Why We Can't Be Isolationist

An airplane was shot down above the Ukraine. Citizens of many different nations have died. The act may or may not have been committed by major player in world affairs. But does that matter? Certainly not to the victims or their families, nor to anyone else with a soul. That is what brings us to the subject today. Isolationism is both cowardly and irresponsible. We live in a world more tightly connected than at any other time in human history. People come and go at their leisure to any and all parts of the Earth. Their lives should not be endangered simply because they are moving about. We have no way of insuring that their travels will be safe, of course. Accidents happen. Planned incidents do not. Where intention is concerned things are not so innocent. By all indicators the fate of Malaysian Airlines was intended. It was meant to do harm and serve a cause. Whose intention and cause is beyond us at the moment. But the event serves to remind us of one very important fact in this uber connected world: we ignore the other nations on Earth when refusing to deal with their affairs. That willful ignorance has a price. The people on Malaysian Airlines Flight MH 17 paid it.