Oscar Lopez Rivera - Message for Anniversary of his arrest

Oscar López Rivera is a Puerto Rican political
prisoner serving a 70 year sentence for seditious
conspiracy. He was arrested on May 29, 1981 and
as part of the campaign for his freedom, the
National Boricua Human Rights Network, Batey
Urbano and Latin@ Coalition have created "31 DAYS
FOR 31 YEARS" - A Multimedia and Interactive
Exhibit for the Release of Oscar López Rivera.

Oscar Lopez Rivera message for May 29, 2012

Greetings with Much Respect and Love

i want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the
Puerto Rican people in PR and in the diaspora for
the support you have given me during the past 31
years. i also want to express the same gratitude
to the freedom and justice loving people in the
u.s. and in different parts of the world for the
solidarity they've shared with me. The support
i've received has been a fountain of strength
that has helped me face and deal with the
difficult challenges i've experienced in prison
during the past 31 years, and to remain morally
and spiritually strong to continue struggling and resisting.

The 31 years seem to have passed fleetingly. Many
radical changes have occurred all over the world
during this period of time. In Latin America
progressive presidents rule in Venezuela,
Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay, El Salvador,
Nicaragua, Brazil and Argentina. In the last two
countries the presidents are progressive women.
And in Puerto Rico the us navy is no longer
present in Vieques. Unfortunately, the most
important change Puerto Ricans need has not taken
place. Because colonialism seems to be more entrenched now than ever.

It was Jose Marti who said that for a people to
be free they needed to be cultured. i believe
Puerto Ricans are a cultured people. Yet we still
are a colonized people. We are also a morally,
mentally, spiritually strong people. But we
haven't been able to make Puerto Rico a free and sovereign nation.

It was Albert Einstein who said that by repeating
the same experiment the results were always going
to be the same. Doing that is nothing else than
an exercise in futility. And Puerto Rican
independentists have been repeating the same
experiment for decades and obtaining the same
results without being able to achieve their goal
of an independent and sovereign nation. The
celebration of plebiscites has been such an
experiment. So why do we continue engaging in
Sisyphean tasks? What should we do? Let's pay
heed to Einstein's wise warning.

My proposal is a simple one. Let's work on the
problems we can resolve with the means and
resources we have at our disposal. For example,
let's take one problem related to the health
issue we are facing - obesity. To resolve this
problem a simple change in lifestyle will
do. Eat a healthy diet, exercise and create a
support network. We can also start programs of
urban gardening. There's space for such a program
in the 78 municipalities in Puerto Rico. And in
those spaces we can grow healthy products that
can help with a nutritional diet. We can look
for alternative sources of energy and of
transportation. Let's start thinking of changes
we can make in our lifestyles and we can resolve
some of the difficult problems we face. Problems
shouldn't intimidate or scare us. They should
produce ideas in our heads and challenge us to
find solutions. Finding solutions to problems
give us confidence, and help us transcend our
colonized mentality. And that transcendence gets
us closer to our goal of achieving an independent
and sovereign nation and a better and more just
world. We are intelligent enough to know what
needs to be done. We can change lifestyles in
Puerto Rico and in the Puerto Rican diaspora and
by doing so we will grow stronger morally,
physically, spiritually and mentally. We can
make Puerto Rico a free and sovereign nation.
En resistencia y lucha, OLR.


WE CAN FREE OSCAR LÓPEZ RIVERA

Alejandro Luis Molina
alejandrom@boricuahumanrights.org
Skype: alejandromann

Coordinating Committee
National Boricua Human Rights Network
2739 W. Division Street
Chicago IL 60622
www.boricuahumanrights.org