Dear Senator McCain:

I am asking you to publicly renounce your support for Donald Trump for President.

Please allow me to begin with a personal story so that I may explain why I am asking this of you, specifically.

I parked your car about 20 years ago. I was working as a valet at a Chinese restaurant in downtown DC and managed to suppress my surprise when I saw you, as you emerged from what I believe was a red Cadillac.

I was disillusioned with our political system at the time, my politics did not often agree with yours. Still, I admired you as a hero, a patriot, and a public servant deserving of respect. Many more times, over many years, your pronouncements for principle and patriotism further stirred me and solidified that impression.

It is an unfair irony that the respect and honor accorded to you comes with a higher obligation to put aside your own political position to speak out against a candidate who is not worthy of the principles you represent.

Taking a clear stand against a man who has provided comfort to an adversary could very, in another great irony, have great political costs for you. But it would surely enhance your legacy.

I am among the millions of Americans who have a quiet, decades-long relationship with you. The confluence of that story with the American story we wish to tell our children will depend on the grace notes you choose to add in a time of peril.

Please help us to avoid that peril and to continue to tell that story.

I have asked friends and other fellow patriots in agreement with the general sentiments expressed here to sign on to this letter.

Thank you for your consideration of our request and for your decades of service to this democracy.

Sincerely,

Barak Epstein