Sen. McCain talks service, politics

Between the Senate, the president, the national media, and now, the Boston College community, John McCain has commanded a lot of attention lately. As he arrived on campus Monday evening, he faced the challenge of not only addressing some 5,000 students and faculty in the third annual Freshman Convocation address, but of once again publicly holding steadfast to his own ideals.

McCain told the freshman class to persist resolutely in whatever endeavors they embark upon in ways that uphold their own personal values, a concept he has called into practice many times in recent weeks. He also touted the importance of civil service, whether in the field of politics, community service, or leadership.

"No one gains more from public service than the person who engages in it," said McCain in a private interview before his speech. "There is nothing more rewarding than serving a cause greater than your own self." He said students should look for ways to serve their communities, country, and the world.

Between distinguished careers in the Navy and the Senate, McCain has lived his life in pursuit of the service he advocated to the BC community. As a civil servant and politician, McCain said he finds fulfillment in serving a greater good than himself, and he encouraged others to do the same.

"To sacrifice for a cause greater than yourself, and to sacrifice your life to the eminence of that cause," he said, is the noblest activity of all.

McCain also invoked the importance of using one's gifts to give back to one's country, to embrace and perpetuate the liberty associated with America. Freedom, he said, is a right that comes with a set of duties, and the responsible citizen should recognize those obligations and pursue them to the fullest extent.

"As blessed as we are, we are an unfinished nation," he said. "We must take our place in the enterprise of renewal, giving it our time, our counsel, our labor, and our passion to the enduring test that will make our nation and this world a better place."

It is the freedom and liberty that the American people enjoy that has spurred them to make this nation great, he said, and these ideals should carry over into America's interaction with the world. "As long as people are free to act in their own interest and will perceive their interest in an enlightened way … we will be a civilization for the ages, in which we all share in the promise and responsibility of freedom," said McCain.

"We must represent to the world, even in perilous times, when we confront enemies who share none of our values, scorn the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that are noble to our history. We must always show the world that those values are dearer to us than anything - dearer even than life itself," he said, alluding to the current U.S. involvement in the war on terror.

A prisoner of war in Vietnam for six years, McCain has recently claimed the media spotlight for his objection to President George W. Bush's call for reassessment of the standards set forth in the Geneva Convention. An international set of guidelines for the humane treatment and interrogation of detainees, the convention remains one of the most important ways by which the United States manifests "moral leadership," said McCain. In the Senate, he has recently voiced the potential consequences that Bush's proposal may have on captured Americans - if the United States fails to uphold the Geneva Convention, the rest of the world will feel less obligated to do so as well.

McCain told the BC community that the issue was not only a question of assuring the well-being of American prisoners of war, but a point of moral dilemma. "We need not and must not sacrifice our values in this war on terrorism," he said. "We cannot win if we do, and we will lose something far more precious - our political soul.

"Even though captured al-Qaida members would never ever afford us any protection of our rights … we must adhere to in our treatment of them by our standards of values, not theirs. The way we treat them is not about them, it's about us." The consistency of values internalized and embodied by the nation must be evident in dealing even with the most "evil" of people, he said.

"No other country can claim such moral leadership and we must never, never sacrifice that," said McCain. "There is no honor or happiness in just being strong enough to be left alone."

In addition to striving to deliver such morality abroad, McCain cited several domestic avenues by which Americans can put this leadership to the test. Broken social security, liability in Medicare, and a decline in faith in government, he said, are among the top concerns facing the collegiate generation.

"If we don't fix Social Security, no student tonight will have the same entitlements as current retirees have," he said. "That's not an acceptable situation. Medicare also has a $40 trillion liability associated with it. That system cannot be sustained unless we repair it. And the approval rating of Congress is in 20s - that's not healthy for democracy - for any Americans to have that low of confidence in one of their most important institutions." It is incumbent on today's youth, he said, to take charge of alleviating these dilemmas.

"We are not a perfect country," said McCain. "Prosperity and power might delude us into thinking that we have achieved that distinction. But inequities and challenges unforeseen a mere generation ago command every citizen's concern and labor. But what we have achieved in our great history is irrefutable proof that a nation conceived in liberty will prove stronger and more enduring than any nation ordered to exalt the few at the expense of the many."