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| Political cartoon from 1906, by artist William Balfour Ker |
letter I just wrote & sent to my elected leaders
Dear America,
This month, so far, saw snow and bitter cold ending & Ramadan and Lent beginning & Aloka the Peace Dog arrive in Washington Dc with the Buddhist Monks walking for peace.
Winter is ending, flowers will soon start to bloom- will the flowers be blooming be on America's grave? I hope not.
This month, so far, also saw church leaders highlighting threats "to Christian heritage by Israeli authorities: financial pressure, municipal taxes, restrictions on freedom of movement for worshipers, settler violence, takeover of Church lands, hate crimes, and barriers for West Bank teachers reaching Christian schools in East Jerusalem."
Many
Americans can't afford health care, home heating bills, or eating out,
but our elected leaders keep opting to invest oodles of our hard earned
tax dollars into a very foreign country called Israel and the
military-industrial complex that has been aggressively polluting planet
earth, exasperating racist hate & freely bombing babies and children
in impoverished refugee camps.
PLUS
the Trump Administration and its minions are doing all they can to
undermine and destroy the United Nations, international law, and ICC
International Criminal Court... Golly Gee I wonder why.
Meanwhile American battleships and troops are gearing up to bomb Iran.
American
politicians and billionaire business owners (plus many a wanna be) have
been borrowing vast sums of money to invest in building numerous land
and energy gobbling data centers/hyperscalers that fuel AI delusions.
We need good jobs- real jobs- not AI... and certainly not war.
We need to be working with the international community before it shuts us out completely.
Billionaires want Ballrooms. The rest of us want clean water; safe neighborhoods; good schools, libraries, & museums; National Parks; playgrounds; PBS; good job opportunities for ourselves and our children; affordable heath-care; AND PEACE.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes
'In Israel's eyes, we are terrorists' | In search of Palestine: episode 1 – video... In Search of Palestine
Saint Valentina was from Caesarea of Palestine... The ancient Latin name “Valentina” means “strong, vigorous and healthy.”
The Peace Walk “a powerful reminder that peace is practiced step by step. In a divided time, this is what it looks like to stand up for the best of who we are. Love demands endurance. Peace is strength.” MLKIII
Whether on a long road or a church stage, Aloka remains a steadfast support to the venerable monks, proving that peace is a journey shared by all beings...
Church leaders highlight threats to Christian heritage by Israeli authorities: financial pressure, municipal taxes (Arnona), restrictions on freedom of movement for worshippers, settler violence, takeover of Church lands, hate crimes, and barriers for West Bank teachers reaching Christian schools in East Jerusalem.
"Yesterday, I was honored to welcome the Buddhist monks to Washington National Cathedral, to learn from their example, and as Christians to recommit ourselves to the way of peace for all people. We are so grateful, so inspired, and so grateful that the monks are calling out the best in all of us as they make their pilgrimage among us. Their commitment to embody and bring peace to us all. Our response–across all that seems to divide us as a nation–reveals how united we are in our longing for peace, God willing, our readiness for peace. The monks, like all our spiritual masters of all faiths, including Jesus, remind us that true peace begins in the human heart, and in genuine peace offerings to those we love, the we struggle to love, and even those we would consider our adversaries." Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington DC, USA
Bishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna: Resolving the Palestinian issue is the key to peace....
Israel’s security cabinet has approved plans that pave the way for more settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory
Her father’s war grave in Gaza was bulldozed by Israel. Amid the grief and anger, she wants answers... " “They have no respect for the living, so why would they respect the dead?” Wilma says of the Israeli government."
Human Rights Watch researchers resign after report on Palestinian right of return blocked : The organization claims the report, which finds Israel’s denial of the right of return is a crime against humanity, is ‘paused pending further analysis and research’
‘A violation of our history’: Palestinian uproar over Israel’s plan to seize historic West Bank site- Residents of Sebastia say heritage project is pretext for massive land grab and expansion of Jewish settlements
US politics: After years spent documenting state terror, I know it when I see it. And I see it now in the US and Israel. It’s chilling to watch as Trump and Netanyahu adopt the methods of regimes their countries once condemned
"The true irony is, state terror does not make a state safer. When
democratic states adopt the methods of tyrannies, they become weaker.
Their global credibility frays. They sacrifice the legitimacy they once
held that distinguishes them from the regimes they claim to oppose."
The Women Who Shaped the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Holocaust Remembrance Day 2026 "The genocide did not begin with concentration camps and gas chambers; it started with apathy and silence in the face of injustice, and with the corrosive dehumanization of the other. Today, and always, we need to remember this." Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
"We call on Israel to immediately cease such actions against UNRWA premises, respect the Agency’s mandate, lift all restrictions imposed on its activities, and fully comply with its obligations under international law, in line with the latest advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice of 22 October 2025 on the Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, other International Organizations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian territory. "
Dear America, Funding and arming terrorism and violence is evil and wrong: America should not be funding, arming, defending, or trusting today's Israel in any way, shape or form.
A barbaric new era has already begun as Americans are duped into being wage slaves for billionaires who have no respect for basic human rights and the rule of fair and just laws.
Golden Rule Thinking IS GOOD
Our land and resources are being gobbled up for AI data centers for what purpose? Is it for the greater good of tax paying citizens- or is it to feed the greed of corporations and companies that already use our data to charge us as much as they can at every turn.
Real freedom, justice, and democracy are being embezzled by corporate greed and political corruption to empower Israel and war.
"ISRAEL SAYS" is not God talking.
Israel has a right to exist, but Israel has no right to starve and displace the men, women and children of historic Palestine.
The vast majority of Americans are not wealthy & the taxes that We The People pay are being diverted into funding religious bigotry and terror via Israel's cruel war on the native non-Jewish men, women, and children of historic Palestine. HAMAS cruelty and stupidity echoes Zionist cruelty and stupidity and on and on it goes. Neither approach will build peace or security.
The weapons industry and a global war machine- AND INJUSTICE- burgeon with American tax payer funds.
Violence is a problem- not the answer.
"The United Nations is the only place on Earth where all the world's nations come together to discuss common problems and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity. This intergovernmental organization born out of the ashes of the Second World War remains indispensable to the pursuit of world peace, justice, equality and sustainable development" https://www.un.org/en/
The right of refugees to return to homes and lands they were expelled from is an individual right and cannot be unilaterally abrogated by third parties. https://imeu.org/resources/resources/fact-sheet-palestinian-refugees-the-right-of-return-under-international-law/441
"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
