just one smidgeon of time in this marathon presidential contest, can actually blast forth like a trumpet call to lead a charge on the way America thinks about race. Could it be a true transformation emancipation proclamation? The words are stuck in my mind and memory and I cannot let them go.

     You see, I am a Reagan Democrat. Now don’t get all fired up and start throwing things at me from the left or the right. Actually a Reagan Democrat has a pretty simple life when it comes to voting----we vote for common sense candidates. Lefties, we just as soon clip their wings like skeet shooting; and, for those die hard Republicans who have no clue what a Hoover rabbit was, then we can only laugh when you present your budget proposals. So just for whom am I voting for this year? I have decided, but many more Reagan Democrats may still be wavering. Obama has pledged to the radical homosexuals that he will do all he can to do away with the Domestic Marriage Act (DOMA) which was skillfully implemented by President Clinton and the Congress in 1996. Red flag goes up. He also opposed protecting the life of an infant accidentally born in an abortion clinic while in the state legislature. Uh-oh, can I trust this man to protect any life? And then there is John McCain. When he obtained the de facto Republican nomination during the Republican primaries as Hillary and Obama were still fueding, the local joke was now we have three Democrats to choose from for president. So, now, who has been the most courageous?

     On April 4, 2008, John McCain appeared in Memphis. It was the 40^th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here was this man with white skin, standing in the pouring rain at the National Civil Rights Museum in front of an almost entirely African American audience standing nearby the place on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel where on this day in 1968, Dr. King had just spoken to his friends about the song to sing that night and according to a local eyewitness he had just said, “Take my hand, precious Lord, Lead Me Home,” when the horror of the death shot sounded and Dr. King‘s body was violently lifted up into the air and his untied shoes fell off his feet. Here was McCain’s courage. Here was a true audacity of hope to think that a man who had voted against the Martin Luther King holiday would now run for president of the United States by reaching out to an ethnic group in one of their most sacred vestiges. McCain apologized for his past vote on Dr. King’s holiday and he paid tribute to a true American hero who would as the Bible says, “Lay down his life for his friends.” No greater love hath no man,” the Good Book says. So it is. Thank you, John McCain, for showing your courage. Let’s see if Obama will go before the value voters when they meet and apologize for the ungodly amount of abortions that happen in this country every year or maybe apologize for supporting the myth that people are born with same-sex attractions without any regards to there being no facts to back up the position of the radical homosexual activists, then, Obama might gain some profile in courage. I won’t hold my breath that the new messiah would be courageous enough to speak to a group of value voters.

     Not only was McCain courageous for being there in Memphis, it is what he said that still resonates in my mind. His words summed up what I had heard Dr. King’s niece, Alveda, once say “We are all of one race—the human race.” Now that is a refreshing statement, maybe the evolutionists have convoluted the truth of everyone being of one race in order to divide and conquer not through science but through control of the schools. How about it Ben Stein? Did you uncover any liberal bias that does not want to promote the fact that God made us one race, male and female he created them. So, now, if we are one race, then maybe unity is possible. Could it be that the simple phrase said by the niece of one of the greatest moral leaders the world has ever known and then repeated by a man with white skin could actually be the profound revelation that will finally allow for us to put race behind us? Will true dialogue become real? Can we begin to openly communicate our feelings without feeling that we are pulling the scabs off of unhealed wounds?

     Now the long campaign season is sprinting to the finish line. Sifting the grain from the shaft is common “wheat” sense. Candidate John McCain doesn’t have to speak about courage---his actions on the campaign trail delivers it. If words tell a story its prose, but if it shows you a picture it is poetic art; if presidential candidates talk of courage they are politicians, but if they show courage they are courageous statesmen. So far, McCain’s actions have confounded the simple liberals, stirred political fear in the liberal elitists, driven the conventional Republicans crazy, but resonated a stirring in the heart of Reagan Democrats. When the maverick McCain chose Governor Palin as his running mate I was reminded of what phrase one writer used to sum up Reagan Democrats. The phrase was “I will not be won by weaklings-subtle, and suave and mild--but by men with the hearts of Vikings-and the simple faith of a child” (Robert Service: The Law of the Yukon, 1898).

This phrase was written in 1898. Governor Palin has demonstrated that the words women and men could now be placed where only men was written. What a historic election year. Don’t dare not vote if you are inspired by McCain’s courage and the Artic Fox’s heart of a Viking!! Be a part of history to tell your grandkids about----go register; go vote!