Today is my court date. I am taken in chains to the polished, carved, wooden room that makes up the court. All the walls are made of aesthetic, expensive wood, and so are the high tables with carvings on their sides. The floor has a thick green carpet and all the chairs have thick, green padding that seems very plush and very comfortable. I have never been somewhere even resembling this strange place. It unnerves me. 

My wrists are shackled together. My feet are shackled together. There is a collar around my neck attatched to two chains held on either side by a guard. I feel so very humiliated standing like this in a room full of people. People staring impassionately on as I am having one of the worst times of my life. 

"Terry La Croix," the judge speaks coolly, "you are here in front of the court facing charges on the assault and murder of an officer of the law. How do you plead?" 

I am pulled to the testimony stand. And I stand there. I look out at all the people in the court. I look at the judge and the police officers. I look at all the members of the public crammed into their chairs, eager to get a front row seat to all the drama and the intrigue that this trial brings. I look at all the cameras and news reporters here, no doubt ready to broadcast my words onto live TV. It's not often at all that something like this happens. 

I think of how strange I must look with my bandaged nose and my bruised body and my very many chains. But I keep myself calm. I keep myself cool and collected as I turn to address the crowd. 

"I killed a police officer. That is true. But the police officer killed my best friend, he killed a community member, he killed a woman who was standing up for her people and for your people as well. Sheila Wexley was a beautiful, radiant soul. And we are not able to even have a funeral for her. We are not able to have a funeral for her because your companies are invading onto our land and seeking to destroy all that both of out peoples need." My voice is clear and does not shake. I am so overcome with emotion that I do not know how my voice does not shake. But I keep my gaze steady on everyone in the room. And I make sure they know how dead serious I am. 

"The rainforest is sacred," I continue. "It's not just sacred to my people, though it is sacred to my people. But it is sacred to everyone who needs air to breathe, everyone who needs good, pure water to drink, everyone who needs good, rich soil to grow food. It is sacred to everyone who needs protection from storms and floods. It is sacred to everyone who needs to live. 

"Our rivers, our water, our trees and shrubs and herbs, our rocks and earth and animals. They all protect us. They all protect us all and they provide for us all. And not only that, but they are the bedrock of my peoples' identity. 

"My people need the rainforest to soothe their spirits, minds, and hearts. They need the rainforest in order to give them teachings and guidance. The rainforest brings us all together. It brings us all together and it makes us who we are. We go to the rainforest for food, because what your government and what your economy gives us is not enough for us to survive. We go to the rainforest for healing and medicines, for we are shut out by your fancy medical systems. 

"I am a traditional healer. I cure all the sicknesses and injuries of my people. I help whoever comes to me for help. And I do it all free of charge. I do it free of exchange. I do it free of all attachments, so that everyone who needs healing can come to me for healing and can get what they need. This is the way of our people. This is the way it has been since time immortal. When we help each other, we do not demand anything in return. We simply help each other to help each other.

"And all that is possible because of the rainforest. Without its providence I would not be able to cure anyone or to ease anyone's bodily, mental, and spiritual suffering. 

"The mine will destroy the rainforest. There is no other way to it. The mine will simply destroy the forest we all need to live. It will create a large, gaping, open wound in the rainforest, a wound that will only grow and grow and destroy the forest all around it. It will poison the water, the soil, and the air, and will scare away the animals with its noise. Only one piece of healthy, intact rainforest is left and we all dearly need it. 

"Your people are filled with greed in your hearts. You want more and more and more luxury. You want more and more and more wealth. All you see is how much you want, how much you want to take. Your companies want power and they want to rule over their workers and do whatever they want. Your governments are the slaves to those companies, and they aid the owners of the companies in doing whatever they can to have more wealth and have more power and to bring more destruction into the people and the lands. 

"You cannot see beyond your own greed to see all the people that you're killing, to see all the places that you're killing, to see all the lives you are destroying and leaving to rot. The lives of rainforesters and outsiders alike are being harmed and destroyed by your greed and your unending hunger. But you don't see the destruction that you bring. You don't see the death that you bring to so, so many people. 

"All you see is your desire to have more. And it's all fake. All that you chase after, all that you long for, all that you hurt the people and the land in order to get, it's all fake. All your material items and technology doesn't have life in it. It doesn't have spirit in it. 

"But the people have spirits. The people and the land and the air and the water, the plants and the rocks and the animals and the fungi, they all have spirits. They all have life. You are destroying that life, killing that life, to create things that do not have spirits, that do not have lives. 

"Your greed knows no bounds but our love knows no bounds either. The love that all the hurt people, that all the marginalized people, rainforester and outsider alike, have for each other, the love that we share, knows no bounds. The love that we have for the land, the love that the land has for us, knows no bounds. And that love will never die. No matter how much you kill us or how much you kill the land, all the love will never die, all of our spirits will never die. 

"And we will triumph. We will come up triumphant. No matter what you do to us or how much you beat us down, we will come up triumphant, eventually, and all your wealth and all your luxury and all your power systems will fall. They will all fall and everything that is sacred will become free again. 

"My people will fight, and our supporters will fight. We will fight with everything that we have, so that you cannot win. And all that fighting and all that trying and all those battles both physical and mental and spiritual, they will mean something one day. They will guide us to victory one day. Things will get better, and hope will prevail, no matter what you do to any of us. No matter what you do to me.

"So if you want to jail me, go ahead and jail me. I killed one of the enforcers of your power and your hegemony. I killed one of the enforcers of your rule and your wealth. And if you want to jail me for that, go ahead. But you will also receive your just rewards for all the death and the destruction that you have caused. 

"Sheila's spirit has retuned to the rainforest, the place where all her energy flowed from. And my own spirit will meet her when it's time."

I finish my speech and look right at the cameras. They are all trained directly on me. All the reporters are gaping at me with wide eyes. Journalists are scrambling to write down notes. 

All the people in the courtroom, who came here to watch the proceedings, are also staring at me with wide eyes. They look dazed, amazed. Many of them are holding their hands up towards me, recording me with their bracelets and rings and other tech jewelry. 

I meet all their eyes with solemn, determined eyes of my own. 

"So you plead guilty then?" The judge asks after a long while of silence. 

"I guess I do," I reply. 

If you like this piece check out my Mastodon my account is FSairuv@mas.to and I post about human rights, social justice, and the environment.