Daily Journal - Wisdom Requires We Recognize Common Sense

Op-Ed

Daily Journal - Wisdom Requires We Recognize Common Sense

By John McCain, Daily Journal

Article Excerpt

When I was a young man I thought glory was the highest ambition and all glory was self-glory. My parents and the Naval Academy tried to teach me otherwise, but it wasn't until I had to rely on others to an extent I never thought would be necessary that I understood the lesson. I had to have faith in something greater than myself not only to survive, but to survive with my self-respect intact: faith in my comrades, faith in my country and faith in my God. That faith helped me not only to endure but to understand and respect the values it encompassed.

If America stands for anything, it stands for the freedom to follow our own hearts, to determine our own relationship with God. Our Constitution did not establish a national religion nor did it banish any worship. Religious freedom does not require Americans to hide their faith from public view or that communities must refrain from publicly acknowledging the importance of their faith. Judges should not legislate from the bench and actually restrict religious freedom by banning its expression in the public square.

Wisdom is a virtue. Sometimes all wisdom asks of us is that we recognize common sense. Don't federalize issues not addressed in the Constitution. Don't constitutionalize issues where federalism has a chance to work. But sometimes, wisdom, as do all other virtues, requires courage. Wisdom suggests we should be reluctant to change a definition of marriage that has existed for thousands of years, but it takes courage in this day and age to insist that a mother and a father have unique and complementary roles in the raising of children, and that marriage reinforces public support for those roles. Wisdom suggests that we should be willing to give an unborn child the same chance that our parents gave us, but it takes courage in this political climate to insist on the protection of unborn children who can't vote, have no voice and can't reward you with support and donations. Wisdom suggests that when activist federal judges impose their social views on the citizens of every state, the result is going to distort our politics in terrible ways, but it takes courage to insist that the courts have to return to their proper role. I will appoint strict constructionist judges that won't legislate from the bench.

I have been pro-life my entire public career. I am pro-life because I know what it is like to live without human rights, where human life is accorded no inherent value, and I know that I have a personal obligation to advocate human rights wherever they are denied: in Bosnia or Burma, in Cuba or the Middle East; and in our own country when we fail to respect the inherent dignity of all human life, born or unborn. That is a personal testament, which you need not take on faith. You need only examine my public record to know that I won't ever change my position to fit the politics of the day.

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