Christopher Groden's Blog

Leonard on up-coming move, etc.

Christopher from Belfast, ME — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:26:20 EDT

October 11, 2008

Greetings my friends and relatives:

My parole hearing date is drawing near but there are also plans to move me to a different federal prison. I do not know when the move will occur exactly but only recently have been informed of an impending removal from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.   It makes me feel good to know that you all are with me in spirit and willing to continue supporting me no matter where I am placed in the United States prison system.

The end of the Bush Administration will create tremendous opportunities for us. Immediately following the election everyone should be ready to take action to contact the president elect on my behalf. We need many more elected and appointed officials to openly take issue with the political process that put me here in prison. We must all continue to educate elected officials that their constituency is comprised of Americans who care and demand justice for not only me but all political prisoners. They need to know the global and international community is watching to see what will happen in my case so they can be aware of the possible repercussions worldwide. The most significant thing about my case is that if allowed to stand it sets a precedence, if it happened to me it can happen to anyone. It is important that you all recognize that my case isn't just about me, it is about
justice for you and me and our children and our children's children and their children.

I am extremely grateful to my niece Kari Ann, my sister Betty Ann and Donna Beltran who are the foundation of the office at this time. I am also extremely grateful at this time to all of you who are working with them to get the committee up and running. It has been down more or less for the past four years since they moved me from Lawrence Kansas to Lewisburg Pennsylvania. We have had some operations going but they have been minimal. And I am also thankful to those people who took part in those efforts at that time. Like Sitting Bull once said, "Like fingers of the hand, we can be broken off one by one. But altogether we make a mighty fist for justice." It is this coalition of caring responsible and persevering individuals that have kept the visibility of the injustice perpetrated against myself and all my people.

Our committee has a campaign called "Aim for Freedom" on my behalf. By actively participating in these efforts you have and will help promote their visibility and political influence in your community, in your state, across the nation and worldwide. Thank you for taking the time to help promote the Committee, which is now known as the Defense Offense Committee. Defense because we have been reactionary for the most part to the government's incursion upon our freedom. And the Offense part of our Committee denotes our intentions to more offensively seek justice defend justice advocate justice in a peaceful way and network with others of like minded heart who have the same concerns for justice and freedom. The Defense Committee exists because of concerned citizens like you.

The Committee has made great strides in the short time they have been in existence, however there is still much to be done. The LPDOC has fought many struggles and has worn thin from time to time, just as with any battle we have had to regroup and reorganize and I have no doubt that there are people out there who have been worn thin by the ups and downs of the Defense Committee over the past 32 plus years. But when you are working with volunteers and grassroots people, many of them with limited resources, not to mention they are fighting the most powerful government in the world and the most financially equipped bureaucracies - they have done a hell of a job with what they have gone up against.

As you know, we had both successes and disappointments over the years in our activities. But each disappointment in its own way has made us stronger, more educated, more resolute, to be more successful in the future. In my culture we are taught by the greatest creation we have to relate to, that is our Earth Mother and nature. And in that like the water we seek to flow around our opposition and wear it down. We seek to be like the stone of the Earth itself firm and resolute in our intent, yet willing to change when necessary. And like the air willing to go anywhere anytime and be a part of anything that promotes healthy life and in harmony with the Creator's design. And like the fire of the sun try to shed light in the darkest corners of humanity. We also take teachings of the sacred trees themselves even the smallest tree that is shaded by others will persevere toward the light.
If all of this sounds too dramatic try sitting in a cell for 32 years, that's dramatic.

I am sorry if I have gotten too wordy, I set out to talk to you a little bit about our need for help in terms of donations and so forth. We need monetary donations; we need physical help from individuals who can help with their time, helping the Committee with different projects. We need in-kind donations of workshops and personnel training for office and organizing skills.

Every decision that the government makes on my case is a legal precedent for someone else to look at and avoid. You know the cause is just and the need is great. Our adversaries are very powerful, but likewise our determination is just as resolute. Our resources have run thin on both monetary and material fronts but our hearts are still strong. But to carry on the fight we absolutely unequivocally and desperately need your help.

For that reason I am personally asking you to make donation today to help the Committee operate effectively for our freedoms. We need help to meet our operating costs. And your donation will help pay the significant legal expenses associated with case-filing fees, cost recovery fees, attorney travel, etc. You can make a contribution at www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/donate.htm or send a check or money order made payable to "LP DOC" to PO Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106. The Committee will accept gas cards, phone cards, office products, equipment, and materials as a donation too, please call the office at (701) 235-2206 to discuss it.

By donating financially, materially and contributing of your own time and effort to speak up on my behalf makes a statement to the world about activism in the face of adverse conditions. At the very least it will serve to show that we are not afraid to stand up in opposition to those who would wrongfully imprison us for disagreeing with them about their oppressive policies. Thank you for your active support of this important work. May the Great Spirit bless you with all that you need and answer your prayers in a kind and gentle way and your greatest sorrow ultimately bring to you great joy in this world of uncertainty.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
Mitakuye Oyasin (All My Relations)
Leonard Peltier

International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

Christopher from Belfast, ME — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:19:40 EDT

On October 11th 300 people gathered in Paris, France for the International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas after several presentations from other Indigenous peoples from Chile, Mexico, Bolivia, French Guyana, US, and Canada. This event was also celebrating the 30th year anniversary for the Committee in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples of Americas which also represents the Leonard Peltier Support Group in France.

This statement was read by Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee.

Greetings my relatives from all over the world!

I am extremely sorry I can't be there with you today. I am deeply honored that I can speak to you today even though it is through someone else. First, I want to commend you all for your dedication in furthering rights for Indigenous People throughout the world. Prison has a way of causing deep reflection as I suppose any form of isolation would. In my reflection, I have always come to the conclusion that my relationship with the Creator, my family, the earth, my fellow Indigenous relatives are the most important things to me. I try to keep up with what is going on in the world by any form of media that is available to us. I know many of you in your homelands are greatly persecuted and displaced from your homes. I know many of you are exploited, with resources taken away, and I know that oftentimes your people are killed because multinational companies want the resources from
your land. I want you to know that I recognize that we have a common enemy. That common enemy has many faces. It speaks many different languages and wears many different uniforms. I know that its motivation is always the same. They are motivated by their obsession for wealth and their greed, always taking more than they need from the earth. I can't say that I know the answer for our survival. I'm sure there isn't any one answer but I truly believe that whatever the answer is, it has to begin with us. We must find every way that we can to make ourselves strong; to make our children strong; to make our faith strong and our connection to Creator strong. We must learn to use the tools of today to protect ourselves from the challenges of their greed tomorrow. We must be relentless in teaching our children how to fight back. We must be relentless in warning our children to not become like the enemy. We must be relentless in teaching our children to respect Mother Earth, the Creator, their fellow man, and to respect their brother's vision while maintaining their vigilance and guard over our lands and resources.

Someone once said that the greatest battle a warrior must fight is the one inside himself. We must develop ourselves first, and then seek to develop self discipline and self respect within our own groups. I have seen it happen time and time again. Some of our people have self destructed within their own organizations before they had begun to contend with the enemy. I hope I haven't offended anyone by what I have said. I am just being honest about the most significant challenge we face. We cannot demand our rights. We cannot demand respect. We cannot demand our freedom or any of these other things until we are in a position of strength. One of the ways we can magnify the strength we do have is by continually networking with one another, forming alliances, the way we are doing here today.

Also we should seek to teach the world about our Indigenous traditions that have allowed our survival. We should seek to teach the world of the greatest manifestation of the Creator that we have to relate to and that is Mother Earth. We should teach the world that the highest technology in all the universe is the technology of the Creator. The most productive thing that we can do is to seek to live in harmony with that technology, with the environment the Creator has provided for us. And perhaps in that teaching we will find a way to destroy our enemies by making them our friends. In the meantime, we must stay strong and strengthen ourselves and our children. We must further our alliances and networks as you are doing here today. My heart and love goes out to you. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

I would like to say a special thank you to the organizers of this event and a special thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. I thank you with all my heart.

Your relative,

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse

Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier Annual Gift Drive 2008

Christopher from Belfast, ME — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:01:42 EDT

October 2, 2008

Hello my friends and relatives,

As you well know the season of giving is approaching us. As I was sitting here in this cell, thinking about these toy drives we have sponsored and advocated I in the past years, I can't help but remember when I was a kid. Christmas was always a difficult time for me, difficult in several ways because as a child you always had expectations about presents and what you wanted, and invariably there was always disappointments and also there was a mixture of guilt in there also, because I always wanted to give something more than I had. And from a child's point of view it doesn't matter so much what a person's belief system is. Christmas is just Christmas. And for a child who doesn't get anything, one of the most difficult things about it is, when you go back to school after the holidays and many the kids are wearing new clothes and shoes and coats. And they ask you what you got for Christmas. That is when I think for me, I was bothered the most. Because it reminded me of my disappointments and it was embarrassing to say whatever it was because if there was anything at all it was nothing like they had received. As I grew older, I always did my best to try to see that my children and any children around me did not have to have those feelings.

I know as it stands now Christmas has become overly commercialized. And the true meaning of Christmas often times is hidden by that commercialization. But that doesn't change the feelings of that one child or those many children who receive nothing or next to nothing. That is why every year; I try to sponsor a Christmas gift drive for children on the reservation. I know that there are other areas that are not on the reservation where children experience the same disappointments. I know I can't touch them all but I do know if you can help me do this, we can touch the ones that I have connection with and many of the ones who are not noticed and fall through the cracks of Christmas programs.

I remember President Bush saying in his talk about education no child left behind, and that is pretty much how I feel about many of these children on the reservation, because of the poverty and remoteness of location. They are the children at Christmas time that are left behind.

I remember one Christmas and it's kind of amusing looking back, I asked my mother how come we never got bicycles and her reply was that Santa took them to the poor kids. Though today I find it amusing, I can't help but love and appreciate her and identify with the pain she must of felt in not being able to provide for us in the ways that she wanted.

My heart aches when I think of the yoke and sorrow many of the mothers must feel who are a single parent provider. Not just on reservations but throughout America. It brings to mind an old saying, I don't know who said it but it is well known, and it is very well true, that a grown up, never stands as tall as when they stoop to help a child.

With that in mind I want to ask all of you, to help all of us. Make a difference. Our Native American culture is a giving culture. Traditionally on your birthday your friends and relatives had a birthday party for you and gave gifts in your name. It's my understanding that that is what Christmas is supposed to be about. I greatly appreciate the teachings of Jesus when he said it's better to give than to receive. And as you do unto the least of these (to children) so shall you do to me.

I hope I am not sounding too overly dramatic, but holidays, especially Christmas and for some even Thanksgiving, are always difficult for prisoners. And our emotions often times are intensified by our inability to be directly involved with our families. I also want to say that the needs of children are year round, and I think that sometimes people forget that. Anyway, I want to ask all of you to search your hearts and give in whatever way you can to help all of us make a difference. For all those children and maybe in some small way all of us together can make a better world.

May the Great Spirit Father of us all, bless you in whatever way you need and bless you many times over for your gifts you share.

Yours always and always,
In the spirit of Crazy Horse, and all those who gave their lives to right what was wrong,
Mitakye Oyasin (all my relations)

Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier is once again organizing a holiday gift drive for the children of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Pine Ridge is one of the most impoverished areas in the United States, and this is one way Peltier continues his humanitarian work for his people despite his 32-year incarceration. Help him reach out beyond the bars that imprison him. The gift drive helps not only the children and families, but also Leonard himself, keeping his spirit strong through the difficult holiday season.

The Gift Drive will serve ages newborn to 18 years. Ideas for Christmas Gifts per Age Range:

Infant/Toddler
Puzzles, Board Books, Building Blocks, Stuffed Animals, Blankets, Trucks, Musical Instruments for Toddler, Riding Toys, Push Toys, Baby Dolls (All Ethnicities) or Stuffed Animals, Clothes

Children Ages 3-6
Baby Dolls, Dolls or Barbies (All Ethnicities), Puzzles, Books, Developmental Board Games (Counting Games), Arts and Crafts Sets, Race Tracks, Legos, Dress Up Clothes, Children’s Videos, Bikes, Clothes

Children Ages 7-12
Board Games, Books, Purses and Wallets, Art Sets, Boom Boxes, Sports Equipment, Barbie Dolls (All Ethnicities) , Arts and Crafts Sets, Journals, Model Car Kits, Clothes, Bikes, Jewelry, Clothes

Teens Ages 13-18
Books, Journals, Bath and Body Gifts, Make Up Sets, Sports Equipment, Purses and Wallets, Jewelry and Watches, Art Supply Kits, Gift Certificates to Wal-Mart or Target, DVD’s or Videos, Clothes

Mail all gifts to:
Rosyln Jumping Bull
BOX 207
Oglala, SD 57764

An open letter to Barack Obama from Leonard Peltier

Christopher from Belfast, ME — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:11:11 EDT

As we approach Leonard's 64th birthday (Sept. 12th) and consider that he has spent half of his life in prison, please read this letter and join in helping us to win his freedom too long denied. CG

An Open Letter to Barack Obama

Symbolism Alone Will Not Bring Change

by Leonard Peltier Thursday, August 28, 2008 --

I have watched with keen interest and renewed hope as your campaign has mobilized millions of Americans behind your message of changing a political system that serves a small economic elite at the expense of the peoples of the United States and the world. Your election as president of the United States, where slaves and Indians were long considered less than human under the law, will undoubtedly constitute a historic moment in race relations in the United States.

Yet symbolism alone will not bring about change. Our young people, black and Native alike, suffer from police brutality and racial profiling, underfunded schools, and discrimination in employment and housing.

I sincerely hope your campaign will inspire some hope among our youth to struggle for a better future. I am, however, concerned that your recent statement on the Sean Bell verdict, in which the New York police officers who fired 50 shots at a young man on the eve of his wedding were acquitted of criminal charges, displays a rather myopic view of the law. Until the law is harnessed to protect the victims of state violence and racism, it will serve as an instrument of repression, just as the slave codes functioned to sustain and legitimize an inhuman institution.

As I can testify from experience, the legal institutions of this nation are far from racial and political neutrality. When judges align with the repressive actions and policies of the executive branch, injustice is rationalized and cloaked in judicial platitudes.

As you may know, I have now served more than three decades of my life as a political prisoner of the federal government for a crime I did not commit. I have served more time than the maximum sentence under the guidelines under which I was sentenced, yet my parole is continually denied (on the rare occasions when I am afforded a hearing) because I refuse to falsely confess. Amnesty International, South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama of Tibet, my Guatemalan sister Rigoberta Menchu, and many of your friends and supporters have recognized me as a political prisoner and called for my immediate release. Millions of people around the world view me as a symbol of injustice against the indigenous peoples of this land, and I have no doubt that I will go down in history as one of a long line of victims of U.S. government repression, along with Sacco and Vanzetti, the Haymarket Square martyrs, Eugene Debs, Bill Haywood, and others targeted by for their political beliefs.

But neither I nor my people can afford to wait for history to rectify the crimes of the past.

As a member of the American Indian Movement, I came to the Pine Ridge Oglala reservation to defend the traditional people there from human rights violations carried out by tribal police and goon squads backed by the FBI and the highest offices of the federal government. Our symbolic occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973 inspired Indians across the Americas to struggle for their freedom and treaty rights, but it was also met by a fierce federal siege and a wave of violent repression on Pine Ridge. In 1974, AIM leader Russell Means campaigned for tribal chairman while being tried by the federal government for his role at Wounded Knee. Although Means was barred from the reservation by decree of the U.S.-client regime of Richard Wilson, he won the popular vote, only to be denied office by extensive vote fraud and control of the electoral mechanisms. Wilson's goons proceeded to shoot up pro-Means villages such as Wanblee and terrorize traditional supporters throughout the reservation, killing at least 60 people between 1973 and 1975.

It is long past time for a congressional investigation to examine the degree of federal complicity in the violent counterinsurgency that followed the occupation of Wounded Knee. The tragic shootout that led to the deaths of two FBI agents and one Native man also led not only to my false conviction, but also the termination of the Church Committee, which was investigating abuses by federal intelligence and law enforcement agents, before it could hold hearings on FBI infiltration of AIM. Despite decades of attempts by my attorneys to obtain government documents related to my case, the FBI continues to withhold thousands of documents that might tend to exonerate me or reveal compromising evidence of judicial collusion with the prosecution.

I truly believe the truth will set me free, but it will also signify a symbolic break from America's undeclared war on indigenous peoples. I hope and pray that you possess the courage and integrity to seek out the truth and the wisdom to recognize the inherent right of all peoples to self-determination, as acknowledged by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. While your statements on federal Indian policy sound promising, your vision of "one America" has an ominous ring for Native peoples struggling to define their own national visions. If freed from colonial constraints and external intervention, indigenous nations might well serve as functioning models of the freedom and democracy to which the United States aspires.

Yours in the struggle.

Until freedom is won,

Leonard Peltier # 89637-132

U.S.P. Lewisburg,

P.O. Box 1000,

Lewisburg, PA USA 17837

Special Note:

Please Help Support the LPDOC for Leonard's Freedom

As Leonard Peltier marks his 64th birthday on Sept. 12, the LPDOC is redoubling its efforts to win his freedom. We are planning an ambitious organizing drive in our new Fargo office to persuade North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan, chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, to investigate the federal government's role in the violent counterinsurgency on the Pine Ridge Reservation from 1973-1976, the FBI's withholding of thousands of pages of documents related to the AIM activist, and the unfair federal trial in Fargo which led to Leonard's conviction in 1977.

Leonard is suffering from partial blindness, diabetes, a heart condition, high blood pressure, and prostate problems. He needs your help.

We need your help too, if we are to do the work that needs to be done to obtain justice for one of the longest-serving political prisoners in the world. At the moment, we are barely keeping up with our rent and phone bills, our two full-time staff members are working without pay, and we badly need a new photocopier. Due to the damaging actions of a former LPDC employee, who removed valuable office equipment and contributor records, we are rebuilding our committee virtually from scratch. We have found an experienced volunteer editor for our Spirit of Crazy Horse newspaper, but in order to resume publication, we will need your support.

If you are able to contribute $20 or more for this campaign, you will receive a free subscription to the newsletter to keep abreast on developments in Peltier's campaign and in Indian Country generally. Please contribute as generously as you are able, and also take the time to write and/or call Sen. Dorgan. With your help, we can win Leonard's freedom from the same city in which it was taken away. Even if you are unable to contribute at this time, please send us your name and address to help us rebuild our list of supporters at the state and national level.

Please send your donation to:

LPDOC

PO Box 7488

Fargo, ND 58106

701-235-2206

Thank You,

Betty Ann Peltier-Solano,

Executive Director Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee

*Kari Ann* *Co-Coordinator* *Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee*

http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

Leonard Peltier, a POW of America's Energy Wars

Christopher from Belfast, ME — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:21:26 EDT

Leonard Peltier: A POW of America's Energy Wars.

Should we humans somehow survive our "Atomic Age", and the cumulative effects of planetary pollution, it may be that future historians will look back on this era as a time of the Energy Wars, in the late Colonial period (hopefully). A time when human population increases, combined with social injustices and inequalities, spawned a series of military conflicts over control of the Earth's hydrocarbon and nuclear fuel sources. These, along with other resources, had been designated as "Strategic Materials", vital to National Security. In the early 1970s, Indian Reservations in the western United States became, once again, targets of the US Government, acting on behalf of Corporate interests, in a deliberate plan to acquire and exploit the energy resources of their lands. The Government, using the Justice Department and especially the FBI's illegal and unconstitutional "Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO)" went into action. Starting in 1973 with the 71 day siege at Wounded Knee, South Dakota (site of the 1890 massacre of Big Foot's band of over 200 Sioux by the US Army's 7th Cavalry) they employed the same tactics they had developed and deployed against the Black Panthers, the Young Lords, and Anti-War/Draft groups in the sixties and beyond. These included murder, arson, assault, drive-by shootings, false arrest and prosecution, burglaries, and the planting of informants and agents provocateur. On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the FBI armed and colluded with tribal police GOON (Guardians Of the Oglala Nation) Squads and non-Indian vigilantes in a 3-year reign of terror ('73-'76) against traditionalists, that included a shootout on the Jumping Bull Ranch on June 26th, 1975 between FBI Agents and members of the American Indian Movement (a traditionalist self-defense group). That engagement took the lives of one Indian and two Agents, although the Indian's death was never investigated. After eighteen of the nineteen AIM defenders involved were acquitted on grounds of justifiable self-defense, the Justice Department falsified affidavits to illegally extradite from Canada the only remaining AIM defender, Leonard Peltier, and in an admittedly, deeply flawed prosecution, held in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation actively promoted by the FBI and cooperating law enforcement agencies, scapegoated him into 2 consecutive life terms for the murders of their agents.
So, now, over three decades and two energy wars later, despite numerous appeals and parole hearings, and the outcry of millions worldwide against his unjust imprisonment, Leonard Peltier is still doing hard time in a federal pen.
An important part of addressing the problems we have caused by the way we have dealt with our energy needs to date, beyond a quick technological fix to further enrich our Corporate masters, should be an effort to correct past injustices committed in the name of combined Corporate and Government greed and malfeasance (the definition of fascism according to Benito Mussolini).
We can begin by freeing Leonard Peltier, and by listening, finally, to the message of his people, of living in balance, with respect for our Mother Earth. Let's all be lead by our love, for the life of the land. Free Leonard Peltier! check out: <www.whoisleonardpeltier.info>

Peltier Statement for the 2008 Oglala Commemoration

Christopher from Belfast, ME — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:57:03 EDT

June 26, 2008

Greetings my relatives,

I say relatives because you are all my family. I am honored,
greatly honored today that you would listen to my words and come
together in this way so that our future generations' will not forget
what happened here in this land.

You can't imagine how much I miss walking on the bare earth.
Or brushing against a tree branch or hearing birds in the morning
or seeing an antelope or deer cross my path. I have been here in
federal prison for 32 years; if you could imagine being in your own
home stuck in one room for one year without leaving it, multiply
that by 32 and you might have some idea of how imprisonment plays
on your feelings. I really get tired sometimes living here in this
cell, this prison. Yet at times I feel really good because for
some reason I know that there are those out there who have prayed
for me in some way. And it helps me because there are moments when
a peaceful feeling will wash over me in my solitude.

A Message to Mumia from Leonard Peltier

Christopher from Belfast, ME — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:39:58 EDT

Dear Fellow Citizens of the United States of America,

Three hundred and thirty-two years ago today, American Patriots stood their ground at Lexington/Concord and said no to to British imperialism, oppression, and brutality. They were brought to this action after more than 150 years of living in the land of the Red Race, with the Algonquin ideals of individual freedom, democracy, gender equality, and free trade. Homegrown ideals which did not come across the oceans from Europe or elsewhere. Many Native and African people fought and many gave their lives in the Revolution which followed, one-half of the male population of the "Praying Indian" village of Mashpee on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, for instance. We can imagine today how our lives and the life of our nation might have developed had we listened more and respected more of what they tried to share with us then. We can make up for that somewhat by listening now to the voice of one Indian Patriot who, in spite of all the American imperialism, oppression, and brutality that has been visited on himself and his people is still willing to engage us with his people's timeless message of peace, social harmony, and living in balance with Mother Earth.

April 18, 2008

To Mumia Abu-Jamal -- my brother in this Struggle; and your family,
friends, and supporters.

I offer you my warmest greetings. How appropriate, after so many
years, that I now send you word from a cage housed in the very same
state as yours.

Perhaps it is destiny that we would find ourselves incarcerated so
near, under similar circumstance, by similar forces, using similar
excuses, for a similar love of our people.

Perhaps it is destiny that we arrived at a similar truth -- that we
had to stand in opposition to a similar oppression.

Perhaps it was destiny that we were unable to stand idly by with
similar brutality all around us, and similar violence thrust upon us,
as the only means to survive.

Given the choice of lying down to die or standing up to live, we chose
to live. Standing up and living is our only crime in this, the land
of the free and home of the brave. Our dream is still alive, and as
hunger striker Bobby Sands once said, you can lock up the dreamer but
you cannot place chains around an idea. While acknowledging another setback for Mumia in the lack of a new
trial, I am hopeful for the new sentencing hearing on April 19. Like
so many before us, our smaller victories will one day result in our
ultimate triumph, and we will carry on the Struggle until that day.
For we are one, and we are many. We are forever, we are timeless. We
are Crazy Horse, we are Geronimo, we are Mumia, we are Leonard
Peltier, we are Malcolm X, and we are Martin Luther King. We are the
voice of justice and natural living. We are the American Indian
Movement, we are the Black Panthers, we are MOVE, we are the Viet
Cong, we are the Irish Republican Army, and the Palestinian Liberation
Organization.

We are every man, woman and child who desires to see a sunrise in a
land of freedom and opportunity, a land of plenty and not hunger, a
land of choices without fear, a land of progress without brutality.
We are not only the citizens of Belfast and Pine Ridge, Philadelphia
and Gaza. We are children of Earth, a place worth living in and not
just surviving in. A place where every life, no matter if it is
wrapped in brown skin or black, red skin or yellow, white skin or any
color skin, is precious to our God and to each other.

I pray and I live for the day that we meet as free men, and embrace
each other in our own communities, with our families and the world as
witness to our liberation and our triumph. For make no mistake the
world is watching, and our children are learning. And every slight,
every insult, every injustice, every bruise, every injury, every lost
battle, every second behind bars, will be redeemed in the colorblind
laughter of our children. Theirs is the future that we struggle for,
and why we will never stop speaking the truth.

Free Mumia!

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,

Leonard Peltier
Lakota, Anishinabe

Time to set him free... Because it is the RIGHT thing to do.

Friends of Peltier
http://www.FreePeltierNow.org