McCain a Hero??

Recently, heroism and service are defined narrowly. You must have gone to war in an American uniform. No question - anyone who is prepared to die for a country in uniform is to be admired. But why stop there? So many have made sacrifices off the battlefield to wage peace and justice abroad and in US communities. Some have made the ultimate sacrifice like Amy Biehl, who worked to improve lives in South Africa and build bridges between our two countries. She risked her life daily to visit forbidden communities in that country. Every day for her was a gamble and one day she lost.
Still more impressive was Amy’s family’s response to her death at the hands of South African youth. The Biehl family started a foundation and employed two of the very teenagers from the mob that killed Amy. I cannot think of a higher display of heroism. Perhaps the Biehls took cues from South Africa’s most famous son whose heroism derived less from spending 27 years in prison and more from how he treated his captors afterwards -- with mercy, kindness and forgiveness – which served as the foundation for healing the nation he went on to lead.
John McCain, victimized by war, by many accounts is a man quick to anger who possesses a rigid “us vs. them” world view. While we all sympathize with how he suffered during detention, he apparently did not draw from that experience what we desperately need in our new President. We need a President with emotional discipline and strong insight. Barack Obama seems to have developed these through a different type of service no less important to our nation.