retraction:
I just received this email denying the account re John McCain:
circulating apparently from her. This is the response I
received.
the Turtle Island account.
I did NOT write that account, forward it under
my name, or ask for it to be widely distributed.
I have never been to
Turtle Island (which costs $2000/day), have never met Senator
McCain, was a classics major, not an English Literature major, and never
eat pancakes.
I regret the misinformation which is circulating, but it is
not my doing, and I protest the misuse of my name.
How I think this
happened: on 16 September I received this account 3rd-hand and forwarded it,
with full email trail information and the name of the purported author (whom I
don't know), to several friends with whom I discuss politics. It was further
forwarded, and at some point the trail was deleted and I was misidentified as
the author. I suspect whoever did this thought that my name and contact
information would make the story more credible.
Snopes.com is
investigating the account; current status "undetermined."
This is NOT an
organized effort on the part of any political candidate.
I hope you will
pass this information on to anyone interested in this story.
And finally,
the story itself isn't necessarily false. But we'll never know unless the author
herself comes forward.
MKG
--
Mary-Kay Gamel
Professor of Classics, Comparative Literature, and
Theater Arts
Cowell College
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa
Cruz, California 95064
831-459-2381 (office); 831-429-8803
(home)
[email protected]
MY HOLIDAY WITH JOHN McCAIN
It was just before John
McCain's last run at the presidential nomination in
2000 that my husband and I vacationed
in Turtle Island in Fiji with John
McCain, Cindy, and their children, including Bridget (their
adopted
Bangladeshi child).
It was not our intention, but it was our misfortune
to be in close
quarters with John McCain for almost a week, since Turtle
Island has a small
number of bungalows and their focus on communal meals force
all vacationers
who are there at the same time to get to know each other
intimately.
He arrived at our first group meal and started reading
quotes from a pile of
William Faulkner books with a forest of Post-Its sticking
out of them. As an
English Literature major myself, my first thought was "if
he likes this so
much, why hasn't he memorized any of this yet?" I soon
realized that McCain
actually thought we had come on vacation to be a volunteer
audience for his
"readings" which then became a regular part of each meal.
Out of politeness,
none of the vacationers initially protested at this
intrusion into their
blissful holiday, but people's buttons definitely got
pushed as the readings
continued day after day.
Unfortunately this was not his
only contribution to our mealtime
entertainment. He waxed on during one meal about how
Indo-Chine women had
the best figures and that our American corn-fed women just
couldn't meet up
to this standard. He also made it a point that all of us
should stop Cindy
from having dessert as her weight was too high and made a
few comments to
Amy, the 25 year old wife of the honeymooning couple from
Nebraska that she
should eat less as she needed to lose weight.
McCain's appreciation
of the beauty of Asian women was so great that David
the American economist had to move his
Thai wife to the other side of the
table from McCain as McCain kept aggressively flirting with
and touching
her.
Needless to say I was irritated at his large ego and
his rude behavior
towards his wife and other women, but decided he must have
some redeeming
qualities as he had adopted a handicapped child from
Bangladesh. I asked him
about this one day, and his response was shocking: "Oh,
that was Cindy's
idea - I didn't have anything to do with it. She just went
and adopted this
thing without even asking me. You can't imagine how people
stare when I
wheel this ugly, black thing around in a shopping cart in
Arizona . No, it
wasn't my idea at all."
I actively avoided McCain after
that, but unfortunately one day he
engaged me in a political discussion which soon got us on
the topic of the
active US bombing of Iraq at that time. I was shocked when
he said, "If I
was in charge, I would nuke Iraq to teach them a lesson".
Given McCain's
personal experience with the horrors of war, I had expected
a more balanced
point of view. I commented on the tragic consequences of
the nuclear attacks
on Japan during WWII -- but no, he was not to be dissuaded.
He went on to
say that if it was up to him he would have dropped many
more nuclear bombs
on Japan. I rapidly extricated myself from this
conversation as I could tell
that his experience being tortured as a POW didn't seem to
have mellowed out
his perspective, but rather had made him more aggressive
and vengeful
towards the world.
My final encounter with McCain was on the morning
that he was leaving
Turtle Island. Amy and I were happily eating pancakes when
McCain arrived
and told Amy that she shouldn't be having pancakes because
she needed to
lose weight. Amy burst into tears at this abusive comment.
I felt fiercely
protective of Amy and immediately turned to McCain and told
him to leave her
alone. He became very angry and abusive towards me, and
said, "Don't you
know who I am." I looked him in the face and said, "Yes,
you are the biggest
asshole I have ever met" and headed back to my cabin. I am
happy to say that
later that day when I arrived at lunch I was given a
standing ovation by all
the guests for having stood up to McCain's
bullying.
Although I have shared my McCain story informally
with friends, this is
the first time I am making this public. I almost did so in
2000, when McCain
first announced his bid for the Republican nomination, but
it soon became
apparent that George Bush was the shoo-in candidate and so
I did not act
then. However, now that there is a very real possibility
that McCain could
be elected as our next president, I feel it is my duty as
an American
citizen to share this story. I can't imagine a more scary
outcome for
America than that this abusive, aggressive man should lead
our nation. I
have observed him in intimate surroundings as he really is,
not how the
media portrays him to be. If his attitudes toward women and
his treatment of
his own family are even a small indicator of his real
personality, then I
shudder to think what will happen to America were he to be
elected as our
President.
--
Mary-Kay Gamel
Professor of Classics, Comparative Literature, and Theater
Arts
Cowell College
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
95064
831-459-2381 (office)
[email protected]
Dear John,
Thank you for posting this signed story of encounter with Mr. McCain.
Love,Mary
I am going to copy this and send it to the Spokesman Review. I have to believe that Mary-Kay is prepared to receive verification calls from newspapers willing to print this story in full or in part, but I kind of doubt the SR has the backbone for this one. I would suggest that everyone copy and paste this into an email to their local newspaper.
This is important for people to know. I didn't even think he was this far gone!
Love/Light, Chris
I will not believe,or forward,or post anything that I have not verified for myself. This is a danger in cyberspace. I will delete this propaganda from my memory banks.
Love,Mary
Just curious after reading your unexpected response to this all but obvious faithful testimony of one citizen. What made you so sure it was propaganda? One would almost suspect you had inside info that would counter and disprove the testimony. You seem so sure of yourself when we have the open invitation to contact Mary-Kay at the given link. Just curious like a mo fo sister!!!
Love/Light, Chris
Dear Chris,
I have tried to call her,but no answer. You notice that this retraction is addressed to Patricia ,not John who posted it. I spent lots of time in and around UCSC. This made the post one I was interested in. There are some TT members who post things that I feel are biased. I will do my own research,and steer clear of some members posts due to bias. I post things that resonate with me, and the computer is a toy/tool that I am not well acquainted with.I wish to allow all their own opinions. I think Mark Twain said something about a lie making it halfway around the world before the truth gets it's shoes on. I want to learn to use this toy/tool with integrity. 5miles from my home someone made a bogus Craigs list ad to cover theft from a neighbor........moving,come take anything you want. The owner came home to find horse,saddles,ALL HIS STUFF being taken.....people were still showing up,waving a print out saying it says here free.Don't believe everything you read,with photoshop don't believe everything you see either. I want to build my integrity not lessen it. This is my lesson to myself.
Love,Mary
The very personal reason I asked out of curiosity is because what I read resonated very strongly as a very honest appraisal and accurate account of a regular person who had stumbled upon this situation at Turtle Island and had been reluctant to share the story with the public until now, and then provided the link. You are so so right to do due diligence and try to verify everything like this, especially this kind of polarizing testimony. I sent it to our newspaper with the provided link so they would have easy route to verification, if such verification turns out to be possible. I have also emailed Mary-Kay to see if I can get a response.
Will let you know if any response to my email is forthcoming....
Love/Light, Chris
Dear Chris,
I agree that it sounded real.....The thing is that it may or may not have been a true experience...if true the truth teller could have signed THEIR OWN NAME. This woman could loose her tenure,privacy,composure due to HER name being signed.This is not whistleblowing. This is not how honesty expresses itself. Thank you for allowing me to express myself here.Thank you also for trying to verify this yourself.
Love,Mary
Here is Mary-Kay's reply:
Dear Chris: Thanks for your nice note (not everybody has been so . . . )
BUT I didn't have that experience or write that account: I have received thousands of emails and phone calls about the Turtle Island account.
I did NOT write that account, forward it under my name, or ask for it
to be widely distributed.
I have never been to Turtle Island (which costs $2000/day), have
never met Senator McCain, was a classics major, not an English
Literature major, and never eat pancakes.
I regret the misinformation which is circulating, but it is not my doing.
How I think this happened: on 16 September I received this account
3rd-hand and forwarded it, with full email trail information and the
name of the purported author (whom I don't know), to several friends
with whom I discuss politics. It was further forwarded, and at some
point the trail was deleted and I was misidentified as the author. I
suspect whoever did this thought that my name and contact information
would make the story more credible.
Snopes.com is investigating the account; current status "undetermined."
This is NOT an organized effort on the part of any political candidate.
I hope you will pass this information on to anyone interested in this story.
I have no way of knowing whether this story is true or false. I do
know that I did not write it, and I protest the misuse of my name.
MKG
p.s. it may be true, and I wish the author (apparently one Ana Dubey
of San Francisco) will come forward...
This is me (Chris) speaking now - what a perfect opportunity to be reminded that personal hunches and resonation are still quite poor substitutes for due diligence. Thank you Mary!
Love/Light, Chris
P.S. Another thing that comes to mind in light of this episode in misleading transient info is how many other ways are we being unwittingly mislead in other situations concerning other appropriated info??? Ra in the Law of One spoke often of not spending too much time chasing after transient specifics that are ultimately meaningless in the big picture. Don, Carla and Jim ultimately developed the rule, "if it will be forgotten about inside 10,000 years, it is not worth bothering with now" (in light of all the other things that must be integrated into the root of mind prior to ascension/transformation/spiritual evolution)....
Dear Chris,
I am glad that the law of one has been so beneficial to you. I am pleased that you contacted( nicely) the UCSC teacher,and she responded.Poor woman will have a busy time clearing this up! We all learn as we go along. Thank you again.
LOve,Mary
As I reread your "It is a lesson to me....." post, I now understand you were being so emphatic because you were responding to the lately posted retraction by John that had not caught my eye yet. Perception reminds me so much of an acid trip at times, LOL.
Just one more clear reminder to me to let most of what we hear go and stay on our own guided path, leaving the distractions to others who find their being in the dynamic of transient distraction. I have been caught up the past few days in much transient distraction again, and this comedy of errors sure seems to be a gentle reminder to forego these distractions and stay centered and focused on the real/eternal that does not waver or change like so many meaningless and ever-novel distractions do from day to day, whether true or false, correct or incorrect....
Love/Light, Chris
This is back on track and getting quite exciting!
Here is the short but sweet email from MK:
I have just heard today that Ms. Ana Dubey is working with a reporter to
substantiate her account and come forward.
MK
This is very good news! Just hope that it can find some quality exposure in the media...
Love/Light, Chris