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

Tue Sep 30 12:36:09 EDT 2008

If you do a search on the internet, you will find a host of articles  
on this subject.  You can start at http://digg.com/politics/My_holiday_with_John_McCain

George Holcombe
14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
Austin, TX 78728
Home: 512/252-2756
Mobile 512/294-5952
geowanda at earthlink.net

On Sep 30, 2008, at 11:07 AM, ed feldmanis wrote:

> Randy,
>
> Your statement is really interesting.  Where is the list and what's  
> the url? That way we might follow up on it.
>
> Ed
>
> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 12:15 PM, R Williams <rcwmbw at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Ruth,
>
> Mary-Kay Gamel, or at least someone using her name, has posted to  
> another list that she did not author this statement, knows nothing  
> about it and has never been to Turtle Island.
>
> Randy
>
> --- On Mon, 9/29/08, Ruth Landmann <tddynewf at cruzio.com> wrote:
> From: Ruth Landmann <tddynewf at cruzio.com>
> Subject: [Oe List ...] A local professor's experience with McCain
> To: "Order Ecumenical Community" <oe at wedgeblade.net>
> Date: Monday, September 29, 2008, 9:55 AM
>
>
> 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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