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Anne's avatar

Touché, Mr. Rather. Your opening line says it all; “Whenever we turn inward as a country, we have faltered.”

I am reminded of the former occupant of the People’s House slogans: America First! Make America Great Again! Such utter malarkey and such a stain on our country.

If the pandemic has taught us anything it is that the ENTIRE WORLD must be proactive in working together to eradicate this thing! 🌻

'No Man is an Island'

No man is an island entire of itself; every man

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 any manner of thy friends or of thine

own were; 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.

— John Donne

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Greg Dobbs's avatar

Although not true for every story overseas, often there is an American connection. In my long career covering news abroad for ABC, as in your even longer career for CBS, Dan, it was either American involvement in another nation’s affairs (for better or, sometimes, for worse), or the impact on America from another nation’s challenges. What you write about China is a paramount example. China’s economic, diplomatic, and military rise in the past few generations is a world-shaping story by itself, but its impact on America’s economic, diplomatic, and military standing has a direct effect on our fortunes, which makes China an American story. For different reasons the same is true of Ukraine. Beyond high gas prices at American pumps, the war doesn’t change a thing in our lives. But unmasking a merciless aggressor with megalomaniacal goals and nuclear weapons, it has the potential to change the world, including ours. By helping Ukraine, the U.S. is helping protect its allies since what weakens them weakens us. And of course, although sometimes our dedication to democratic principles has been inconsistent, those too, with the U.S. in the lead, are at stake. There is an American connection almost everywhere we look. We can only make wise political choices if we understand that.

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