Published: August 08, 2008 06:27 pm         

McCain visit prompts thoughts on the next presidency

The Back Porch column

HUNTINGTON — It’s difficult to say who was inspiring whom Wednesday morning on the field at Joan C. Edwards Stadium as the Thundering Herd football team finished a morning walk-through.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain strolled onto the field to watch practice and talk with players.

McCain is predicted to easily carry West Virginia in November’s general election although he’s behind Democrat candidate Barack Obama nationally. The Herd gridders are picked to finish fifth in Conference USA’s East Division. Maybe it was more a case of misery loves company.

His speech wasn’t terribly inspiring, but the pivotal moment of his life and the history of Marshall University share a common thread of adversity.

McCain shared his experiences as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. He mentioned separation from fellow soldiers, beatings, interrogations, poor rations and the triumph of the human spirit that allowed them to survive.

The Arizona senator alluded to Marshall’s own tragedy in recovering from the 1970 plane crash that killed 75 members of the football team and Huntington community. Of the Warner Brothers film about the crash, he said, “It’s just a symbol to America, and I’m proud to be here.”

I looked at the faces of the young men huddled around McCain at midfield. All around us was the noise of the media hounds, including me, snapping camera shutters, scratching in notepads and shuffling feet to get a better shot.

One face caught my eye. It was a football player kneeling at McCain’s left elbow. He looked so … so darn sincere that I almost wept. He was a young black man from very different circumstances than McCain’s, I suspect, and the expression on his face was so attentive and earnest that I couldn’t take my eyes away from it.

I leaned in closer and pulled the shutter three times to capture it. “That’s what this election is about,” I thought to myself at the time and told others as I showed them the photograph.

“What WILL the next president do for this young man? What CAN the next president do for this young man?”

McCain didn’t make any promises; he didn’t even ask for their votes. He just talked to them.

For some of the students I spoke with afterward, that was enough. They were impressed that McCain came to the university and met them one on one.

No one can predict the surprises this election season may hold. It’s expected to generate high voter turnout. I don’t know. Some people I’ve spoken with are not excited about either party’s presumptive nominee; some say they haven’t decided whom to vote for and others say they may not make a selection in the presidential race.

The key may be the young men and women to whom McCain was speaking just a few mornings ago right here. He’s old enough to be their grandfather.

“It was a long time ago, and I don’t expect you to remember it,” McCain said as he narrated his experiences in Vietnam.

The question for these and all young people is whether McCain knows and understands their concerns. Does Obama?

All I know is the next president will inherit two wars. And that person better have one heckuva good reason to send that sincere young football player or others like him into combat. The necessity of war to protect his freedom is the only compelling reason.

Herd kicker Craig Ratanamorn, not the player mentioned above, said he hasn’t been following the presidential race too closely while preparing for football season. When asked what he wanted the next president to do for college students, he couldn’t name a specific.

After some thought, he said, “I just hope that he does a good job with all of us.”

Amen, Craig, amen.

— Young is a Register-Herald colunnist. E-mail: ynerissa@verizon.net

© Nerissa Young 2008