My grandfather was a veteran of World War II. I knew that much. He never talked about it, but my mother had told me that he served during the war and was right on the front lines. My grandfather died in 2000 when I was 13 years old.
Last year I was writing a column for the newspaper I had written for since 2006 and I asked my mom a little more about my grandfather. For the first time in my life I was told that he was a prisoner of war in WWII. I never knew that. I never knew it because my grandfather never talked about it. He didn't use it as some crutch in life. Knowing my grandfather, who was known to me for working on lawnmowers and spending most of his time mowing the lawn or working on his garden, he would have preferred not to talk about it (right up until his death, he had flashbacks) and didn't want to use it as an excuse. He served as a custodian at a local school district for many years and worked every day to make sure that when he died, his family could live comfortably.
That was my grandfather. He was a POW. I guess he could have used that as his sole basis of running a political (or even presidential) campaign. But he didn't. He'd rather not talk about it.
Let me just say that Rachel Maddow fired me up enough to write this today. She made some fine points last night that deserve to be reiterated again today.
There is a reason why my grandfather never talked about the war or his time as a POW. It was revealed to me that my grandfather suffered from a "psychological condition" after returning from the war. He would have flashbacks that eventually calmed down over the years, but they flared up in the last few months of his life when he was in the VA hospital. I assume what he suffered from was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) based on the symptoms he had and the description of his psychological problems.
It is inexplicable to me why John McCain, on Jay Leno's show last night, would invoke his prisoner of war status during a back-and-forth which included many jokes by Leno about how many homes McCain had. McCain finally said:
"I spent five and a half years in a prison cell, without — I didn’t have a house, I didn’t have a kitchen table, I didn’t have a table, I didn’t have a chair. And I spent those five and a half years, because — not because I wanted to get a house when I got out," McCain said.
So I guess that means we should all say, "John McCain was a POW" and just leave the issue alone, right? Wrong.
John McCain's POW status approximately 40 years ago should not be used as a way out of criticism and should not be used as a crutch. John McCain was a POW then. He's a presidential candidate NOW.
Should John McCain be elected president, how else would he apply his POW status for use as an excuse or way out of a problem? If the economy continues to sink under his leadership maybe he will say, "When I was in Hanoi I didn't have any money." Or if gas prices continue to rise he can say, "When I was imprisoned in Vietnam I couldn't buy a tank a gas."
The truth is that McCain and his campaign have used the POW crutch already on more than one occasion. When McCain suggested his wife Cindy should take part in a biker beauty pageant that usually involves women taking off their tops, McCain was criticized for it. The response? "[Americans] know that John McCain's faith and character were tested and forged in ways few can fathom" - a clear reference to McCain's time as a POW. He even invoked being a POW to essentially introduce himself to an audience in Pennsylvania.
However, when he could really use his POW past as a way to support the new G.I. Bill, McCain didn't. You would think someone who was held captive for five and a half years would want to lay off the warmongering. Not John McCain. He wants more of it.
John McCain is running solely on his record in the military and as a POW. That notion is an odd one since McCain has been one of Arizona's U.S. senators since 1987. Before that, he served four years in the House of Representatives. This is a man with 25 years of service in Congress, yet that is hardly mentioned.
What is mentioned though is the five and a half years he spent in Hanoi. And it is mentioned so often, whether as offense or defense, that the McCain campaign is running the POW pond dry. The American people will continue to ask real questions that they want real answers to. It's one thing to be a candidate and play the POW card. It's another to be president. When you are president, being a POW in the late 1960's and early 1970's won't get you out of messes in the late 2000s or early 2010s. That's just the way it is. We expect something out of our presidents. We don't want lip service or excuses. Period.
UPDATE: Let me just add one more point. My grandfather never talked about the war at all, so talking about his POW status was something. The only reason my mom found out was when she was doing a project for school and my grandfather told her. My mom never talked about it until after his death because we just didn't talk about those things. It was something my grandfather kept under his hat. He didn't discuss it in public and it was never questioned.
If John McCain had an ounce of self-respect, he would stop using the POW card as a way out of problems or a way into public office. The truth is that being a POW is not fun. My grandfather had PTSD I assume partially because of his time as a POW. The length of my grandfather's imprisonment is unknown, but I do know this: My grandfather received a number of different honors, including not one but TWO Purple Hearts.
My grandfather was a POW. John McCain was a POW. The only difference is one didn't use it for political gain or to use it as a crutch when it came to answering questions about his lifestyle or his stance on key issues.