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| Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from “The Role of the Church in Facing the Nation’s Chief Moral Dilemma,” April 25, 1957 |
[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]
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| Martin Luther King, Jr. and civil rights marchers cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., heading for the capitol in Montgomery, Ala., March 21, 1965. (AP Photo, File)AP |
Guest Editorial
By Lisa D. Bender
“Freedom is a constant struggle,” sang Rutha Mae Harris in Albany, Ga., during the recent Civil Rights Journey sponsored by the Susquehanna Conference of The United Methodist Church.
Harris, an original Freedom Singers, bellowed out inspiring gospel music from the Civil Rights Movement.
Walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., we imagined we were with John Lewis. We heard his words: “Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.”
In Birmingham, we remembered the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr: “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
I heard the words about the struggle for freedom of Black Americans and recalled the cries of many oppressed people. I heard the cries of Gazans being starved and bombed, and stories of those in the West Bank, Palestine who face attacks from Israeli settlers.
Slavery in the United States ended in 1865. The Israeli occupation of Palestine has not ended.
Persecution of Black Americans has continued for decades. Palestinian people have suffered many of the same indignities for the past 77 years.
Over 4,000 lynchings of Black Americans have been documented in the United States. Over 60,000 Gazans have
been killed by Israeli bombs, drones and snipers in the past 21 months.
Over 180 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank this year.... READ MORE https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2025/07/the-cry-for-freedoms-echoes-from-selma-to-gaza-opinion.html
AS
ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO
READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP
SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and
conversations) THAT EMPOWER
DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE &
PEACE... and hopefully
Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]
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| Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledges the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial for his "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. |
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I Have a Dream
delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.
"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now." 1963 I Have A Dream speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
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"Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the
time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the
sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from
the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children." Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech in its entirety https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety |
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| George Orwell statue at the headquarters of the BBC. A defence of free speech in an open society, the wall behind the statue is inscribed with the words "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear", words from George Orwell's proposed preface to Animal Farm (1945) |
Pennsylvania's tax funds, our hard earned money usurped and saved
by our treasury should not be given to Israel.
Currently America's mainstream media refuses to expose the full
ugly truth about rampant Israeli cruelty, corruption, and lack of
REAL DEMOCRACY... but we no longer live at a time where America's
mainstream media and our elected officials are the only orators
heard.
The worldwide internet is exploding with real stories about the tragic plight and suffering of the Palestinians. Heartbreaking stories: Our beloved "friend" Israel has been actively oppressing, demonizing, impoverishing, and displacing the native non-Jewish people of historic Palestine and has been since 1948.
AIPAC and other Israel focused fund raising groups are highly motivated to silence support for real justice and a lasting peace for all people, regardless of supposed race or religion.
We live in a post Holocaust world, a time when international law and basic human rights are a vital part of how we say we operate, and how we expect other countries to operate, but we make Israel the exception to every rule and ideal we are supposed to uphold.
Shame on America for investing in Israeli
injustice and war... and the intentional torture and starvation
of Gaza's children.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American Homemaker & Poet
NOTES
Washington Post: Why the U.S. should start telling the whole truth about Israel nukes: American silence no longer makes sense. In fact, it's dangerous https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../israel-nuclear-weapons/
Patriot News Harrisburg: Treasurer Stacy Garrity’s decision to invest more Pa. money in Israel Bonds, "Protesters called for Garrity to divest from all Israeli investments due to the war’s rising death toll and invest in domestic priorities instead. They also demanded she consistently take into account environmental, social, and governance ethics when choosing investments.“We’re talking about a large percentage of money that we have invested in Israel Bonds that [isn’t] going towards our schools, [isn’t] going towards our roads,” said Omar Mussa, an organizer with the Pennsylvania Palestine Network." https://www.pennlive.com/news/2024/02/treasurer-stacy-garritys-decision-to-invest-more-pa-money-in-israel-bonds-draws-democratic-opposition.htmlThe Patriot News Harrisburg: Israeli siege has placed Gazans at risk of starvation − prewar policies made them vulnerable in the first place | The Conversation "Yet untangling what Israel’s intentions may be – whether it is using starvation as a weapon of war, to force mass displacement, or if, as it claims, it is simply a byproduct of war – does little for the people on the ground in Gaza. " https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2024/02/israeli-siege-has-placed-gazans-at-risk-of-starvation-prewar-policies-made-them-vulnerable-in-the-first-place-the-conversation.html
Born in Warsaw Poland in 1907, graduated from University of Berlin died in 1972 in New York City. In late October 1938, when Heschel was living in a rented room in the home of a Jewish family in Frankfurt, he was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Poland in the Polenaktion.
Heschel's sister Esther was killed in a German bombing. His mother was murdered by the Nazis, and two other sisters, Gittel and Devorah, died in Nazi concentration camps. He never returned to Germany, Austria or Poland. He once wrote, "If I should go to Poland or Germany, every stone, every tree would remind me of contempt, hatred, murder, of children killed, of mothers burned alive, of human beings asphyxiated.
Heschel arrived in New York City in March 1940
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel believed that no religious community could claim a monopoly on religious truth. For these and other reasons, Martin Luther King Jr. called Heschel "a truly great prophet." Heschel actively participated in the Civil Rights movement, and was a participant in the third Selma to Montgomery march, accompanying Dr. King and John Lewis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Joshua_Heschel
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| Heschel, left, presenting the Judaism and World Peace Award to Martin Luther King Jr., December 7, 1965 |
"The opposite of good is not evil, the opposite of good is indifference."
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Barriers to Health for Palestinians Under Occupation |
