he before it defends its rights. he knew navigating the line between good and evil was often difficult but always simple. he grasped that our purpose and our meaning was rooted in a missionary responsibility stretching back centuries. just as the first americans looked upona just as the first americans looked upon a place of potential, so their descendants have a responsibility to defend the old world from its worst self. the america ofjohn mccain is the america of the revolution, fighters with no stomach for the sunshine patriot, making the world anew with the bells of liberty, it is the america of abraham lincoln, fulfilling the promise of the declaration of independence that all men are created equal and suffering greatly to see it through. the america john mccain is the america the boys who rushed to the colours in every war across the centuries knowing that in them is the life of the republic and in particular those

who buy their daring as ronald reagan said gave up their chances of being husbands and fathers and grandfathers and gave up their chance to be revered old men. the america john mccain is the america of vietnam, fighting the fight in the most forlorn cause and grim circumstances, in the most distant and hostile corner of the world, standing for the life and liberty of other people in other lands. the america john mccain is generous and welcoming and she is resource for and confident and secure and she meets responsibilities and she's bakes quietly because she is strong —— speaks. america does not boast because she has no need to and it has no need to be made a great grand because america was always great —— and it has no need to be made great again because america was always great. that fervent faith and proven

devotion and the abiding love is what drove my father from the fiery skies above the red river delta to the brink of the presidency itself. love to find my father and as a young man he wondered if he would measured up to his lineage and i miss him so badly. i want to tell him that he did but i take small comfort in this, somewhere in the great beyond where the warriors go, there are two admirals of the united states meeting their much loved son and they are telling him he's the greatest amongst them. dad, i love you. i always have. all that i am, or that i hope, you. i always have. all that i am, orthat i hope, orthat

you. i always have. all that i am, or that i hope, or that i dream is grounded in what you taught me, you loved me and you showed me what love must be. in a gent grease a dad, your greatness is woven into my life it is woven into my mother 's life it is woven into my mother 's life and woven into my sister's life and it is woven into my brothers lives. it is woven into the life and liberty of the country you sacrificed so much to defend. dad i know you are not perfect, we live in a near where we knocked down old american heroes for imperfections and where no leader wants to admit to falter or failure but you were an exception and you gave us an ideal to strive for. i know you can see this gathering here in this cathedral. the nation is here to

rememberyou. like so cathedral. the nation is here to remember you. like so many other heroes you leave us draped in the flag you loved you defended it and sacrificed it and have always honoured it. it is good to remember that we are americans and we don't put our heroes on pedestals just rememberthem, we raise put our heroes on pedestals just remember them, we raise them put our heroes on pedestals just rememberthem, we raise them up because we want to emulate their virtues and this is how we honour them and this is how we will honour you. my father is gone. and my soi’i’ow you. my father is gone. and my sorrow is immense but i know his life and i know it was great because it was good. and as much as i hate to see him go i do know how it ended andi to see him go i do know how it ended and i know that on the afternoon of the 25th of august in front of oak creek in arizona surrounded by the

family he loved so much, an old man shook off the scars of battle one more time and arose a new man to pilot one last flight up and up and up, busting clouds left and right, straight on through to the kingdom of heaven. and he slipped the earthly bonds and put out his hand and touched the face of god. i love you, dad. applause studio: we were listening tojohn mccain's daughter speaking of gathering to mourn the passing of an american great, the real thing, she said, and heading out to the pulp it is james mcclean. this is for a

reading. ——james is james mcclean. this is for a reading. —— james mccain. is james mcclean. this is for a reading. -- james mccain. from requiem by robert louis stevenson, under the wide and starry sky, dig the grave and let me live, gladly live and gladly die, and i lay me down with the wheel, be this the verse you gave to me, he lies where he longs to be, always the sailor home from the sea, and the hunter home from the sea, and the hunter home from the hill. fanfare

# my country, ‘tis of thee studio: now at the pulp it is the marble joseph lieberman —— studio: now at the pulp it is the marblejoseph lieberman —— is the honourable. a man who referred to john mccain as his ego. —— amigo. to all of the honoured guests who are here, becoming john mccain's friend is one of the great blessings of my life, being asked to pay tribute to him today is one of the great honours and for that i thank the entire mccain family and i also wa nt to the entire mccain family and i also

want to thank them including his mother, his brother, his sister, the seven mother, his brother, his sister, the seven wonderful children, for the love and support you gavejohn throughout his life and his service, none more than in the last year fixed life —— of his life. cindy, you have been so great, and we his friends cannot thank you enough. there's a special satisfaction that comes from serving a cause greater than yourself when i heard john said those words hundreds of times especially young people, and you heard them a lot, as well, but for him and we know they were notjust words in a speech, they were the creed that he lived by. and the greater cause to which he devoted his life was america. not so much

the country defined by its borders, but the america of our founding values, freedom, inhuman rights, opportunity, democracy and equal justice under law. in his life he nobly served and advanced these american values and remarkably his death seems to have reminded the american people that these values are what makes us a great nation. not the tribal partisanship and personal attack politics that have recently characterised our life. this week's celebration of the life and values and patriotism of this hero, i think has taken our country above all that. in a way it is the

last great gift thatjohn mccain gave america. and i want to suggest that we can give a last great gift to him which is to nurture these values and take them forward into the years ahead to make america the better countryjohn the years ahead to make america the better country john always knew the years ahead to make america the better countryjohn always knew it could be and i pray that we will. and i ask you to do so as well. let me try to pay tribute to this great man by describing and sharing stories from our friendship which began in the early 19905 as part of a bipartisan group pushing our government to stop the aggression and slaughter in bosnia and then we began a collaboration on many bypass legislation —— bipartisan. 0ur

friendship deepened in our travels around the world together with our third amigo. when you travelled with john, even with lindsey, the purpose was not to have fun, in fact it seems the purpose was just to survive the schedule. but he had organised. john had a restless energy everyday including the days we travelled to get the most out of everyday he possibly could and he did. and so did we. we were privileged to know him. john travelled to learn so he could be a better senator and he travelled to represent america as best he could where ever we went and he did and he travelled to support the men and women of the armed services whether in warorat women of the armed services whether in war or at peace where ever they we re in war or at peace where ever they were and they in turn welcomed him

in notjust were and they in turn welcomed him in not just respect were and they in turn welcomed him in notjust respect but awe, as the hero he would always be, and the shared experiences and long conversations on these trips, john andi conversations on these trips, john and i got to know and trust each other as friends in a way that doesn't happen because it can happen much any more, in the frenetic washington life of senators. 0ur friendship taught me many things including i must add somejokes friendship taught me many things including i must add some jokes that i otherwise would never have known. john laughed to laugh and make others laugh. when he found a joke that people liked he told it over and over and over again. one of my favourites was about the two inmates

going through the food line for dinner at the state penitentiary and one says to the other, the food is terrible here. the other says, it was a lot better when i was governor. yeah. laughter i have that one often and i laughed every time because john i have that one often and i laughed every time becausejohn laughed so ha rd every every time becausejohn laughed so hard every time he told it. the range of his mind and interests and experience was impressive and often surprising, you couldn't characterise this man. he loves to read history and fiction and talk about it and argue about it and he had a pervasive curiosity aboutjust about everything in life. he loved the outdoors and all of god '5 creatures who live there, small and

large, and most people would be surprised how much pleasure he got from watching the hummingbirds at the family home. outside arizona. but of coursejohn's great the family home. outside arizona. but of course john's great strength was his character. he was honest, fairand was his character. he was honest, fair and civilised. in all the times we we re fair and civilised. in all the times we were together, i never heard him say a bigoted word about anyone. the american people saw this great quality most clearly during the 2000 campaign when that woman made an offensive statement against the then senator barrett obama, and what was most impressive aboutjohn's reaction was that it was pure reflex —— barack obama. he did not need to consult anyone, he immediately defended his opponent's name and honour and thereby elevated our politics for that moment and made us

a more perfect union. i can take thatjohn was a real friend and accommodating what worked to him i unusual practices as a religiously observant due. —— jew. whether it was turning down a friday night invitation at the security conference we went to every year because it was too far to walk, we would stay in the hotel and have whatjohn called our shalom dinners, peaceful sabbath dinners. although of course withjohn by word that peaceful. john naturally in doing these wonderful acts of friendship grumbled all the way about what i was putting him through. right now he's probably deriving some pleasure from the fact that it turned out that i had to walk to get here

because the funeral was held on saturday. i'm sure, he would tell me that was divine justice if he was here now. he ultimately as he did with so much of his life turned these interfaith experiences into a truly hilarious comedy routine. it began with a solemn pronouncement by john that he was converting to judaism and then he explained much less solemnly i do this not because of any particular liking for the religion, it'sjust of any particular liking for the religion, it's just that so many yea rs religion, it's just that so many years i've had to go along with joe's religious nonsense that i might as well convert and get the benefits. one of his favourite targets was the sabbath elevator is in israeli hotels which are preprogrammed to stop at every floor. john had many virtues but

patients was not one of them. —— patience. therefore rides in those elevator ‘s patience. therefore rides in those elevator '5 will not be happiest times we spent together —— were not. i say this both to say in stories how genuine was his acceptance of my religious practices which were different from what he knew but also to make a larger point because i can tell you in everything we did together around the world and here in washington and across america, he showed that same acceptance and respect, curiosity, about everybody‘s religious observances and everything else about them that was different from himself and his own experience. i've said that

patience was one virtue he didn't have. forgiveness was a great virtue he did have. and his story to make that clear, once on a trip to hanoi as we were touring the hanoi hilton as we were touring the hanoi hilton a crowd of vietnamese college stu d e nts a crowd of vietnamese college students recognised him and they began to chart wildly —— chant. they wa nted began to chart wildly —— chant. they wanted to have him sign autographs, and when it was over, i asked why he got such a rock star reception, in hanol got such a rock star reception, in hanoi, and with classic correctness he said, it is because they have been taught i was treated a lot better here than i was really an second it is because of the normalisation of relations between the us and vietnam —— and second. that was a classic mccain understatement, along with president

clinton, john mccain was the leading congress in bringing about the normalisation of relations between the us and fear now, —— and vietnam, an extraordinary act of personal forgiveness when you think of what bb enemies did to him in his five and a half years as a prisoner of war —— when you think of what the vietnamese did to him. he could not continue in the navy because of his injuries and so he turned to government service as his greater american cause. i did not knowjohn in his youth but i don't think he was born with the natural skills of a legislator, and yet he learned them and became a great one. he knew when to be irascible and immovable and went to negotiate and compromise to get something done. he regularly reached across party lines because he knew that was the only way to

solve problems and seize opportunities for the people of our country and his state. as a result his legislator of record is extremely impressive and he also fought and lost some big battles. to stop climate change and to close the loophole regarding guns and to broadly reform our immigration laws, but that never seems to get him down or diminishes desire for the next battle, and he loved to win but he also loved a good fight for a just cause even if it did not succeed. overall he won many more than he lost. all of his big victories were achieved by bipartisan support. in 2008 whenjohn was the republican nominee for president he had this far out idea of asking a democrat to

be his running mate, can you believe that? let me explain. when he talked to me about that guy said, i'm really honoured, but i don't see how you can do it —— when he talked to me about it he said. i said i'm so registered democrat. his response was direct and ennobling, that's the point, joe, he said with a certain impatience, you're a democrat and i'm republican and we could give our country the bipartisan leadership it needs for a change. whenjohn returned to the senate after surgery last summer and voted against the republican health care bill some people accused him of being disloyal to his party and the president but that was not the case. if you listen to the speech he gave that day you will know it was not the case, that speech made clear that his boat was

not really against that they'll —— vote was not really against that bill, but against the mindless partisanship that has taken control of both of our political parties and our government and reduced totally one—sided responses to complex national problems like health care. and of course he was right. in his remarks lastjulyjohn also spoke eloquently of our position in the world, of america's continuing responsibility for principled leadership in the world, as if he thought that might be one of his last best opportunities to move his collea g u es last best opportunities to move his colleagues and his country. it's a speech worth reading but i want to quote one sentence what what greater cause could we hope to serve than helping keep america the strongest aspiring inspirational beacon of liberty and dignity and defender of

the dignity of all human beings. that insured was the mccain american foreign policy, moral and engaged and strong —— that in short. these words were not just and strong —— that in short. these words were notjust rhetoric, he left them, in our travels around the world he reassured our allies and u nsettled world he reassured our allies and unsettled our enemies —— he lived them. standing for america's best values and attacking the totalitarian governments whether in moscow, iran, pyongyang oranywhere else, and if we were going to a country that was not fully free john insisted that we meet with the local human rights activists as well as the government. i will never forget that day in myanmar, during the military dictatorship we met three

men who had just been released from political prison and showed terrible signs of physical and psychological abuse. and yet they told us that they would never have survived if they would never have survived if they had not heard injail they would never have survived if they had not heard in jail that the great american senatorjohn mccain had supported their cause and read their names on the us senate floor and demanded their release. on another occasion we visited a refugee camp assyrians who had been forced out of their country into turkey —— for syrians. after the brutal assad regime and the behaviour of the iranians and the russians. there was concern about the reception we would receive at the reception we would receive at the camp and earlier in the day an official of the united nations had been there and had been heckled and had shoes thrown at him, but when we

arrived a large crowd of syrian refugees had formed and was in fact chanting but rather than heckling and throwing shoes they were cheering and sharing words of welcome and thanks and the two words they said most werejohn thanks and the two words they said most were john mccain. thanks and the two words they said most werejohn mccain. what is most remarkable about these two stories andi remarkable about these two stories and i could tell you many more, is how unremarkable they are. and that's because the namejohn mccain based on the actions of the manjohn mccain has become a source of hope and inspiration for oppressed people throughout the world as it was a source of security for allied countries that share our values. one

last story, one ofjohn's favourite cities in the world wasjerusalem and one of his favourite things to do there was to stand on the balcony with lindsey and may at our hotel looking out over the city —— and me. discussing the religious and political history that had happened there over the centuries. so when i first told john that i had decided not to run for the senate again in 2012 he was puzzled and frankly even a bit angry. but then the next day he called me and this is my best recollection of the conversation, he said, i've been thinking, if you go out into the private sector you will make some more money and then you can make some more money and then you ca n afford make some more money and then you can afford to buy a second home in jerusalem that has an extra room for

me. with a balcony. where we can look out and talk about that city and its history. since then one i've talked tojohn and its history. since then one i've talked to john or visited and its history. since then one i've talked tojohn or visited with him, he would ask me, have you