Tuesday, December 16, 2003
NEW LINK
I've added a new picture link for you all. If you don't know who Leonard Peltier is, he's a prisoner in Leavenworth who is being held on the murders of two FBI agents. The thing is, he didn't do it. He's a scapegoat for the government. Go to the site and read up on the facts of the case. Then I urge you to write President Bush and ask him to grant Peltier a full pardon. I also suggest that you pick up a CD. Robbie Robertson's "Contact From The Underground World Of Red Boy" and listen to the song Sacrifice to hear the story from Mr. Peltier himself. In case you don't get the CD, here's what Peltier says on the song,

My name is Leonard Peltier
I am a Lakota and Anishnabe
And I am living in the United States penitentiary
Which is the swiftest growing
Indian reservations in the country

I have been in prison since 1976
For an incident that took place on the Oglala-Lakota Nation
There was a shoot-out between members of the American Indian Movement
And The FBI and the local Sheriffs State Troopers
Two agents were killed and one Indian was murdered

Three of us were charged with the deaths of the FBI agents
My co-defendants were found not guilty by reasons of self-defense
My case was separated and I was found guilty before a jury of non-Indian people
The prosecutor stated that they did not know who killed their agents
Nor did he know what participation Leonard Peltier may have played in it
But someone has to pay for the crime

There's a lot of nights that I lay in my cell
And I can't understand why this hell this hell and this terror
That I have been going through for twenty-one years hasn't ended.

But yet I know in my heart that someone has to pay sacrifice
To make things better for our people
The sacrifice I have made when I really sit down to think about it
Is nothing compared to what our people a couple hundred years ago
Or fifty years ago or twenty-five years ago have made
Some gave their lives
Some had to stand there and watch their children die in their arms
So the sacrifice I have made is nothing compared to those

I've gone too far now to start backing down
I don't give up
Not 'til my people are free will I give up
And if I have to sacrifice some more
Then I sacrifice some more


It's not only the story he tells, but the way he tells it, that has a lot of impact. There is also a movie, Incident at Ogalala, that you should pick up. He needs our help. He doesn't deserve to die in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

God Bless America

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