Connecting McCain's Tragic Diagnosis to Trumpcare 'Is the Goddamn Point'

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) speaks at American Visionary: John F. Kennedy's Life and Times debut gala at Smithsonian American Art Museum on May 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. Last week, McCain was diagnosed with a potentially terminal form of brain cancer. (Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for WS Productions)

"The personal hell that John McCain and his loved ones are walking through right now is the point of it all," writes pastor in viral blog post

By

Jon Queally

"It isn't in poor taste, and it isn't political opportunism—it's the goddamn point."

That's what Jon Pavlovitz, a pastor from North Carolina, writes regarding the importance of talking about the recently-announced cancer diagnosis of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)—which he calls "tragic" and "horrific"—in the midst of a raging national debate over healthcare.

On Thursday, McCain's doctors confirmed the 80-year-old senator and former presidential nominee had been diagnosed with an aggressive and malignant form of brain cancer. In the wake of the news there was an outpouring of support and well-wishes from across the political spectrum aimed at the senator and his family.

With the Republicans still aiming to ram some version of their Trumpcare proposal through the Senate this week—and as the popular opposition vows vigilance to thwart those efforts—Pavlovitz argues its disingenuous for people to argue that McCain's illness should be off limits politically.

"The personal hell that John McCain and his loved ones are walking through right now is the point of it all," the pastor wrote Thursday in a blog post that started to go viral over the weekend. "These moments are precisely what we're talking about, arguing about, screaming about: The atomic bomb of grief that gets dropped on your family when you get the test results and your planet is altered forever."

While acknowledging that McCain is one of the nation's most recognizable political names and someone who holds a powerful position, Pavlovitz explains why his privilege and status exposes the inequality and shortcomings of a healthcare system that works for the haves, but not for the have nots.

He writes:

John McCain deserves life. He deserves to have every available resource exhausted to try and make him well. His family deserves this. His wife and his children deserve it. The people who treasure him deserve it. They deserve it, not because he’s wealthy or known or "important"—but simply because he's loved by someone who wants more time with him. That's enough for me. Every human being deserves this. Every spouse and every child and every treasured person.

John McCain is priceless to those he loves and who love him—as priceless as the people you love are to you, as you are to them.
He is a household name, but every one of us is a household name to someone whose life is defined by our presence and who would be decimated by our absence.

Universal healthcare is something we need to talk about now, because Cancer is an equal-opportunity bastard who cannot be defeated without help; because life-threatening illness is a bully that knocks the hell out of you and those who care about you, because we are all terrified of dying and want to know that we won’t be left alone if the shit hits the fan.

I want John McCain to live. I want him to get to spend more time with those who would grieve his loss in ways I'll never understand. But I want this for you too. I want it for your father and your children and your friends. I want it for those I love. I want it for people I agree with and people I don't.

We should be for one another. We should fight for each other's life with all that we have.

In a letter published in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, reader Ed Sinderman stated: "I hope there’s a realization that if McCain had not been a privileged senator of the United States, he may have not had the proper medical attention that resulted in this unfortunate diagnosis and best possible outcome, whatever that may be.  I do not intend to make a political issue out of McCain's health, but his party needs to understand that its policies treat the lives of people like the senator much differently from less fortunate American citizens."

Please continue this article here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/07/23/connecting-mccains-tragic-diagnosis-trumpcare-goddamn-point