Jeff "Free" Luers responds to Congressional "Green Scare"

Dear Mr Scott McInnis,

I am writing in response to your recent statements and questions about me. I do not appreciate your deliberate and malicious misrepresentations of my words to further your political goals. Not only have you taken my words and formed new sentences with them attributing them to me, you have quoted me as saying things that I have never said.

As an elected Representative of the people, I believe it is your legal and moral duty to be truthful when carrying out the political and legal activities of your office. However I do appreciate your concern about me " [wasting] away in prison for the next two plus decades." You will be pleased to know that is not the case. I have stayed quite active in my college studies working towards my BA. Also, I have had a unique opportunity to discuss my situation with
media from around the globe who have shown a surprising interest in my entence. You must realize Scott, that two years ago I was just a young man frustrated by the increasingly severe destruction of the environment. I burned some tires on some trucks as a result of that frustration. Perhaps my actions were misguided. Perhaps they can be
rationalized as the lesser of two evils. It is all perspective. Had I been given a reasonable sentence I would have been forgotten by the public. I would have been one news story. I would have served my sentence and finished my BA. I would have been released, reunited with my family and enjoyed the rest of my life. Yes, I would have continued to be active in efforts to protect the environment, but I would have avoided activities that would lead me back to prison.
By giving me a sentence of 22 years, viewed by a majority of people as overly harsh and extreme, the system has put me in the spot light, giving me international attention. I have been made to be an example. However, that has only served to make me a political prisoner and for some perhaps even a martyr.

This is not a role I chose to fill. It was forced upon me. It is oppression that creates revolutionaries Scott, and it is injustice that ignites revolutions.
In defense of Mother Earth

Sincerely,
Jeff Luers