Lyr Add: Leonard Peltier (Luka Bloom)

Subject: Lyr Add: LEONARD PELTIER (Luka Bloom)
From: Felipa
Date: 27 Nov 16 - 06:27 AM

I heard Luka Bloom (aka Barry Moore) sing this song at a gig this autumn. It is a campaigning song (calling for clemency). so I will add information below the lyrics (not consigning the political discussion to BS thread). i got the lyrics via youtube, link below as well.

LEONARD PELTIER (Barry Moore)

Free Leonard Peltier(so the healing can begin).

There is an innocent Lakota
He's been down for 40 years
The prison yard he paces
Is his people's Trail of Tears

Women called on men to stand
Between the young ones and the hate
Some brave Lakota warriors
Came and stepped up to that plate

They stood between the goonsquads
And the people of the Plains
The shots that killed 2 agents
Were not fired in Leonard's name

Leonard Peltier, When will he be free?
Lakota Warrior, for one humanity
He hears the Elders sing and sees the tears of blood
Until the Sundance is returned
Mother Earth will know no good

For who will build a future
Beyond this house of skin?
Who will liberate the innocent
So the healing can begin?

Leonard………

He hears a child's voice cry
And knows it is his own
Calling Leonard to Dakota
To his first and final home

Crying out to Darkness
Pleading to the wind
Calling us together
So the healing can begin

Leonard……..

There is one who has the power
Lives in a big white house
He holds the key to freedom
Can let Leonard Peltier out

Out to roam the Black Hills
With the people loves the buffalo and eagle
Watching over from above

Leonard……..

When the prison door is opened
Everybody wins
Free Leonard Peltier
So the healing can begin.

----
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd090v0kXKM

Luka Bloom wrote:
"Leonard Peltier has been in an American prison for 40 years.
Everything I have read about his case, tells me that Leonard is an innocent man, and that he should be released. His only crime is that he is a Chippewa warrior who stood with his people in the 1970s, protecting them from militias in South Dakota.
Leonard turned 72 recently, and is unwell
.
"Many people around the world are now calling on President Obama to use his power in his last days in The White House, to do the right thing, and release Leonard Peltier. It is time now.

It is the right thing to do, and it might just herald better days ahead. I wrote this song last week in September 2016. I sang it today at my soundcheck in Birr, County Offaly, tonight. Thanks to David Donohue for filming it. From the heart of Ireland I sing this for Leonard. And singing it at this moment, I also declare my support for the people assembled at Standing Rock in North Dakota, gathering to protect the water from the Dakota access pipeline(DAPL). Water is life."
-----
There is an old Mudcat discussion re Leonard Peltier. The thread is viewable but closed to further discussion as it had become rancorous. Some people allege that Peltier had behaved badly in prison and that that is why he was refused parole.

But I think that 40 years is more than long enough; I read next parole hearing wouldnt be till 2024 I read, another reason to ask for clemency now. Otherwise Peltier may never get out of prison alive. There is another doubt about the safety of his conviction that even Amnesty International supports the case for release of Peltier.

As the songwriter suggests freeing this man would be a healing gesture. Think of the release of Nelson Mandela or of paramilitaries in Northern Ireland as part of moves towards democracy and peace. And here we have a man who possibly never did kill anybody.

Link to Amnesty petition: http://act.amnestyusa.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1839&ea.campaign.id=27118

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Leonard Peltier - Luka Bloom
From: Jeri
Date: 27 Nov 16 - 06:13 PM

Before President Obama leaves office...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Leonard Peltier (Luka Bloom)
From: Felipa
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 08:37 AM

yes, Jeri, that is the point - anyone who agrees should at least sign the amnesty petition - and singing the song does make people wonder and perhaps take some action -- hearing this song had that effect on me

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Leonard Peltier (Luka Bloom)
From: robomatic
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 11:06 AM

After all, Jesse James had a hand, a heart, and a brain...

How bad could he be?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Leonard Peltier (Luka Bloom)
From: Felipa
Date: 20 Dec 16 - 05:34 PM

Robomatic, I get your point. Pretty Boy Floyd wasnt such a nice guy either (though Woody Guthrie's song makes some valid points, especially Some rob you with a six gun, some with a fountain pen). What I'm saying is the song had the power to make me go and do a bit of web search about someone I hadnt thought about in a while. And I think there is enough doubt about Peltier's guilt to begin with, and that in any case he has already done a long 40 years time. A presidential pardon could be his last chance of getting out alive.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Leonard Peltier (Luka Bloom)
From: robomatic
Date: 20 Dec 16 - 07:28 PM

Felipa:

Thank you for your well written response. You took my comment as intended. I'm not a fan of Mr. Peltier but it's worth listening to other points of view. Jesse James was evoked in my mind by the music and songs about him, and he was no angel. There's a well written book about him "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" that was used as the source material for the film with Brad Pitt. Much of the book is from the viewpoint of Robert Ford and there's an interesting scene where he hears the famous song "heroizing" Jesse James and describing Ford as "the dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Leonard Peltier (Luka Bloom)
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 20 Dec 16 - 09:10 PM

Peltier was fairly tried and convicted for the execution-style murders of FBI Agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams. The men were shot in the face at point-blank range. Every review judge since his 1977 conviction agrees.

Peltier bragged, " The motherfu—er was begging for his life but I shot him anyway."---about his execution-murder of the critically-wounded FBI Agent Ron Williams. He bragged about this several time officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
He is a merciless, cold blooded the murderer.
The murderer placed the barrel of his gun against Williams' hand and fired. The bullet ripped through Williams' hand, into his face, and carried away the back of his head. He was killed instantly. The murderer shot Coler, who was unconscious, across the top of the head. The bullet carried away a part of his forehead at the hairline. The shot was not fatal, however. The murderer then lowered his rifle a few inches and shot Coler through the jaw. The shell exploded inside his head, killing him instantly.   
According to the doctor who performed the autopsies, the agents were shot with a high velocity, small caliber weapon. Peltier's AR-15, the civilian counterpart of the M-16, was the highest velocity weapon fired that day. Ammunition components linked ballistically to the same AR-15 were found at the crime scene.

On November 14, 1975, Oregon State Police stopped two vehicles near Ontario, Oregon: a motor home and a Plymouth station wagon. Peltier was one of the occupants of the motor home, and fled the scene, turning to fire at the state trooper. Upon searching both vehicles, Oregon authorities recovered from the motor home Special Agent Coler's revolver in a paper bag bearing Peltier's thumbprint, and from the station wagon several shell casings that had been fired from Coler's revolver.

In that van were found nine hand grenades and fourteen firearms, eight of which had obliterated serial numbers, and numerous boxes of shells.



Peltier tried a prison break in July 1979 that resulted in more death.
Even the Supreme Court has reviewed his case twice and found him guilty as charged.
Mainstream Native America could care less about Leonard Peltier.


The transcripts of his trial are public record.
The Congressional Record of November 03, 1999 (p 22827) gives chilling details.
This is not an innocent.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle