WE ARE POWER

http://www.angelfire.com/psy/intheheart/TrudellJohn/tdell1.html

various excepts from a speech by John Trudell in THE INDIGENOUS VOICE, Vol.2.

I enjoyed reading this. I have always reacted towards the oppressors with anger but reading this has caused me to step back and evaluate the ways in which I choose to stand against the "enemy". Reading the comments near the bottom has also caused me to think about the use of the word enemy and its dehumanizing/demonizing nature. Trudell's idea of acting with love toward the people opposed to hate toward the "enemy" is interesting, but I'm not sure whether I have enough restraint for that or not.

The page is titled Resistance Consciousness. I think the title is very adequate. It suggest being aware of how we resist. It is very important to be cognitive and not act irrationally.

"This former chairman of the American Indian Movement (AIM) learned that he has 17 thousand pages in his f.b.i. file when he was able to get 60 of them from the Freedom of Information Act. He was a main spokesperson in the American Indian take-over at Alcatraz Island, and led at least one march protesting f.b.i. tactics against Indian people in the 1970s (during the height of the f.b.i.'s illegal "Counter Intelligence Program" aka "COINTELPRO"). During the angry protest, Trudell burned an American flag on the steps of f.b.i. Headquarters. 12 hours later a fire killed his wife, his three children and his wife's mother. The f.b.i., which has jurisdiction on federally mandated Indian reservations, declined to investigate."

really sets the page on fire right from the start.