One of the most quoted lines of poetry is, “No man is an island entire of itself,” written more than 500 years ago by the great English poet John Donne. These words still ring true today as we all watch the unnecessary horror unfolding in Ukraine.
The United States government has had a difficult time taking the moral high ground on this issue as “all the perfumes of Arabia” or 20 years of time have been able to completely clean the blood of thousands of Iraqi civilians off its hands. But this letter isn’t meant to resurrect that hoary specter; it is to urge everyone who can to donate what they can to the myriad organizations trying to provide some comfort in relief to those directly affected by the brutal conflict.
It is a tragedy that one aging sociopath can inflict so much pain in his quest to, as Maureen Dowd wrote, “glue the Soviet empire back together with the blood of innocents.”
As Donne wrote, “any man’s death diminishes me.” With that in mind I hope all who believe we have a right to live in peace, to today consider themselves to be Ukrainians.
To paraphrase the closing of Donne’s poem, “ask not on whom the bombs fall, they fall on thee.”
Barry Allen, Norway
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