Sen. John McCain, who passed away on Saturday, is undeniably the most famous prisoner of war held captive and tortured by the North Vietnamese. McCain was one of 591 Americans returned by North Vietnam over several months during “Operation Homecoming” in 1973. But in our current politicized era, McCain’s fame somewhat overshadows the leadership and lessons of many other great Americans tortured by their Marxist captors.

McCain often praised fellow prisoners as being “stronger” and “braver” than himself, giving credit to leaders like Medal of Honor recipient Bud Day for saving his life. Sadly, much of the media and our politically obsessed culture are focused more on leveraging McCain’s death for today’s political scoreboard. However, if America wants to right its ills, it must relearn the moral lessons and servant leadership from those tortured in Hỏa Lò Prison – the infamous Hanoi Hilton – and other camps.

It was nearly 50 years ago that an infamous incident finished off the hopes of returning another Kennedy brother to the White House. A film about “Chappaquiddick,” released this month, offers more than a historical retrospective. It reminds us of important truths that lay beneath the tumultuous world of political intrigue.

The movie revisits the details: The late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy drove his car off the Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, resulting in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old political consultant who had worked on Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign.

Kopechne drowned __ or, in the opinion of the diver who recovered her body, probably was trapped in an air pocket in the shallow water and later suffocated. In fact, there is a line in the film where the diver suggests he might have saved her if he had been notified in time. Kennedy, of course, escaped the car but did not report his involvement to authorities until after the scene was discovered by police 10 hours later.

A sad irony is that, since the rise of the federal government’s aggressive war on poverty launched in the 1960s, many of the underlying causes of economic distress have been neglected or ignored. While government achieved some progress towards meeting basic material needs, it has no answers to the deeper dilemma of dependency and hopelessness faced by many Americans.

One book that highlights the problem and that is receiving considerable attention this year is J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy.” Vance uses his own story to depict a crisis of culture among the white working class, especially in Appalachia. When President Lyndon Johnson launched his Great Society programs over 50 years ago with an iconic visit to Eastern Kentucky, it produced forlorn images of families in dilapidated shacks. The region remains under siege by poverty.

The problem, in large part, as Vance explains, is wrapped up in cultural and family decay. Vance, who declares, “Poverty was a family tradition,” was able to break free from the cycle and escape a chaotic future by moving in with a grandmother. Stability in the home brought with it a possibility to change’s ones life trajectory.

“The solutions to poverty exist in the assets a community...