Leonard Peltier: I don’t know how to save the world. I don’t have the...

No human being should ever have to fear for his own life because of political or religious beliefs. We are all in this together, my friends, the rich, the poor, the red, white, black, brown and yellow. We share responsibility for Mother Earth and those who live and breathe upon her ..never forget that.

Leonard Peltier

religious mother inspirational

To heal will require real effort, and a change of heart, from all of us. To heal means that we will begin to look upon one another with respect and tolerance instead of prejudice, distrust and hatred. We will have to teach our children-as well as ourselves-to love the diversity of humanity....We can do it. Yes, you and I and all of us together. Now is the time. Now is the only possible time. Let the Great Healing begin.

Leonard Peltier

respect time children

We need to do more than just what is right. We need to join together and right what is wrong.

Leonard Peltier

together needs

Silence,they say,is the voice of complicity. But silence is impossible. Silence screams. Silence is the message,just as doing nothing is an act. Let who you are ring out and resonate in every word and deed. Yes,become who you are. There's no sidestepping your own being or your own responsibility. What you do is who you are. You are your own comeuppance. You become your own message. You are the message. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse.

Leonard Peltier

horse crazy native-american

Justice is not a flexible tool. Unless we all do our part to ensure that justice is applied equally to all human beings, we are a party to its abuse. We must stand together to protect the rights of others.

Leonard Peltier

party rights justice

I am tired, I want to go home. I want to continue my art work, I want to plant a garden, I want to walk in the forest, I want to walk in the fields, I just want to lie down on the grass and feel the sun against my skin. I want to be able to hold my family close to me and not have someone tell me time's up.

Leonard Peltier

home lying art

A political prisoner is someone who is out fighting for his or her people's rights and freedom and is imprisoned for that alone.

Leonard Peltier

fighting rights people

We have over the years proven again and again that every piece of evidence used to convict me has been false. The FBI with its unlimited resources has done everything it possibly can to keep me in prison.

Leonard Peltier

pieces done years

We each begin in innocence.

Leonard Peltier

innocence guilty

There is probably a high percentage of Native Americans as well as non-Indians who feel that participating in this greater American economy that you mentioned is and has become a recipe for disaster in the long term, because the response to social and environmental problems has been responded to with a drug mentality, which is to say, anything for the quick fix. And it has trained the public to always believe they are one purchase away from happiness.

Leonard Peltier

native-american long believe

You can see examples of this, such as where [George W.] Bush lied to the public, and as a result 72 percent of America was in favor of the Iraqi invasion. Yet now the truth has presented itself and they are trying to save face by appealing to the public's national-istic persona, talking about winning and honor and everything as a reason to continue that illegal immoral occupation.

Leonard Peltier

winning talking america

United States Government needs to acknowledge and respect our sovereignty, treaties, traditional Native American values, and our human rights as a people, which under the law as written we deserve, and which should be protected.

Leonard Peltier

rights law native-american

You can't believe one thing and do another. What you believe and what you do are the same thing.

Leonard Peltier

one-thing inspirational believe

I do not believe Federal Government fear me at all, they know the truth. They know I am not a dangerous person, they hold me as a hostage to discourage other people from possibly standing up to their valued system. In their minds, right or wrong the public is expected to lay down for them. You see examples of this, at the Ruby Ridge massacre and the Waco massacre, where they killed all those children and group members.

Leonard Peltier

government believe children

My continued incarceration has served some good purposes. My defense committee has served as a training ground for other organizers in their defense of freedom and justice.

Leonard Peltier

training defense justice

They [Federal Goverment] don't care if I am guilty or innocent. I serve their purpose in here. Other than what I have mentioned, what fear could they possibly have from a old man with dimming eyesight, arthritis, diabetes, and other health issues that render me hardly a threat to anyone.

Leonard Peltier

issues purpose men

If you look at Iraq and Afghanistan's situations, they are quickly becoming much like our reservations. They will have puppet governments funded and controlled by a U.S. Government that siphoned off their resources. You don't have to be an English major to read the writing on the wall; I am in here as a warning to others, just like those men who are in Guantanamo are a warning to others - if you stand up to us you face these same consequences.

Leonard Peltier

wall writing men

They still don't want to admit to the world that this isn't the best and the fairest and most equal justice system. And that they are guilty of railroading people into jail. They don't want to, or never will, admit these things.

Leonard Peltier

jail justice people

The United States government can indict you on something, and now you've got to prove your innocence. And that's not the Constitution of the United States.

Leonard Peltier

innocence united-states government

What I am is a father, a grandfather, a great grandfather, and an artist. I am a man who loves his people and wants to go home.

Leonard Peltier

artist home father