'Patriotism is not enough'.

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As I was listening to Donald Trump’s address tonight I was reminded of a well known poem written by a wiser man in the 17th century. John Donne was an English clergyman who wrote a poem which began ‘No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.’ The President spoke much of patriotism and it frightened me rather a lot. The same thing has been happening in England in the recent vote for Brexit. The influx of immigrants had alarmed the nation so much that they too voted in effect to ‘make our country great again.’ We too want to build a wall to insulate us from the less fortunate ‘outside.’ Mexicans or refugees it makes no difference. If we regard ourselves, our comforts, or country even our culture of such importance that we need to put our interests before the rest of humanity, regardless of the effect that will have on them, then we are forfeiting our humanity. His poem finishes : Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. Donald Trump needs to widen his horizons, not narrow them.