Character is Destiny John McCain's New Book for Young People

Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember

If you know anything about Senator John McCain, it is that his character saved his life; an American hero. Many POW's died during the five and a half years that he spent in an unspeakable North Vietnamese POW prison at the height of the Vietnam War. The question that begs an answer is: Just how did he survive the extreme amount of torture, the rules of non-communication between prisoners, and the deaths of many of his fellow POWs?

The answer is in his new book, Character is Destiny:
Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember (co-authored by Mark Salter, published by Random House):

"For those of us held as prisoners of war, we needed more than hate to survive. We needed faith. Faith, first and foremost, in one another. We had faith that no matter how bad things got we could rely on the support and encouragement of our comrades to help get us through...for guidance, for comfort when we were hurt and humiliated, for encouragement when our captors forced us to do something we had struggled not to."

Character is Destiny is a well-researched, well-written book of stories about extraordinary people or people who endured extraordinary things because of their positive, strong character traits, according to McCain. Yet, he is quick to make the point that destiny is not waiting for something to happen to you, it is choosing to be the kind of person that you want to be, one with good character.

The stories are grouped into seven parts: Honor, Purpose, Strength, Understanding, Judgment, Creativity, and Love. Within each part, are examples of people exhibiting a value within each broader topic. As you might expect, Mother Theresa is paired with "selflessness and contentment," within the section," Love." George Washington, Sojourner Truth, Gandhi, and Nelsen Mandela are among the stories of more famous people.