Slavery was Legal. Colonialism was Legal. Jim Crow was Legal. Apartheid was Legal. Legality is a matter of Power, NOT Justice

What is Fringe ... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

 

       What is Fringe

What is fringe-

used to be

abolitionists

used to be

fair wages

used to be

used to be

used to be

freedom

and

ohhhhhh sooooo much more we take for granted now...

human rights

voting rights

equality

diversity

respect

the rule of fair and just laws

used to be.

                                                                                                poem copyright ©2026 Anne Selden Annab 

The cry for freedom’s echoes: From Selma to Gaza By Lisa D. Bender in the Patriot News Jul. 31, 2025

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]

Dear America- Slavery, Segregation and Forced Displacement are wrong. Wrong then and wrong now.

Ahmed, a young Gazan, wrote a letter to UNRWA sharing his thoughts with us just a few days into the ceasefire.

Dear America - letter I just sent to my elected leaders,

WWII had cheerful music and fun fashion, but hidden behind all that positive public energy was a very evil side called SEGREGATION where Blacks were horrifically discriminated against.

When WWII ended America remained a very racist nation. All the Western World was:  Hitler took segregation too far with his death camps, but we did not go to war against Hitler to stop segregation. Our military was segregated at the time.

The beginning to end segregation was shaped by the post WWII creation of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust.  Jewish people were assured their inalienable Right to Return to original homes and lands in Europe... BUT Israel has never ever respected this same inalienable Right to Return to the native non-Jewish men, women and children of historic Palestine.

Slavery, Segregation and Forced Displacement are wrong.  Wrong then and wrong now.  One of the cruelest chapters in American History was called "The Trail of Tears" when during the 1830- 1850s the indigenous native Americans were forced to walk away from their ancestral homes and lands. This Forced Exile was shaped by President Andrew Jackson in 1930 when he signed into law the "Indian Removal Act'.  Many men, women and children suffered and died on the way away. 

Slavery was also "legal" at the time, but it was wrong then and wrong now.

U.S. workers paying taxes are currently forced to be wage slaves for Israel.  I object.  So do many well-informed college students and protestors worldwide who are horrified by Israel's flagrant violations of international law and basic human rights.  But that is hard for American politicians and CEOs to comprehend because our mainstream media promotes Israeli propaganda instead of American ideals of equality, justice, and liberty for ALL.

Don't let "the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination" cripple peace and the rule of fair and just laws here or there.

The billions annually given by U.S. to defend Israel's segregated delusions of democracy are being seriously misspent on making a bad situation worse. 

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

Notes  https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

"One hundred years later [after the end of slavery] the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. 1963

Photograph shows a woman in a traditional embroidered Palestinian dress and headdress, standing on balcony on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem, Palestine. Probable date of photo 1918

People who protest war crimes get longer sentences than people who commit war crimes

"Gaza in all likelihood would be only a first step. If such ethnic cleansing ever became acceptable, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem would surely follow. Even the so-called Arab population of Israel..." Kenneth Roth

"Gaza in all likelihood would be only a first step. If such ethnic cleansing ever became acceptable, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem would surely follow. Even the so-called Arab population of Israel..." Kenneth Roth

"Much of the western media have been complicit in dehumanizing Palestinians and normalizing what many experts have termed a genocide." Trump’s Gaza remarks are no surprise: ethnic cleansing was always the plan.

It's been 1,000 days since Israeli forces INTENTIONALLY TARGETED & killed renowned Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh [April 3, 1971 – May 11, 2022]

Netzarim is not a corridor; it is a large land grab carried out through the killing of Palestinian people and the destruction of their homes in Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps, and the neighbourhoods of al-Mughraqa, az-Zahra, Zeitoun, Juhor ad-Dik, and others. It is not some smart military strategy; it was and continues to be another way of terrorising the people of Gaza.

After 15 months, the body of 8-year-old Ola Saleh Farwana was recovered, tragically buried under the rubble of her home in Gaza, destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on the night of October 13, 2023

UNRWA delivers bulk of aid in Gaza, as destruction mounts in West Bank

‘Princess Bride’ Actor Wallace Shawn Compares Israeli Treatment of Gaza to Nazi Germany “Some of them might in 10 years wake up and say, ‘Why did I justify that?’”

United Nations 🇺🇳 Working for peace, rights and wellbeing since 1945. World Interfaith Harmony Week ... Every single soul matters

Rosa Parks: "Differences of race, nationality,or religion should not be used to deny any human being citizenship rights or privileges."

Building a Culture of Peace ...

IMEU: Israel has permanently disabled tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.

"All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered." - Article 2 of the United Nations Charter

In “Tent,” Palestinian poet and artist Asmaa Dwaima offers a brief, heartbreaking lyric that explores the unimaginable suffering of Gaza’s children as they endure the brutalities of genocide.

The Inaugural Joint Statement of The Hague Group, January 31, 2025

Systematic Oppression by Israel

UN Palestinian Rights Committee Bureau welcomes Gaza ceasefire, demands full implementation and move towards a solution of the conflict, and condemns Israel’s UNRWA ban perpetuating Palestinian suffering

Segregation is the act or process of separating individuals or groups based on characteristics such as race, class, or ethnicity, often resulting in unequal treatment and access to resources. It can occur through enforced laws or voluntary actions, leading to distinct living, educational, and social conditions for different groups.

State Sponsored Segregation is OPPRESSION and INJUSTICE

In 1948 United Nations Mediator Count Folke Bernadotte pointed out that "IT WOULD BE AN OFFENCE AGAINST THE PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE IF THOSE INNOCENT VICTIMS [Palestinian men, women, & children] COULD NOT RETURN TO THEIR HOMES WHILE [Zionist] IMMIGRANTS FLOWED INTO PALESTINE TO TAKE THEIR PLACE"

2 years later

UNWRA the United Nations agency to provide education, healthcare, relief and social services to officially displaced Palestinian refugees began operations 1 May 1950.

75 year later & counting Israeli racism, injustice, supremacism, and violence is only becoming more entrenched and dangerous.

"For Israel to unilaterally ban Unrwa operations in the occupied Palestinian territories in a period of unparalleled deprivation and social need, following 15 months of total siege and constant bombardment in Gaza and relentless military and settler aggression in the West Bank, is immoral, illegal and inhumane." Stephen McCloskey

Anne Frank 1929-1945 + Hind Rajab 2018-2024... NEVER AGAIN MEANS NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE

2018 UNWRA spokesman Sami Mshasha "There are [Israeli] think tanks, researchers and specialists whose aim is to undermine the agency," he told Middle East Eye.

The United States, European countries, and other major donors must re-evaluate their concerns about the UN’s agency for Palestine refugees in light of the imperative to aid vulnerable populations and take immediate steps to renew funding for UNRWA’s vital humanitarian mission amidst the ongoing crisis in Gaza.

"It's outlandish that a Member State of the UN system would choose to undo the mandate of an organisation, which is mandated by the UN General Assembly."

The UK, France & Germany urge Israel to abide by its international obligations & ensure humanitarian access. No entity can replace @UNRWA’s critical role.

"A humanitarian official told CNN that organizations are concerned about foreign powers like China and Russia using the US aid freeze to increase their own soft power overseas. And there are concerns that non-state actors, like terrorist groups and child soldier recruiters, could gain influence in areas where US funding currently supports refugee camps, the official highlighted."

Please do not demonize and silence or destroy people who speak out peacefully against corruption, injustice, racism, bigotry, and violence of every type.

My Letters https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/letters

 

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."   https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

 

In the aftermath of the ceasefire in Gaza, 1.9 million displaced people urgently need shelter, aid, and psycho-social support.⁣ ⁣UNRWA plays a vital role in fostering stability and resilience during this critical time.⁣

Dear America- Freedom, justice and peace: These ideals should be our New Year's resolution- for everyone's sake.

Jimmy Carter, along with his beloved wife Rosalynn, worked tirelessly to build homes for the poor with Habitat for Humanity

Dear America (letter just sent to my elected officials),

As we mourn our 39th President Jimmy Carter's death, as well as two horrific acts of violence in New Orleans and in front of the Trump Tower in Los Vegas, please let us step towards building peace, not more and more violence and war.

We call it TERRORISM when violence is done by an individual or small group, and WAR when it is done by a Sovereign Nation.   We arm the Sovereign Nation and excuse it when uses violence and state sponsored terrorism against individuals and vulnerable families, which in turn sends the message worldwide that violence against civilians is OK by US.

Having and beating slaves was legal in America 170 years ago.  Just because something is technically legal, does not make it right or good.

I object to our tax money being used to fund and empower the weapons industry and Israel, a militarily powerful and affluent sovereign nation that has been building Apartheid in Palestine for generations now.

Israel's genocidal policies towards Palestinian men, women and children have to be stopped... Just because you have your head in the sand does not mean all the world is clueless about Israel's escalating crimes against humanity.  Meanwhile China is rising in power and influence while America is falling.

After the horrors of the NAZI Holocaust our First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt helped shape the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights "Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world"  https://www.ohchr.org/en/human-rights/universal-declaration/translations/english

Freedom, justice and peace:  These ideals should be our New Year's resolution- for everyone's sake. 

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

Notes  https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

From Panama to Palestine, Jimmy Carter refused to let his moral voice be silenced: Carter signed treaties to hand over the Panama Canal and criticized Israel, drawing respect and fury past his one term - Chris McGreal 30 Dec 2024 in The Guardian

If Americans Knew: Warsaw 1944, Gaza 2024

Requiem for a Refugee Camp- In October, 2023, I could not imagine anything worse than the destruction in Jabalia refugee camp. But what is happening now outstrips anything I saw there. By Mosab Abu Toha December 31, 2024 in The New Yorker

FROM & for PALESTINE: Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer... Emmanuel, you who were born in a stable and made your home among the oppressed. May your light pierce the darkness of violence and despair. Strengthen us to be bearers of that light, standing in solidarity with all who yearn for liberation and hope.

Feast of the Holy Innocents: Christian children in Bethlehem lay olivewood hearts, each representing a child killed in the Holy Land since October 7

The United Nations & The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Baby Jesus born in Bethehem Palestine

We will always carry their memory in all we do...

Maha Hussaini: Not only are Palestinians continuing to study under Israel's genocide, but they also hold Palestinian cultural activities in schools in displacement camps. Good morning from central #Gaza, where I met these beautiful girls wearing their Palestinian thobe on their way to school 12/16/2024

MIT Science for Genocide

Christmas IS Palestine .... where it all began

One the most iconic images of the Holy Land is the fish and loaves mosaic in the Church of the Multiplication at Tabgha on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Tolerance Is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial by Saree Makdisi author of Palestine Inside Out

Always, no matter what.... Even Wars Have Rules

"If the U.S. had held Israel accountable for the killing of other Americans like Rachel Corrie or Shireen Abu Akleh, perhaps Israeli soldiers would not feel so emboldened to kill Americans, and other civilians, today." Hamad Ali in The Hill 12/14/24

Dear America- Israel and its propagandists claim it is all about self-defense, but Israel is and has been the aggressor and the rule breaker.

Dear Elected Officials- Stop poisoning the land, and undermining international law.

My Letters https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/letters

 

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."   https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

This Passover, we don’t need or want the false idol of Zionism. We want freedom from the project that commits genocide in our name. We need an exodus from Zionism- Naomi Klein

‘Too many of our people are worshipping a false idol once again.’ Photograph: Thalia Juarez/The Guardian

I’ve been thinking about Moses, and his rage when he came down from the mount to find the Israelites worshipping a golden calf.

The ecofeminist in me was always uneasy about this story: what kind of God is jealous of animals? What kind of God wants to hoard all the sacredness of the Earth for himself?

But there is a less literal way of understanding this story. It is about false idols. About the human tendency to worship the profane and shiny, to look to the small and material rather than the large and transcendent.

What I want to say to you tonight at this revolutionary and historic Seder in the Streets is that too many of our people are worshipping a false idol once again. They are enraptured by it. Drunk on it. Profaned by it.

That false idol is called Zionism.

Zionism is a false idol that has taken the idea of the promised land and turned it into a deed of sale for a militaristic ethnostate

It is a false idol that takes our most profound biblical stories of justice and emancipation from slavery – the story of Passover itself – and turns them into brutalist weapons of colonial land theft, roadmaps for ethnic cleansing and genocide.... READ MORE    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/24/zionism-seder-protest-new-york-gaza-israel

 [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]

If you've ever wondered what you'd do during slavery, the holocaust, or the civil rights movement- you're doing it right now

 

Islamic State Seeks to Justify Enslaving Yazidi Women and Girls in Iraq... The article on slavery confirms practices documented by Human Rights Watch, which says Yazidi women and girls were forced to marry Islamic State fighters and shipped out in busloads from Iraq to Syria to be sold off as prizes

A refugee woman from the minority Yazidi sect, who fled the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, sits with a child inside a tent at Nowruz refugee camp in Qamishli, northeastern Syria August 17, 2014. Rodi Said/Reuters 

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://www.newsweek.com/islamic-state-seeks-justify-enslaving-yazidi-women-and-girls-iraq-277100

The Islamic State group said it enslaved families from the minority Yazidi sect after overrunning their villages in northwestern Iraq, in what it praised as the revival of an ancient custom of using women and children as spoils of war.

In an article in its English-language online magazine Dabiq, the group provides what it says is religious justification for the enslavement of defeated "idolators".

The ancient custom of enslavement had fallen out of use because of deviation from true Islam, but was revived when fighters overran Yazidi villages in Iraq's Sinjar region.

"After capture, the Yazidi women and children were then divided according to the Shariah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations, after one fifth of the slaves were transferred to the Islamic State's authority to be divided as khums," it said. Khums is a traditional tax on the spoils of war.

"This large-scale enslavement of mushrik (idolator) families is probably the first since the abandonment of Shariah law," it said.

Dabiq, distributed in a slickly-produced online format, is described by the group SITE that monitors militant publications as Islamic State's English-language magazine.

The cover shows a picture of St Peter's Basilica in Rome, with an Islamic State black flag superimposed in place of the cross atop its obelisk. Inside it features photos of the group's arsenal of heavy weaponry and what it says is the final letter to his mother from an American journalist the group beheaded.

The article on slavery confirms practices documented by Human Rights Watch, which says Yazidi women and girls were forced to marry Islamic State fighters and shipped out in busloads from Iraq to Syria to be sold off as prizes...READ MORE

Slavery... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

Plantation economics prove
that demographics
do not create equality,
or momentum for justice.

Demographics then
meant the slave owner had more slaves
to buy and sell and breed, more fields worked
making more incentives for those in power
to protect their wealth and way of life.

In hindsight it is easy to assume that ending slavery
was inevitable... but if that were so
slavery would have never ever started

and nine year old girls today
would not be sold into marriage.

*It's been five years since Nujood Ali became known as the world's youngest divorcee after escaping the man who bought her as a child bride aged nine... Yemen's youngest divorcee says father has squandered cash from her book

Bradley Burston: As Lincoln abolished slavery, Israel must abolish occupation... I realize now that I am an abolitionist and that occupation is slavery. I also realize that I need to pay more attention to Abraham Lincoln, in his ability to remind us all of the wisdom hidden in the obvious.

"I realize now why "apartheid" is too easy, too slick, too Madison Avenue a term, for what occupation truly is and does.

Occupation is slavery.

In the name of occupation, generation after generation of Palestinians have been treated as property. They can be moved at will, shackled at will, tortured at will, have their families separated at will. They can be denied the right to vote, to own property, to meet or speak to family and friends. They can be hounded or even shot dead by their masters, who claim their position by biblical right, and also use them to build and work on the plantations the toilers cannot themselves ever hope to own." Bradley Burston

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/as-lincoln-abolished-slavery-israel-must-abolish-occupation.premium-1.505908

Sally Field and Daniel Day-Lewis appear in a scene from "Lincoln." Photo by AP

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]