"It's finally over – I'm going home. I want to show the world I'm a good person with a good heart. I want to help the people, just like my grandmother taught me."
– Leonard Peltier via Counterpunch
It might seem an unlikely day to be buoyed by hope. Today, while 47th's inauguration threatens to sap our energy and attention, my mind is barely on that. I am actively and intentionally choosing to stay true. Today, the next four years and beyond, I am staying true to the necessity of abolition and committing to the day where we are free beyond our wildest dreams.
Much is being said about the indignity of the inauguration on the national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but I see another reminder to stay true to the truth about Dr. King's life. I see another opportunity to explore his endearing legacy as a freedom fighter beyond the niceties and attempts to pigeonhole him into having a dream that intentionally omits his radical, socialist legacy and conveniently forgets he was assassinated.
Today, specifically, I am reminded of his words:
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Oft quoted, these words are especially poignant today because, after almost 50 years and tireless activism, Leonard Peltier, the longest-serving political prisoner in the U.S., is going home.
This is a win. A win for Leonard Peltier, his family, the indigenous community, and all of us.
It's also a win for the power of consistent, engaged activism. In my role at the Abolitionist Law Center, I have been actively involved in efforts to pressure the Biden administration into freeing Leonard Peltier for most of 2024 including this op-ed in The Appeal six days ago.
If I'm honest, I didn't think today would come. As the months wore on and the atrocities of the Biden administration piled up, I had almost zero faith he would do right by Leonard Peltier. But this morning, I was talking with a colleague and realized there was still time. I heard hope in his voice. So I checked my cynicism and re-posted on Bluesky account: There's still time!
Because at 10 am this morning there was still time. And in the final hour of his administration, Biden used his executive clemency powers to allow Leonard Peltier, an 80-year-old elder, to return home. Still, it must be noted that he will live under the indignity of home confinement, but he will be free of prison walls and allowed to spend his final days with loved ones.
We tend to forget fast. But the sacrifices of political prisoners, like Peltier, deserve to be elevated, for they are a reminder that our liberation will take sacrifice. They remind us what it means to stay true to principled struggle. Political prisoners have done the hard work in and outside of prison walls to educate us about the deep injustices we live under. George Jackson paid for that sacrifice with his life. Assata Shakur continues to pay that price in exile in Cuba. Each, like Leonard Peltier, stayed true to the principles of liberation. Their sacrifices benefitted all of us. And still do.
Their lives show us what these next four years (and beyond) will require of us.
How will we stand up and show up for the most vulnerable? Those who will feel the effects of the 47th administration fastest and hardest?
Who will we be?
Today I feel hopeful knowing so many of us already fight for liberation and/or have a track record of showing up for each other. It is telling that mutual aid networks abound, ready to spring into action. We’ve just seen it happen in real time with the devasting LA wildfires. And though we need many more such efforts, it is hopeful that today, we have so many models to draw upon. We aren't starting from scratch. There is much fertile ground upon which to build.
For all the cynicism I have been guilty of, I also have faith in us. I know we have what it takes to stay true to the ideals of abolition, and what we don't have yet, we will learn. We will make mistakes, and we will also grow. Some of us will be called to sacrifice. We should know that, too. But there is a long list of those who have paid dearly (Leonard Peltier, Assata Shakur, George Jackson, and so many others) to ensure we are able to continue in our quest for liberation. Now, it is our time to stand up. We have the many shoulders of our freedom fighters and political prisoners, past and present, to take us higher. Toward liberation.