{"id":12663,"date":"2010-02-07T05:33:18","date_gmt":"2010-02-07T11:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=12663"},"modified":"2010-02-07T05:33:18","modified_gmt":"2010-02-07T11:33:18","slug":"leonard-peltier-celebrate-freedom-with-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=12663","title":{"rendered":"Leonard Peltier: Celebrate Freedom with Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 6 Statement by Leonard Peltier<\/strong><\/p>\n

Greetings to everyone,<\/p>\n

34 years. It doesn\u2019t even sound like a real number to me. Not when one really thinks about being in a jail cell for that long.\u00a0 All these years and I swear, I still think sometimes I\u2019ll wake up from this nightmare in my own bed, in my own home, with my family in the next room. I would never have imagined such a thing. Surely the only place people are unjustly imprisoned for 34 years is in far away lands, books or fairy tales.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been that long since I woke up when I needed to, worked where I wanted to, loved who I was supposed to love, or did what I was compelled to do. It\u2019s been that long-long enough to see my children have grandchildren. Long enough to have many of my friends and loved ones die in the course of a normal life, while I was here unable to know them in their final days.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So often in my daily life, the thought creeps in-\u201cI don\u2019t deserve this\u201d. It lingers like acid in my mouth.\u00a0 But I have to push those types of thoughts away. I made a commitment long ago, many of us did. Some didn\u2019t live up to their commitments, and some of us didn\u2019t have a choice. Joe Stuntz didn\u2019t have a choice. Neither did Buddy Lamont. I never thought my commitment would mean sacrificing like this, but I was willing to do so nonetheless. And really, if necessary, I\u2019d do it all over again, because it was the right thing to do. We didn\u2019t go to ceremony and say \u201cI\u2019ll fight for the people as long as it doesn\u2019t cost too much\u201d.\u00a0 We prayed, and we gave. Like I say, some of us didn\u2019t have a choice. Our only other option was to run away, and we couldn\u2019t even do that. Back then, we had no where left to run to.<\/p>\n

I have cried so many tears over these three plus decades. Like the many families directly affected by this whole series of events, my family\u2019s tears have not been in short supply. Our tears have joined all the tears from over 500 years of oppression. Together our tears come together and form a giant river of suffering and I hope, cleansing. Injustice is never final, I keep telling myself. I pray this is true for all of us.<\/p>\n

To those who know I am innocent, thank you for your faith. And I hope you continue working for my release. That is, to work towards truth and justice. To those who think me guilty, I ask you to believe in and work for the rule of law. Even the law says I should be free by now, regardless of guilt. What has happened to me isn\u2019t justice, it isn\u2019t the law, it isn\u2019t fair, it isn\u2019t right. This has been a long battle in an even longer war. But we have to remain vigilant, as we have a righteous cause. After all this time, I can only ask this: Don\u2019t give up. Not ever. Stay in this fight with me. Suffer with me. Grieve with me. Endure with me. Believe with me. Outlast with me. And one day, celebrate freedom with me. Hoka hey!<\/p>\n

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,<\/p>\n

Leonard Peltier<\/p>\n

Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
\nPO Box 7488
\nFargo, ND\u00a0 58106
\nPhone: 701\/235-2206
\nFax: 701\/235-5045
\nE-mail: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 6 Statement by Leonard Peltier Greetings to everyone, 34 years. It doesn\u2019t even sound like a real number to me. Not when one really thinks about being in a jail cell for that long.\u00a0 All these years and I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-3if","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12663"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12666,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12663\/revisions\/12666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}