Re: [xmca] Fwd: A personal experience with John McCain

Wait!
From what I hear Mary Kay Gamel did not write
this letter and it may just be a figment
of someone's twisted mind but do send your reiki
energy to us all to make the right decision.
Olga

>Good heavens--even worse than our politicians. I shall be sending all my
>Reiki energy to Obama, from the other side of the world.
>
>
>2008/10/2 Shirley Franklin <s.franklin@dsl.pipex.com>
>
>> Perhaps some of you may have read this disgusting true story?
>> Shirley
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>> sage:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ----- Forwarded Message ----
>>>> From: "shermuse@sonic.net" <shermuse@sonic.net>
>>>> To: shermuse@sonic.net
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, 1 October, 2008 7:30:27
>>>> Subject: A personal experience with John McCain
>>>>
>>>> Subject: A Personal Experience of McCain
>>>>
>>>>> Mary Kay Gamel is a literature and classics professor at UCSC. She is
>>>>>> asking
>>>>>> people to send the letter she wrote far and wide.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 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 2 5
>>>>>> 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
>>>>>> - 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 m y 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 -- 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 becam e 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)&nbs p; mkgamel@ucsc.edu<mailto:mkgamel@ucsc.edu>
> >>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Find phone numbers fast with the New AOL Yellow Pages <http://
>>>> yellowpages.aol.com/?NCID=emlweusyelp00000001> !
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ------ End of Forwarded Message
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>
>
>
>--
>Visiting Researcher,
>Wits School of Education
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-- 
Olga A. Vásquez
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0503
(858)-534-6284
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