With the toxic political climate, it’s hard at times for folks to see each other as human beings. It’s become so easy to dehumanize each other thanks to social media and the constant negative coverage of everything under the sun.
But at the end of the day, people we vehemently disagree with politically are flawed humans like ourselves. Highlighting this reality on Wednesday was Meghan McCain, daughter of Senator John McCain.
As reported at the Daily Mail, Meghan, who’s a conservative voice on the ultra-liberal daytime television show “The View,” broke down in tears Wednesday while she and the other hosts talked with Joe Biden about her father’s brain cancer diagnosis.
The topic is especially close to Biden’s heart, as two years ago, his son Beau died of the same type of cancer.
“I think about Beau almost every day,” Meghan said, “and I was told that this doesn’t get easier but you cultivate the tools to work with this and live with this.“
The survival rate of glioblastoma is around 14 months, even with aggressive radiation and chemotherapy.
Biden took Meghan’s hand and consoled her as he described all the breakthroughs researchers have been making in cancer treatment, offering he hope instead of despair.
“There is hope and if anyone can make it, it’s her dad,” Biden said. He went on to say that John McCain is one of his “best friends,” despite their political differences.
“Her dad goes after me hammer and tongs, we’re like two brothers who were somehow raised by different fathers or something because of our points of view,” Biden, 75, said with a smile.
He then recalled a funny story about the 2008 election, when it was decided he’d be Obama’s running partner. He said McCain told him to “get the hell off the ticket” at one point during the 2008 campaign.
“If I picked up the phone tonight and called John McCain and said “I’m on the corner of Second and Vine in Oshkosh and I need your help, come” – he would get on a plane and come and I would for him too,” Biden said.
Biden said the most important thing he learned from his son’s cancer battle is how important it is to maintain hope.
“The thing that I’ve found was, and Beau insisted on and your dad is gonna insist on, is you gotta maintain hope. There’s hope, you have to have hope,” Biden said.
McCain received the terrifying news in July 2016, and since, his doctors have said that the prognosis isn’t very good. Disagree we may on a lot of issues, but the anytime anyone suffers from this and other diseases, it’s a tragedy. Here’s to hoping that the family and friends of the senator can find strength in such a trying period of their lives.
Source: Daily Mail