The American flag is a symbol of the freedom and the patriotism of the United States. During the week of Aug. 27-30, students may have noticed that the flags were at half-staff. The lowering of the flag was in honor of John McCain a man who symbolized this same freedom and patriotism.

John McCain was often dubbed “the maverick.” For those of you wondering, the name comes from his many miraculous accomplishments. But, it also comes from the fact he was independent-minded and did not always follow the view of his party.

We will remember John McCain as, first and foremost, a bipartisan politician. Even his funeral was orchestrated to include prominent figures from both sides of the spectrum, eliminating any notions of a partisan funeral. He often broke his party lines to practice morality in politics, a concept that has almost become foreign in today’s political word where we are increasingly polarized by our differences.

The most famous example is during the 2008 presidential election. During a rally, a participant talked of candidate Barack Obama’s past with a racially motivated comment. However, despite being a part of different parties and the tension between both candidates, McCain took the microphone and said, “I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments, I will respect him. I want everyone to be respectful, and let’s make sure we are. Because that’s the way politics should be conducted in America.” He felt that Sen. Obama was a family man of virtue and no matter party line would change that.

McCain was bold and ethical, and dared to cross party lines to create respect between men and women at the front lines of American democracy. While we have recently seen others crossing political lines, they did not have the same ideological fervor behind them. For example, some of the red states Democratic senators voted for the Supreme Court justice nominee Neil Gorsuch. The senators did not agree with everything that the nominee advocated for, but they still voted for him to present an accurate representation of their states’ best interests. They only did this to fulfill a checkbox in their job description: represent the people of your state, not the politics.

John McCain was a man of honor.

He graduated from the Naval Academy and was deployed to Vietnam. He was a fighter pilot and was shot down to become a prisoner of war for five years. The honor that comes with surviving the war camps and the immense torture shaped McCain to be the person he was. In a similar way, he shaped the Senate. His raw emotions and passion that came from those honorable yet harrowing experiences were at the roots of many of his bills and his political attitudes.

However, one thing that McCain never did was take his raw emotions to a radical extent in political matters. While he may have harbored raw feelings toward certain issues, his presentation was absent of those emotions, creating an objective argument. And even if those raw feelings were taken to the radical extent, there was still a sense of respect and apologies if owed.

He always put the people he represented before his own feelings, no matter what the topic. While it may seem as though McCain only fulfilled his job requirement, he did something not all senators necessarily do: he allowed for the true practice of democracy to flourish by putting the American people above himself.

The reality is that without McCain, the Senate will never be the same. We watched again as John McCain crossed party lines to for the American people. The most recent example of this was when he was the last to vote “no” on the repeal of Obama Care.

Obama Care is a Democratic policy and the repeal is a Republican idea, but McCain crossed the lines to vote with the Democrats which was in favor of what the American people wanted.

This ideology reflects what a Senator should be. The embodiment of this ideology is McCain.

He was the last of the great to cross the lines and still wear a badge of honor.

Despite whatever party you are a part of or not part of, you should want senators to represent you and your state’s ideals. That ideology is not always present in the Senate or the House of Representatives. Whether or not you believe that John McCain was that person, we all hold the same ideals of what we envision for those we elect. That is the root of democracy and our country — that those elected actually represent us.

We need to all be “mavericks” and do the unexpected to cross polarized boundary lines in order to represent the citizens of a unified body, not a polarized country, for honor, not for personal glorification.

The death of John McCain does not need to be the end of an era. Rather let’s commemorate it as the beginning of a new one, should we choose to honor him and the ideals he stood fo