Gay marriage proponent Cindy McCain supports "No Hate"
I was going to blog about Cindy McCain’s cool photo in support of gay marriage. (Love the new ‘do—stylish and youth-enhancing!) She speaks her mind—good for her— even though it may not be “politically expedient” given the views of that boorish lout—her husband. I was especially glad to see this photo as currently a federal court case involving the legality of gay marriage is being litigated in San Francisco. (Too bad cameras were denied. That would have made for compelling television/YouTube videos.) I hope Kristin & Sandra and Paul & Jeff win their case.
But back to Cindy McCain. She and I are about the same age and attended USC at the same time. I didn’t know her because we were in different sorority houses and for the most part, girls from one house didn’t hang out with girls from another house. But I remember hearing about the gold Mercedes she drove around campus. I’m sure her sorority sisters didn’t mind her parking it at the Theta House. My sorority sisters, on the other hand, asked me many times NOT to park my dilapidated Karmann Ghia in our parking lot. I guess it wasn’t swanky enough. Sheesh that USC can be such a snobby school! (But you don’t think I really cared what my “sisters” thought of me or my car, do you?)
But back to Cindy McCain. Today I listened to one of my favorite NPR shows, Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. Mark Halperin was a guest on the show. He is one of the authors of Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. It’s an explosive behind-the-scenes accounting of the Presidential Campign 2008—the kind of material that never gets reported in MSM (main stream media). The host of WWDTM, Peter Sagal, asked Mr. Halperin how readers could believe the outrageous incidents he wrote about in the book (like the extremely unflattering portrait of John and Elizabeth Edwards.) Mr. Halperin said that he used only credible sources that he had known for many years (sometimes as many as twenty) and corroborated the stories as well.
So back to Cindy McCain. One of the panelists on the show asked Mr. Halperin to recount a juicy tidbit about one of the candidates. He said that one of them screamed at his spouse, “A sentence with eleven words in it. The first ten were all the same and started with the letter F.”
I think you know who he was talking about. This isn’t the first time I have heard (due to the USC gossip mill) or read about John McCain’s verbal abuse toward his wife and their less than idyllic marriage.
So I was going to blog about why does she stick around? Why does she subject herself to the disrespectful and dishonorable behavior from the person who is supposed to love her most? How much humiliation is too much humiliation? How far in the basement is her self-esteem? How shattered is her spirit?
It’s not like she’ll be penniless if she bolts. Not only is she the moneybags in the marriage, she has plenty to do. She doesn’t need to hang out at the Senators Wives Club as a way to occupy her time. She has four children. She does charity work. She’s an exec in the family beer business.
But after I watched the Hope For Haiti Now telethon last night and saw all the good will and human kindness and was moved by the excellent tunes, the whole Cindy McCain thing seemed so negative. I decided I didn’t want to go there…
But then I realized I did anyway….
Bottom line: Cindy McCain didn’t ask my advice. But if she had, I would tell her to hop in the Mercedes and put the pedal to the floor and not look back. Verbal abuse and loving actions are polar opposites. One uplifts and nurtures. The other destroys. Kinda like an earthquake. You hear the rumblings… and then BOOM… your life crashes around you…you’re left to pick up the pieces…
I always wonder how women—who have gotten themselves into a pickle—would advise their daughters in a similar situation. Maybe Cindy McCain has learned that a 43-year-old married man with three children has no business pursuing a young woman of 26. But that is NOMB.
I’m going to download the song Bruce Springsteen sang last night for Haiti, “We Shall Overcome.” So inspirational.
Someone needs to send it to Cindy. So she can play it in her car on her way out of town.
BTW, here’s what I learned: A Karmann Ghia may not be snazzy, but it can still get you where you want to go.
Here is the Boss’s “Small Prayer for Haiti.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSoNzGWJrGs
