(From Carole Seligman)

From March 2012.

Lynne with her son, his wife, and Lynne’s grandkids.

Lynne and Ralph.

Lynne and her grandkids.

Lynne with her son.

My dear friends, supporters, comrades !

My purpose here is to rally all of us to the continuation of struggle, of resistance.  I am committed to all the unfinished freedom business that still confronts us–much more difficult and contentious than supporting me.  I’m easy–the righteousness of  my situation, the extreme overreaching of the government and the obvious effects on the way in which lawyers and particularly movement lawyers carry out their obligations to their clients.  Our issues—Free Speech from the Courthouse steps which we assumed was and is, included in the First Amendment .Our repugnancy at the changing of the ground rules after the game is afoot when the higher court directs the lower court Judge to increase the sentence and he complies 5 times over.

We are demanding that the Court acknowledge the wrongfulness of my 10 year sentence as it is based on a foundation of sand. Of course, we also know that Courts are capable of creating rock out of sand just as they can create “persons” out of corporations!  With that understanding, while hoping for the best, we need to commit ourselves to all the ongoing issues–Bradley Manning and Wicki Leaks; the obscene vaudevillian Charade of democracy that is the current Presidential election ; the cause of our political prisoners, Leonard. Mumia, Sundiata, Jaan, Brianna, Dr. Dhafir and all the prisoners on Death Row and those being tortured and killed worldwide and in Solitary Confinement; The Right to Choose for women steadily being eroded by elderly men interested in controlling younger women; —–you know the causes, we fight every day in every way and we are committed—We are not sunshine soldiers or summer patriots, the misery we fight against is caused by a super-terror, the USA 1%,  intent on keeping people mentally subjugated by convincing them that they need to surrender in fear to the government .

I believe in fighting back–it’s liberating, and you meet the finest people, who have also enlisted.A movement has to be a living growing organism dedicated to change that “moves”!   We will move and we will reclaim our beloved country from those who would blind and subjugate our people.  Onward ever–Backward Never !!!!!

Lynne Stewart
53504 054

When I began my practice of law on Charles Street, I also began a scrapbook of cartoons and clippings on the subject of law and the absurdity of the legal system.  One of my favorite was a smarmy, grinning  lawyer leaning over his desk and saying to the client “You have an excellent case, Mr. Jones.  Now just how much justice can you afford ??” This has been the root issue since the Judicial system has been in place–not questions of righteousness but of class, of state control over people’s resources and freedoms

If you look around Foley Square (Tom Paine Park) and follow Down Centre Street, there is a litany of wrongs perpetrated in each and every Courthouse  you see. Some of us know these injustices in the most personal way–they happened to us.  It is fair to say that it is the duty of those gathered here tonight. those OCCUPYING to focus attention on this flawed system on behalf of the 99%, in which I include myself. It is our duty to point out that the wheels are coming off their wagon. The imposing courthouses that surround this square and I have always been reminded of how they look so much like the Banks–They reflect which? or who is in control.  The old federal courthouse(40 Centre) with its shameful history of the Rosenberg’s trial is still using scapegoats. In those days it was red, communist–now it’s Islamist but it’s the same Govt Big Scare.  Entrapped defendants are convicted now because the T word –Terrorism is mesmerizing and frightening.  So many of these cases are so riddled with over reaching and government misconduct.  Send in an informant and seduce young men with all the toys offered by this society until they seem to succumb and join the informant’s scheme. The unbeatable federal government with bottomless resource will do the rest.  They have gone so far as to convict someone for supplying a pair of socks to Ben Laden!!

The next courthouse at 60 Centre Street is the one that is the backdrop for “Law and Order” a television fantasy of law and cases.  Focused completely on the Prosecutor and his never ending successes, that fictional  Court is clearly more about ORDER than law.  But then again all of the law serves ORDER –the order of the $$$, the order of power.  In its real life, this Court is where the foreclosures take place, the lawsuits against the NYPD when they kill a hapless teenager in Harlem.

Continuing up Centre Street — the tomblike 100 Centre Street , the starting line and also the finish line of Michelle Alexander’s  New Slavery, young men, mostly black and brown being fed into that abominable system of Incarceration –over and over and over and then forever,

Across from 100 at 111—the Civil Court–crying babies, crowded calendars and Landlords taking advantage of tenants without lawyers. Also across is located the Family Court and a most dysfunctional family it is !!  Heartrending as children are taken from parents and sometimes sent to worse abuses. Juveniles committing CRIMES who are warehoused in upstate prisons where they are harmed physically and psychologically scarred forever by guards and fellow adolescents alike.

Yes my friends and comrades, from our perspective, that of the 99 %, the wheels have all come off the wagon and it cannot be fixed except by a different wagon — a different economic system that will in turn mend the legal system because it will be forced to serve the People–not the interests, not the money, not the Power.

We should never forget that in the words of Arudahti Roy-”We are many. They are few”   This is the true power–Change that can alleviate the unnecessary suffering and provide a society that is fair and just.

Tomorrow morning, to complete this circle my case will once again before a Court that on the prior occasion “lost it” when they wrote opinions that were so personally vindictive that one of their colleagues said it was more like letters to the editors.   If punishment is their goal I have been in jail for 27 months and believe me, I haven’t been standing on my head.
I have seen deaths by negligence and wanton cruelty ,as well as day in day out, Arbitary justice.  I want the Court to declare that my right to speak out cannot be compromised/punished even by Courts who don’t like what I say .  I want to get out, as every prisoner does,but I want to continue to be the gadfly I have always been.  if I have to serve the full sentence of ten years, I will still emerge as I entered–my principles unsullied and strong !!  Thanks for all the cards letters books money to commissary and mostly the words of support and belief in our cause.  It is being remembered that counts and you all keep me alive !! Shoulder to Shoulder, Onward to Victory !!

Lynne Stewart
53504-054
Carswell

Some photos of Lynne with family, including great-grandson Connor Dueno! From November 2011.

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