The Jump Blog

I have always liked Dennis Miller as a comedian. I remember being in awe of his breadth of knowledge in the early 90’s, and excited by the fact that he didn’t care if you ‘got him’ or not. He would continue plowing through material that contained references to pop culture, music, religion, philosophy, politics, literature and art –daring you to keep up.

I didn’t respect Dennis Miller until one night in 1996 (maybe ‘97).

I was sitting in my palatial abode just off of Reilly Rd. in Fayetteville, NC. watching Miller’s wildly popular HBO show when he launched into a familiar rant. What was surprising was the subject: Admiral James Stockdale. Dennis Miller began a vicious attack on critics of Stockdale, explaining that his hearing loss was due to North Vietnamese shoving pencils into his ears, not his senility. He detailed Stockdale’s heroics while a POW: enduring excruciating torture, adhering so strictly to the Code of Conduct that he slit his own wrists with bits of broken light bulb rather than become a propaganda tool. Stockdale badly beat his own face, disfiguring himself so that he could not be filmed and inviting more torture from his guards.

I had never seen Miller so vexed. His admiration for Jim Stockdale stood next to him on that stage like it was the Empire State Building. It was that tangible.

That, to me, is exemplary of what was extraordinary about Jim Stockdale: he was such a splendid leader, a solid person, a model man, that he inspired those around him to be better than what they were, to be fiercely loyal, to stick it out, to fight the fight.

We are all a bit poorer for his passing.

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