“For I am Involved in Mankind…”

Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” was titled after this poem. It’s one of my favorites (and incidentally, one of Sen. John McCain’s too, I read somewhere once).

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

John Donne, 1624

There are some lines in the poem that stand out, I think.

During the last two weeks, seven law enforcement officers across the country died in the line of duty, in violent incidents perpetrated by individuals acting alone, who simply didn’t care – neither for the lives of fellow men and women, nor for their own (lives granted them by their mothers, their fathers, their God … i.e. someone other than themselves), and these individuals made the decision to stop the beating hearts of people who DID (care).

“Each man’s death diminishes me…”

As I slowly make progress toward the badge, these things begin to be felt more; their significance grows inside. Each of my classmates feels the same way. Good people.

Hmm.

That’s it. That’s all I wanted to say. I tried thinking of someway to ‘wrap’ up an entry on senseless violence, but in the end concluded that there isn’t a moral, there isn’t a lesson, there isn’t even any kind of statement that can be made. I think the best we can do is to feel it. To remember it. To not let the tragedies be felt and forgotten, to not let the sufferers of those tragedies be set apart as “Islands…Entire of themselves.”