'We Are Power' speech by John Trudell (July 18, 1980) https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
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"This is a survival gathering & one of the things I hope you all learn while you're here is ... to appreciate the energy & power that the elements are, that of the sun, the rain & the wind. I hope you go away from here understanding that this is power, the only real, true power."
..."This is the only real, true connection we will ever have to power, our relationship to Mother Earth."
"We must not become confused. We must not become confused and deceived by their illusions. There is no such thing as military power. There is only military terrorism. There is no such thing as economic power. There is only the economic within these illusions so we will believe.."
.."they hold power in their hands. But they do not."
John Trudell, July 18, 1980.
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"All they know how to do is act in a repressive, brutal way.
The power. We are a natural part of the earth. We are an extension of the earth; we are not separate from it. We are part of it. The earth is our mother. The earth is a spirit, and we are an extension of that spirit."
.."We are spirit. We are power. They want us to believe that we have to believe in them, that we have to assume these consumer identities and these political identities, these religious identities and these racial identities. They want to separate us from our power. They want.."
.."to separate us from who we are. Genocide."
John Trudell, July 18, 1980
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"Genocide is just an intellectual way of saying murder because we live in a so-called "civilized," industrialized world. And because this world is allegedly civilized and allegedly has laws, they can't go out and call an act of murder, murder any more. They call it genocide.."
.."to throw another illusion in our eyes."
John Trudell, July 18, 1980
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"We must move to the time when we truly understand our connection to real power because these people who deal with illusions and imitations, these men who have attempted to "improve upon" nature, they want to keep us confused. They want to keep us confused with sexism & agism,.."
.."racism and class. They want to keep us in confusion so that we will continue to believe in one lie after another as they program them into our minds and into our society."
John Trudell, July 18, 1980
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"There is no hope for the American political system. The ruling class, the exploitative one percent who control world economics today, are not going to change under the existing political rules. They are going to lie to us & they are going to create the illusion of "changes,".."
.."and they are going to push one face after another in front of us, making promises. We have to understand our role as a natural power. We have to understand that when our oppressor treats us this way & do these things to us, we allow him to do it so long as we accept his lies."
.."As long as we make excuses for his lies, as long as we tolerate his brutality, then we allow him to mistreat us. We have been allowing it too long. That's genocide."
John Trudell, July 18, 1980
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"When I go around America and I see the bulk of the white people, they do not feel oppressed. They feel powerless. When I go amongst my own people, we do not feel powerless. We feel oppressed." ..
.."We do not want to make the trade. We see the physical genocide they are attempting to inflict upon our lives and we understand the psychological genocide they have already inflicted upon their own people ... that this is the trade-off they want us to make for survival,.."
.."that we become subservient to them, that we no longer understand our real connection to power, our real connection to the earth."
John Trudell, July 18, 1980
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"We want to be free. But, in order for us to be free, we have to assume our responsibilities as power, as individuals, as spirit, as people. We are going to have to work at it. We are going to have to be committed to it. We must never underestimate our enemy." ..
.."Our enemy is committed against us 24 hours a day. They use 100% of their efforts to maintain their materialistic status quo. 100% of their effort goes into deceiving us and manipulating us against each other. We have to devote our lives. We have to make our commitment." ...
.."We have to follow a way of life that means we are going to resist forever."
John Trudell, Juy 18, 1980
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"In the 1980s, we have to start working more realistically with a resistance consciousness. A resistance, something we can pass on as strength to coming generations. A resistance where organizational egos do not get in the way, a resistance where the infiltrators & .."
.."the provocateurs & the liars and the betrayers and the traitors do not get in the way. We will not get our liberation if we do not seriously analyze the experiences of our own lifetimes. The other side, the enemy, has studied. They understand what we were up to in the 1960s."
.."They understand what we wanted in the early '70s. They have studied us."
John Trudell, July 18, 1980
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"We are going to have to stand up to brutality & harshness, lies & bribes. We are going to have to stand with our way of life. That is the only solution there is for us. We cannot reach a point in our lives where we're going to sit back & say, "Well, we'll make this.." ..
.."compromise with the other side."
John Trudell speech, July 18, 1980
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"They deal in illusions, and that's all it is. We must not be afraid. We must never allow fear to be a part of our life. We must always deal with reality. They have been able to use the element of fear to control the masses of people through murder & making the rest of the.." ..
.."people afraid of being murdered. But what good is it to live on this sacred place, what good is it to be here if we can't live with dignity and respect?"
John Trudell, speech July 18, 1980
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"We have to understand the implications of slavery and that America is a slave state. One way to understand this is that all of you grew up and left your homes to seek your independence, and immediately went into debt. And there went your independence. Slavery is slavery." ..
.."Whether you are an indentured servant or in debt, or whether you are in chains, slavery is slavery. We have to evaluate our values. We have to start stepping away from the concepts they forced us to learn. We must share knowledge. We must not be drawn into their traps." ..
.."Whatever we do, we must do as a resistance; whatever we do as a people, whatever we do in the name of the people and the earth, we must do this with humility and with gratefulness for what we are and what we have."
John Trudell speech, July 18, 1980
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"We have to learn & understand that all the struggle we will go through in our lives does not mean we are losing. We have to understand that they want us to be lazy in our minds and lazy in our spirits and lazy in our thinking."
John Trudell, July 18, 1980
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"..when we talk about "the energy crisis," we must remember that we are energy ... We are energy, so we must, if we are going to go out with the truth and spiritual connection behind us when we stand against our enemy—and we accuse the enemy of misusing energy, and we accuse.."
.."him of abusing it—then we better think real hard about how we misuse it ourselves. Because we are energy. We have to deal with that."
John Trudell, July 18, 1980
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
"And all our ancestors & all our relations who have gone to the Spirit World, they are herewith us. They have power.They will help us. They will help us to see,if we are willing to look. We are not separated from them because there is no place to go. This is our place,the earth."
"No matter what they do to us, no matter how they strike at us, every time they do it, we must continue. But we must never become reactionary. The one thing that has always bothered me about revolution is that every time I have met the revolutionaries they have acted.."
.."simply out of hatred for the oppressor. What we must do is act out of love for our people. No matter what they ever do to us, we must always act out of love for the people & for the earth. We must never react out of hatred for those who have no sense."
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/trudellwearepower.html
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