Democracy Now! began in 1996 on nine radio stations and is now broadcasting on over 1,400 stations, both public television and radio, a testament to the hunger for authentic voices. In these times of war and elections, movements and uprisings, we need Democracy Now! more than ever.

Amy Goodman and Juan González were joined in New York City by Harry Belafonte, Noam Chomsky, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover and special musical guests Patti Smith and Tom Morello to celebrate two decades of Democracy Now!

They began the event by showing footage from throughout the 20 year history of Democracy Now on a screen on the stage, beginning with the battle of Seattle in 1999 with protesters preventing delegates from entering Global Trade talks and shutting down the city’s downtown area. Police shot teargas and rubber bullets into the crowd. 600 were arrested and the talks collapsed along with the chief of police of Seattle.

Harry Belafonte said, “If there’s a platform on which I might stand and speak my opening remarks might be something like, “Welcome to the 4th Reich'”. He went on, “Myself and others would be forever committed to seeing that America would remain a free and open, Democratic society”. “WE’RE IN NEED OF DEMOCRACY NOW” and also told Obama to use the power of the Executive office to free his friend and our leader Leonard Peltier.

An innocent man, Native American activist Leonard Peltier was arrested in 1976 in connection with the deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and wrongfully convicted in 1977. With no evidence whatsoever, the FBI decided to “lock Peltier into the case”. Government officials presented false statements to a Canadian court to extradite Peltier to the U.S. Meanwhile, in a separate trial, Mr. Peltier’s co-defendants were acquitted by reason of self defense. Unhappy with the outcome of that trial, prosecutors went judge shopping and venue hopping to secure a conviction.

FBI documents prove that they went so far as to manufacture the so-called murder weapon. According to court records, the United States Attorney who prosecuted the case has admitted on several occasions that no one knows who fired the fatal shots. Although the courts have acknowledged evidence of government misconduct—including the coercion of witnesses, the intentional use of false testimonies, and the concealment of ballistics evidence reflecting his innocence—Peltier has been denied a new trial. Imprisoned for nearly 40 years—currently at the federal prison in Coleman, Florida—Peltier has been designated a political prisoner by Amnesty International.

Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, 55 Members of Congress and others—including a judge who sat as a member of the court in two of Peltier’s appeals—have all called for his immediate release. Widely recognized for his humanitarian works and a six-time Nobel Prize nominee, Peltier also is an accomplished author and painter. The Peltier case has been examined by renowned author Peter Matthiessen (“In the Spirit of Crazy Horse”) and by a documentary film produced and narrated by Robert Redford (“Incident at Oglala”). Author Jim Messerschmidt (“The Trial of Leonard Peltier”) is convinced Peltier was convicted because the prosecution enjoyed free rein to manipulate highly inconsistent and contradictory circumstantial evidence. Supporters worldwide believe freedom is long overdue for Peltier. The power to commute Peltier’s sentence of two life terms rests with President Obama who has said “freedom and justice for all must begin with freedom and justice in the lives of individual human beings”. Why not Leonard Peltier?

Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus at MIT for 60 years, world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author, spoke about Donald Trump’s election:

“Well, I’d just like to begin by saying a word about what a privilege and honor it is to be able to participate in the celebration of the remarkable success of Democracy Now! for these many years and, in particular, the quite astonishing achievements of Amy Goodman, Juan González, their colleagues, in showing us how we might aspire to achieve democracy now.

It will be a long struggle. And again, it’s an enormous pleasure to be able to share this occasion with people like Harry Belafonte, who has been such an inspiration and being in the forefront of this endless struggle for many hard years. Noam Chomsky spoke about the climate saying,, “Well, the effects are quite real. COP 21, the Paris negotiations, could not reach a verifiable treaty because of the refusal of the Republican Congress to accept binding commitments. The follow-up conference, COP 22, ended without any issue. We will soon see, in the not very distant future, even more dangerous, horrifying consequences of this failure right here to come to term to address in a serious way this impending crisis”.