On the night of Sept. 10, 2001, 500 people gathered at a Boston hotel to honor Senators John McCain, a Republican, and John Kerry, a Democrat, for their bipartisan efforts to restore relations between the U.S. and Vietnam a quarter-century after America’s disastrous war came to a painful close.
The evening, hosted by the World Affairs Council, had been scheduled months earlier to recognize both senators for rising above the hyper-partisanship that even by then had poisoned Washington — and finding ways to treat party lines as something other than enemy lines.
But it was McCain who they had come to see. His refreshing willingness to speak his mind while running for president the previous year, and his astonishing courage as a Navy pilot who spent more than five years in a Vietnamese jail, had captured New Englanders’ hearts.
McCain was mobbed by admirers that night, surrounded by people who wanted simply to tell him about those in their family who, like him, were veterans. McCain listened intently to each story, took hands in his and softly thanked them for their family members’ service.
McCain’s voice was soft that night not only because of the free-flowing emotion. Unbeknownst to all but a few, he was in excruciating pain, and shouldn’t have been there at all. He had just had surgery for prostate cancer, and had been instructed by his doctors in no uncertain terms not to make the trip, to stay home and recuperate.
But McCain had overruled his doctors to make the trek to Boston. He cared deeply about bipartisanship, the evening’s theme. He regarded Kerry as a special friend, one of a band of brothers whose shared bonds stemmed from their service in Vietnam.
And he had promised an old Navy buddy who had helped organize the dinner that he would be there. And a commitment to a Navy buddy trumped doctors’ orders.
McCain’s speech that night, laced with humor and love of country, electrified the audience, sending them home on an optimistic note. Twelve hours later, terrorists took down the Twin Towers, changing the world forever.
In difficult times, America has found its luck in individuals whose life and values caused others to be better than they would otherwise have been. We’re lucky to have John McCain. It’s up to the rest of us to take our lessons from him.
Jeff Robbins, a lawyer with Mintz Levin, is a former president of the World Affairs Council of Boston, and in fact was inducted into that office the night McCain and Kerry were honored.