Editorβs note: Rick Davis, former presidential campaign manager for Sen. John McCain and who is serving as a family spokesman, read a farewell message from the senator at a news briefing in Phoenix on Monday. Here is a transcript.
My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for 60 years, and especially my fellow Arizonans, thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead.
Iβve tried to serve our country honorably. Iβve made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them. Iβve often observed that I am the luckiest person on Earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. Iβve loved my life, all of it. Iβve had experiences, adventures, friendships enough for 10 satisfying lives and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets but I would not trade a day of my life in good or bad times for the best day of anybody elseβs.
I owe the satisfaction to the love of my family. One man has never had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America to be connected with Americaβs causes, liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people brings happiness more sublime that lifeβs fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but are enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.
Fellow Americans, that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the worldβs greatest republic. A nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We have acquired great wealth and power in the progress.
We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been. We are 325 million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates.
But, we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country, weβll get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.
Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening. I feel it powerfully still.
Do not despair of our present difficulties, we believe always in the promise and greatness of America because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit, we never surrender, we never hide from history, we make history.
Farewell fellow Americans. God bless you and God bless America.
