[Oe List ...] A local professor's experience with McCain

[Ruth Landmann]

Hi Everyone,
	The following came from a friend of mine...
Ruth

Hello:
This was written by a former professor of mine 
from UCSC. She teaches Classical Literature. 
She's a calm, wise person. She's real. This is 
not a chain letter. You can email her if you'd 
like.

Linden

I realize I am preaching to the choir, but in the 
hopes that you know anyone on the fence, here 
goes:

MY HOLIDAY WITH JOHN McCAIN

It was just before John McCain's last run at the 
presidential nomination in 2000 that my husband 
and I vacationed in Turtle Island in Fiji with 
John McCain, Cindy, and their children, including 
Bridget (their adopted Bangladeshi child).
It was not our intention, but it was our 
misfortune to be in close quarters with John 
McCain for almost a week, since Turtle Island has 
a small number of bungalows and their focus on 
communal meals force all vacationers who are 
there at the same time to get to know each other 
intimately.
He arrived at our first group meal and started 
reading quotes from a pile of William Faulkner 
books with a forest of Post-Its sticking out of 
them. As an English Literature major myself, my 
first thought was "if he likes this so much, why 
hasn't he memorized any of this yet?" I soon 
realized that McCain actually thought we had come 
on vacation to be a volunteer audience for his 
"readings" which then became a regular part of 
each meal. Out of politeness, none of the 
vacationers initially protested at this intrusion 
into their blissful holiday, but people's buttons 
definitely got pushed as the readings continued 
day after day.
Unfortunately this was not his only contribution 
to our mealtime entertainment. He waxed on during 
one meal about how Indo-Chine women had the best 
figures and that our American corn-fed women just 
couldn't meet up to this standard. He also made 
it a point that all of us should stop Cindy from 
having dessert as her weight was too high and 
made a few comments to Amy, the 25 year old wife 
of the honeymooning couple from Nebraska that she 
should eat less as she needed to lose weight.
McCain's appreciation of the beauty of Asian 
women was so great that David the American 
economist had to move his Thai wife to the other 
side of the table from McCain as McCain kept 
aggressively flirting with and touching her.
Needless to say I was irritated at his large ego 
and his rude behavior towards his wife and other 
women, but decided he must have some redeeming 
qualities as he had adopted a handicapped child 
from Bangladesh. I asked him about this one day, 
and his response was shocking: "Oh, that was 
Cindy's idea â*“ I didn't have anything to do 
with it. She just went and adopted this thing 
without even asking me. You can't imagine how 
people stare when I wheel this ugly, black thing 
around in a shopping cart in Arizona . No, it 
wasn't my idea at all."
I actively avoided McCain after that, but 
unfortunately one day he engaged me in a 
political discussion which soon got us on the 
topic of the active US bombing of Iraq at that 
time. I was shocked when he said, "If I was in 
charge, I would nuke Iraq to teach them a 
lesson". Given McCain's personal experience with 
the horrors of war, I had expected a more 
balanced point of view. I commented on the tragic 
consequences of the nuclear attacks on Japan 
during WWII â*“- but no, he was not to be 
dissuaded. He went on to say that if it was up to 
him he would have dropped many more nuclear bombs 
on Japan. I rapidly extricated myself from this 
conversation as I could tell that his experience 
being tortured as a POW didn't seem to have 
mellowed out his perspective, but rather had made 
him more aggressive and vengeful towards the 
world.
My final encounter with McCain was on the morning 
that he was leaving Turtle Island. Amy and I were 
happily eating pancakes when McCain arrived and 
told Amy that she shouldn't be having pancakes 
because she needed to lose weight. Amy burst into 
tears at this abusive comment. I felt fiercely 
protective of Amy and immediately turned to 
McCain and told him to leave her alone. He became 
very angry and abusive towards me, and said, 
"Don't you know who I am." I looked him in the 
face and said, "Yes, you are the biggest asshole 
I have ever met" and headed back to my cabin. I 
am happy to say that later that day when I 
arrived at lunch I was given a standing ovation 
by all the guests for having stood up to McCain's 
bullying.
Although I have shared my McCain story informally 
with friends, this is the first time I am making 
this public. I almost did so in 2000, when McCain 
first announced his bid for the Republican 
nomination, but it soon became apparent that 
George Bush was the shoo-in candidate and so I 
did not act then. However, now that there is a 
very real possibility that McCain could be 
elected as our next president, I feel it is my 
duty as an American citizen to share this story. 
I can't imagine a more scary outcome for America 
than that this abusive, aggressive man should 
lead our nation. I have observed him in intimate 
surroundings as he really is, not how the media 
portrays him to be. If his attitudes toward women 
and his treatment of his own family are even a 
small indicator of his real personality, then I 
shudder to think what will happen to America were 
he to be elected as our President.
--
Mary-Kay Gamel
Professor of Classics, Comparative Literature, and Theater Arts
Cowell College
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California 95064
831-459-2381 (office); 831-429-8803 (home)
mkgamel at ucsc.edu

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