I did not always agree with Sen. John McCain’s assessments of how our country should act in many situations, but I have never doubted that he  had only the best in mind when it does come to our country. Political affiliations aside, he is (yes, still present tense) a true patriot.

I do not believe there is  anyone in the current Senate who has done more for his country in a lifetime than McCain has. He literally risked life and limb fighting for what his country asked him to do.

And until the last, he was willing to get “bloody” for America.

When I think of those who fought before I was born to keep America a beacon of hope and freedom and democracy, I think of  Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation. I think of my own grandparents. I think of those who stared down Hitler, the rise of Communism, and McCarthyism and fought back to preserve what was truly American.

And then I think of who embodied that right now with what America faces, and John McCain’s face appears.

He has never shied away from a mission for his country.

And veteran senators, especially republicans like Grassley, Hatch, Alexander, and Graham should look to him as an example and show the younger lawmakers who lack their perspective and life experience that what is happening now must be checked and countered now.

Godspeed John McCain.