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Fellow POW: I Remember McCain Telling the "Cross in the Dirt" Story [In 1971]
NRO ^

Posted on 08/18/2008 3:09:53 PM PDT by flyfree

I called Orson Swindle, a fellow POW who is campaigning for McCain, to ask him about it. “I recall John telling that story when we first got together in 1971, when were talking about every conceivable thing that had ever happened to us when we were in prison” Swindle told me a few minutes ago. “Most of us had been kept apart or in small groups. Then, in 1970, they moved us into the big cell. And when we all got to see each other and talk to each other directly, instead of tapping through walls, we had 24 hours a day, seven days a week to talk to each other, and we shared stories. I vaguely recall that story being told, among other stories.” “I remember it from prison,” Swindle continued. “There were several stories similar to that in which guards — a very few, I might add — showed compassion to the prisoners. It was rare, and I never met one, but some of the guys did.”

(Excerpt) Read more at corner.nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; andrewsullivan; cross; crossinthedirt; elections; mccain; mccainlist; mccaintruthfile; nro; obama; pow; saddleback; vietnamvets
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To: flyfree

It amazes me how Andrew Sullivan, the Dummies, and Kos Kooks are grasping at straws, especially while McCain was rotting in a prison, and these kooks parents were probably rooting for McCain’s captors, the Vietcong.


21 posted on 08/18/2008 4:05:56 PM PDT by DallasBiff
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To: Cinnamon Girl

Yeah, but I want to find my voice too...now what do I do? I mean, will Obama help us ALL find our voice when he is president? ( that could get very very loud.)

BTW, don’t the libs already spend way too much time finding there voices...go to you tube and check out the Obama K choral ( I dont’ know how to post he link...yeesh.).


22 posted on 08/18/2008 4:07:09 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (GOD BLESS GEORGIA! SAVE GEORGIA, OUR ALLY, NOW!)
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To: MNJohnnie
You going to call this guy a liar too?

Oh come on. Hardly anybody would risk anything for belief in this Jesus bit. And it's not like this "cross" is a widely recognized symbol -- or that these "Christians" have any sense of love and compassion.
/s

23 posted on 08/18/2008 4:26:57 PM PDT by unspun (Mike Huckabee: Government's job is "protect us, not have to provide for us.")
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To: flyfree

To Democrats (liberals, progressives as the posers like to call themselves these days), a ‘cross in the dirt’ is nothing more than a Swastika. When they think of Almighty God, they equate that to mankind, and only those of mankind who think like them. For a Democrat (I group the posers and selfish into this group) uttering the name of God in the same sentence with one of their own is blasphemy.


24 posted on 08/18/2008 4:29:46 PM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Nakota; Wil H; flyfree
I was a Navy Intelligence Officer and took part in Operation Homecoming. I remember hearing this same story in the 70’s.....

In the OLD (pre-1989 :) Soviet Union; there was a widespread practice / tradition of "illegal presses / distribution" of "forbidden works / documents"....its' conceivable that Sen. "Strawberries" McPain may have been reading or heard of these works.

25 posted on 08/18/2008 4:32:48 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (If you aren't "advancing" your arguments,your losing "the battle of Ideas"...libs,hates the facts 8^)
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To: skinkinthegrass
When? When he was held prisoner in Vietnam? Come on, give us a break. Even if though what you say is theoretically possible, the Russian story was about 2 prisoners, one of which drew a cross in the dirt and the other felt better because of it. Other than a cross in the dirt (a universal symbol for Christianity), and it was in a prison, nothing else is the same about the story. McCain's story is about a guard who loosen his bonds and that made McCain feel better (not the cross in the dirt). The story makes the guard out as the hero, not McCain. If McCain wanted to be the hero of the story, there are many other scenarios using a cross he could have drawn other than this story. It is 1) Stretching that he might have invented the story (not likely, see above) and 2) It obviously is not the same as the Russian story.

Sorry, if you want to bash McCain, you are certainly using the wrong club.

26 posted on 08/18/2008 4:40:45 PM PDT by flyfree
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To: Cinnamon Girl

Excellent post.


27 posted on 08/18/2008 4:42:06 PM PDT by visualops (artlife.us -nature photography desktop wallpapers)
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To: skinkinthegrass; Nakota; Wil H; flyfree
In the OLD (pre-1989 :) Soviet Union; there was a widespread practice / tradition of "illegal presses / distribution" of "forbidden works / documents"....its' conceivable that Sen. "Strawberries" McPain may have been reading or heard of these works.

Sure -- that's a lot more probably than any Christians under severe duress communicating with each other by means of drawing in the dirt. /sarcasm

Ever hear the stories about how the cross and "icthus"/fish symbols were used in the early, persucuted church? Maybe they'd heard about Solzhenitsyn too, eh?

You don't do anyone a favor for allowing whatever antipathy you have with John McCain to smear the witnessing of Jesus Christ.

28 posted on 08/18/2008 4:43:03 PM PDT by unspun (Mike Huckabee: Government's job is "protect us, not have to provide for us.")
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To: bicyclerepair

Did you ever see this? http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Multimedia/Player.aspx?guid=56ae4c45-68b0-4b6f-a1b4-b49d06fda9ab

It should be a link to his ad “One Man” which is amazing. Watch it if you haven’t.


29 posted on 08/18/2008 4:56:49 PM PDT by Cinnamon Girl (McCain calls it "radical islamic terrorism," the dems don't refer to it at all)
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To: unspun; flyfree
In the OLD (pre-1989 :) Soviet Union; there was a widespread practice / tradition of "illegal presses / distribution" of "forbidden works / documents"....its' conceivable that Sen. "Strawberries" McPain McCain may have been reading or heard of these works.

...while your anger @ me, maybe "somewhat" justified (I thought, he wasn't the best Candidate...FDT was...I disagree w/him on some national issues, as many of us do).
I was just positing a theory, as to "how", so he could (comfortable) relate to the crowd before him....short / concise answers / not long-winded / obtuse arguments

I was NOT saying he was lying....nor was I, trying to inciting anti-christian / pro-liberal crap garbage.

30 posted on 08/18/2008 5:17:31 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (If you aren't "advancing" your arguments,your losing "the battle of Ideas"...libs,hates the facts 8^)
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To: skinkinthegrass

I like the smiley :)


31 posted on 08/18/2008 5:25:31 PM PDT by flyfree
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To: Wil H

huh?


32 posted on 08/18/2008 5:26:21 PM PDT by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: Cinnamon Girl
It should be a link to his ad “One Man” which is amazing. Watch it if you haven’t.

Just watched it. Good ad.

Question...has anyone complained about the star he uses in his logo? It seems similar to an O-7 insignia, and I thought he retired as an O-6. I'd be surprised if this hadn't come up, but I hadn't heard anything.

33 posted on 08/18/2008 5:44:03 PM PDT by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: laweeks
Over the centuries, there must have been many incidents where guards were merciful towards prisoners due to Christian charity. It would not surprise me if many people experienced similar incidents to McCain's story.

How would a Christian discretely reveal himself to another Christian these days? Particularly across a language barrier? Draw a cross in the dirt

34 posted on 08/18/2008 6:22:23 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell)
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To: flyfree

Let’s see if I get this straight.

McCain steals it from Solzenitzhyn who steals it from the Cecil B DeMille film THE SIGN OF THE CROSS who stole it from Jesus writing in the dirt.

Gee. No one ever thought of writing in the dirt till those times?


35 posted on 08/18/2008 6:38:18 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Now, somewhere we have to add into this Charlton Heston writing in the dirt in PLANET OF THE APES.
SARC/OFF


36 posted on 08/18/2008 6:40:02 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Wil H
Maybe it was the guard that had read Solzenitzhyn!?!

Seriously though, I never doubted John on this and it would take a sick mind to suggest he made it up. After five and a half years in a Vietnamese POW camp does anyone think he's short of stories?

37 posted on 08/18/2008 8:53:15 PM PDT by TigersEye (2016 Summer Olympics ... Poti, Georgia!)
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To: skinkinthegrass

No worries about me; I’m not angry at you and was barely before. I am however very, very tired of the sniping of consistently pro-American, pro-Life Republicans and got that way very quickly around here, from the begging of the primay/caucus season.

The lies and 180 degree half-truths spread about Mike Huckabee were outrageous, forget just bothering about anger. And this really is the time to get behind John McCain and push (and the better we push him, the better we can help to direct him).


38 posted on 08/18/2008 9:52:15 PM PDT by unspun (Mike Huckabee: Government's job is "protect us, not have to provide for us.")
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To: unspun
And this really is the time to get behind John McCain and push (and the better we push him, the better we can help to direct him)...
Agree...Push, is Right.
39 posted on 08/19/2008 5:40:29 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass (If you aren't "advancing" your arguments,your losing "the battle of Ideas"...libs,hates the facts 8^)
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