The United States is not an island unto itself, though the current administration’s actions on immigration, climate change, tariffs, research and foreign aid appear to reflect that view.

A country does not exist in isolation. Diseases spread around the world, especially when countries are poor and lack robust health care systems. Weather is worldwide; air masses and pollutants, heat and cold, drought and atmospheric rivers travel.

Unrest travels, wars spread. And desperate people, who have been robbed of the ability to survive in their homeland, in part because their natural resources are taken for our use, will continue to flee on hope for survival elsewhere.

It is in the best interest of the United States — in fact, it is critical for the future of the United States — to welcome the success of other countries. Their stability helps assure our survival.

In words familiar to many English teachers, the English poet John Donne observed 400 years ago:

“No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. … Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind. And therefore, never seek to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”

Let us remember and reflect upon these words.

Bonnie Lounsbury, Auburn