Visiting Grandpa, Leonard Peltier, in Prison

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I want to thank you all for making this wonderful trip possible, Last Friday I flew from Fargo to Orlando to visit Uncle. I met Waha family in Orlando and we drove to Coleman to get ready for our visit on Saturday. On Saturday we were at the prison bright and early 7:30 a.m., signed in and were told that the girls were dressed wrong for the visit. So off we went to Walmart and had to buy new shirts and closed toed shoes! Amazing what the guards find to pick at to slow down our visit. It was almost 10:30 by the time we got to the visiting room and then had to wait another half-hour for then to bring Leonard. Leonard was so happy to see his daughter in law Emily and his sweet granddaughters. Kobe, Kadeem and Kaleigha. The girls were a bit shy the first day but the second day they were excited and asked their grandpa many questions and he loved answering them. He is always telling stories of the past, and his past as a young man. He also told them about the struggles of his grandparents and great grandparents and how strong they were to survive so much racism and abuse from people in the near-by towns as well as the BIA agents who ran the reservations in the 30’s and 40’s. We also talked about my position as the Art Director as I will be staying in Fargo as the main office goes to Florida. Sadly, he can’t paint right now because he is recovering and he is unable to lift his hands in the painting position. He is worried that he will be unable to donate paintings to the committee. I would really like everyone to take a look at the paintings that are available on our website and see what you can afford. These paintings are the basis for our fundraising for his legal team. And I am concerned that without your generous donations we will be unable to raise the necessary funds that the lawyers are requesting. Given his health I am concerned that this heart surgery has shortened his life and we need to get him released as soon as possible. On Sunday we talked about his health, he is still recovering from his heart surgery, and yet they have moved him from the handicapped cell into a make believe elder unit where he is in a double bunked cell. Thank goodness he has the bottom bunk, but his cellie, who has the top bunk is in his late 60’ has a hard time getting to his top bunk. How can this be an ELDER UNIT with these conditions for older and sick inmates. These conditions need to be addressed because Leonard is 73 and had major surgery. We, as free people, are able to go home and rest, go to the doctor whenever we feel ill, and usually have someone to nurse us back to health. But Uncle doesn’t have that luxury. all, we had a great visit for about 4 hours and then around 2:00 pm the guards rushed us all out as there was an incident in the yard, and immediately ended visiting. Leonard wants me to be sure and thank all the supporters for their help in making this visit possible and give a shout out to the Rosenberg Fund for Children for their support! For all our friends in New York, the New York Support Committee is having an event tomorrow. And you can find the information on our website under News. We hope you can attend as all fundraising is important at this time to help build Leonard’s new legal team. We hope to have the new office in Florida open by early November and look forward to sharing that information with you. Leonard is very excited about the ILPDC coming there, as it will remove his stress at being so far from his committee. Anything you like to contribute to help with this endeavor will be greatly appreciated. Just hit paypal on our website. Peace and Respect, Kari Ann ©2017 ILPDC | PO BOX 329, Fargo ND 58107 Web Version  Preferences  Forward  Unsubscribe  Powered by GoDaddy Email Marketing ®