Michael G. Mathis is a retired rear admiral within the U.S. Navy and former Raytheon govt who resides in Tucson.
The core values of the Navy and the Marine Corps are Honor, Braveness, and Dedication — values which can be personified and mirrored within the exemplary lives of Arizonans John McCain and Mark Kelly.
So, who will Arizona voters help: Mark Kelly — whose life displays the values by which he and the late Sen. John McCain lived their lives — or a Silicon Valley-financed newcomer to politics like Blake Masters?
Let’s take a better take a look at these core values of McCain, Kelly, and different members and veterans of the U.S. navy.
Mark Kelly and John McCain’s naval officer predecessor and the founding father of the U.S. Navy, John Paul Jones, wrote in 1777: “I might lay down my life for America, however I can’t trifle with my honor.”
Honor is a price that the majority People perceive implicitly. Sen. McCain was a graduate of the Naval Academy in 1958. On a go to to the Academy in October 2017, McCain instructed the Brigade of Midshipmen: “I might uncover {that a} sense of honor had been imparted to me right here that might communicate to me within the darkest hours. And so I come again, many times, to the place the place I realized to dread dishonor.”
Those that served within the navy, like McCain and Kelly, internalized honor and would by no means “trifle” with it.
Who is aware of what the values are of Masters and Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire who’s the principle monetary backer of Masters?
It was a way of honor and his dread of dishonor that gave John McCain the braveness to face as much as his North Vietnamese captors, though even he finally cracked underneath relentless torture and signed a “confession” that was dictated by his captors.
His weight dropped to 105 kilos, and he tried suicide twice. When his captors found that his father was the commander of American forces within the Pacific, they supplied to launch him, however McCain refused as a result of he felt that if he accepted the enemy’s provide, he would lose his honor and provides the enemy a propaganda coup.
That actually brave resolution resulted in McCain spending one other 5 and a half years as a prisoner of battle.
In distinction, how a lot braveness would it not have taken for Blake Masters to name out the lies of Donald Trump, who continues to falsely declare that he received the 2020 election?
Reply: not a lot.
John McCain was not simply an honorable, brave individual; he was additionally an individual dedicated to the beliefs and values of this nation.
When he returned from jail in North Vietnam, he might have chosen to dwell an idyllic life in his beloved Arizona, and who might have blamed him had he made that selection. As an alternative, McCain, like Mark Kelly, selected to enter the contentious, conflictual world of electoral politics. He additionally selected to face up for these beliefs wherein he believed even when these beliefs generally differed from these of his personal political celebration.
Former Marine Common and Secretary of Protection James Mattis publicly criticized President Trump: “Donald Trump is the primary president in my lifetime who doesn’t attempt to unite the American individuals—doesn’t even fake to attempt. As an alternative, he tries to divide us. We’re witnessing the implications of three years of this deliberate effort. We’re witnessing the implications of three years with out mature management.”
Blake Masters strongly helps the previous president.
Secretary Mattis was joined in his criticism by former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, former Navy Admiral Mike Mullen. Following the forceful clearing of Lafayette Sq. to permit the president to have a broadly criticized picture op outdoors St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., Mullen wrote: “No matter Trump’s aim in conducting his go to, he laid naked his disdain for the rights of peaceable protest on this nation, gave succor to the leaders of different nations who take consolation in our home strife, and risked additional politicizing the women and men of our armed forces. There was little good within the stunt.”
Blake Maters strongly helps the previous president and has by no means condemned the stunt.
Sen. Mark Kelly, Sen. McCain, Secretary Mattis and Admiral Mullen are the embodiments of the core values of the naval service: Honor, Braveness, and Dedication. Blake Grasp’s statements and actions as a candidate for the U. S. Senate in Arizona sadly besmirch these values, and Arizona voters have a selection: whose values will they help?