No Man Is An Island

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We often believe that this world is every man for himself, that only what happens to each individual affects him or her, when in reality what happens to one man affects us all as a population, whether directly or indirectly. It is sometimes the lack of bravery that keeps us from standing up for others and sometimes it is just plain ignorance. Countless times people have fallen victims to this ignorance. By ignorance, I mean failure to realize that one man’s hurt is ours too. Terrible, scarring, events throughout history, such as genocides and segregation, could have certainly been prevented if we had taken the time to understand this. In the short poem “No Man Is an Island by John Donne, Martin Niemoeller’s famous quotation “The Failure to Speak Up Against the Nazis”, and Stella Pope Duarte’s email to Anna Solley (President of Phoenix College) we see two common themes, with a few subtle differences, which are like previously stated that we are all one and what occurs to any fraction of that one will affect the whole and a second theme which is doing the right thing. In “No Man Is an Is an Island” John Donne clearly conveys his idea that it shouldn’t matter the name or any such information of any individual before you can officially say that it has affected you. People that share his ideas have demonstrated so by voluntarily donating their time and money to various unfortunate natural disasters that have affected our world. “And therefore never send to know for whom / the bell tolls; it tolls for thee” (8-9) he says. Whether it was Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake that took place in Haiti, or the tsunami that most recently occurred in Japan does not matter. It does not matter if the quantity of affected persons was as small as ten or as many as thousands. The key information that we need to know is that at least one was affected. One is all that is necessary

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