Anybody that cares a fig for politics, and the realities of the context of American history driving domestic and foreign affairs should make it a point to see a recently released film and make sure others see it.
The new documentary, "Trudell," by Heather Rae, a 2006 Sundance Festival "Official Selection," deserves greater attention than it is getting. But what better Christmas present than beautifully told truth, especially considering the political realities of our day and time?
John Trudell's poetry and music recordings and his American Indian Movement activism may be familiar to some, especially those who follow Native American issues.
But, after viewing the DVD version of "Trudell" I am convinced that this man is the real poet laureate of the United States. Who should be more rightfully considered than an indigenous man who comes from a warrior tradition of unflinching, even devastating honesty and clarity. What better candidate than one who has spent a lifetime struggling with the deeper truths of American reality?
The film opens with a quote from Trudell's 17,000 page FBI dossier, "He is extemely eloquent... therefore extremely dangerous." Nobody could have made up a greater endorsement quote for an American poet. Kudos once again to the ham handed overreactions of our Federal constabulary.
Trudell lives up to this ironic accolade by reminding us that American literary intellects such as Allen Ginsberg, Carl Sandburg, Bob Dylan, Maya Angelou, Edward Abbey, etc. were people of courage. Politically, his crispness of mind and poetic brilliance at the microphone is reminiscent of Martin Luther King Jr. as well as Malcolm X, Jerry Rubin, Shirley Chisholm or Gloria Steinem.
He has transcended his status as a spokesperson for the American Indian Movement and a warrior/activist. This oddysey began after a mysterious fire was set that killed his wife, his two babies, and his wife's mother; mere hours after he had burned an American flag on the steps of the BIA headquarters building in Washington, D.C. The flag burning was, he said, a proper way to dispose of it after it had been desecrated by the Federal Government. He had learned this by serving two tours of duty in Vietnam in the Navy.
After this tragedy, he began to write poetry. Kris Kristoferson, who appears in the film, says that the episode made him totaly fearless. It also burned away the man he had been, and he has been on a search for reality's bottom line truths ever since.
Given a landscape full of crap by the likes of Jerry Falwell and Newt Gingrich, who seem to pass for intellectuals in the estimation of the Mainstream Media, we really need authentic and powerful voices who are unafraid warriors of clarity.
Order multiple copies of the DVD and give them for Christmas. Tell friends about it. This isn't going to be touted on CNN!
Some quotes by John Trudell from the film:
To God:
I hope you don't mind, but I would like to talk to you.
There are some things we need to straighten out.
It's about these Christians.
They claim to be from your nation, but man,
you should see the things they do -
all time blaming it on you.
Raping the earth, taking more than they need
all the forms of greed.
They say it's God's will -
I don't mean to be disrespectful -
but you know how it is
My people have their own ways.
We never even heard of you until not long ago.
Your representatives spoke magnificent things of
you, which we were willing to believe.
But from the way they acted, we know
both You and we were being deceived.
It's time for you to decide what life is worth.
We already remember
but maybe you forgot.
Special Feature: Post Screening Talk, Amsterdam 2006.
There is no revolutionary solution. I think we need to think in terms of evolutionary solutions because we are part of an evolutionary reality, through our individual lives, from birth to the time of old age, in every season and stage of our lives. The ones that have twisted our perception of reality are the ones that have implied to us that there are revolutionary solutions.
Whether we're young or whoever we are, we need to understand the value of our intelligence, the power of our intelligence. We need to understand the ability to use our intelligence as clearly and coherently as we possibly can.
Through your fears and your doubts, and your insecurities, I mean, behind the mask where nobody sees and where you know - how bad can we make ourselves feel, how useless or worthless or un-needed? - that's the power of our intelligence.
The worse you can make yourself feel, then the more power you have.
This is how you've been imprinted to use your relationship to power - to use it against yourself. Every day we create reality based on what we've been programmed to believe. So we spend most of our lives not really thinking clearly and coherently - not initiatied thought. We spend a great deal of our lives not really living, but existing in programmed, reactive belief that we call thought.
We can blame the oppressor, the predatory mindset, we can blame it forever and it doesn't mind. It doesn't care.
We need to use our energy, our intelligence in an alternative way to the way we have been using it.