John Trudell speaking at the 2009 Oregon NORML Medical Cannabis Awards dinner in Portland Oregon. This event was organized by the Oregon National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Transcript generated with Amazon Mechanical Turk:

JOHN TRUDELL: I won't take up a lot of time because I know there are things that have to happen here. But I want to say I appreciate being here and I'm glad to be able to be invited here and I appreciate that you're here. Because I really like the energy that comes out of your community. In my reality everything is about energy. I mean, it's in every reality, but anyway, how I see things, sometimes, everything is about energy. And I like the energy that I feel here and that is generated here. I really, really relate to what you've been doing with the whole concept of medical marijuana from getting it accepted to the way of distribution of it here in the state of Oregon, or at least in Portland where I'm at. You know, it's not about profiteering. It's truly about the medicinal need.

JOHN TRUDELL (continued): I operate out of southern California
and in southern California I hear the rhetoric and the words but I
sense it’s more about profiteering and profit than it is about the
medicinal need. So I say I really appreciate that here in this place
that the medicine part of it isn’t being forgotten. Because I think
that it is in a lot of places. And the other thing I want to say, that
this is about medical marijuana just in general, wherever. I think
that if the other politicals, that if the political and social
movement groups and organizations that operate in this country today
had the same kind of energetic commitment that the medical marijuana
people had I think that many things could change in this country. We
go back, it’s been a long thing, but we go back 20 years, you know,
this was an impossibility where everything stood. But you go back 20
years all of the other situations were just as intense for their time
and place but in the passage of 20 years something has been
accomplished here, energetically, consciously. But you can’t say that
about any other aspect of the political system. So there’s something
that happens that’s just happening that I can’t really define but it
can be felt. It’s being seen, and so the energy that the people here
carry into all of this, if somehow this whole understanding could be
reached. Because when I looked at what’s going on, especially with the
political organizations, everybody chasing all...they’re getting
nowhere. The situation’s just getting worse, for all the issues,
except here, in the area of this medicine, and it’s like the energy.
And it’s like we’re children of the plant, and that energy’s being
carried out. And at some point I would really like to see this thing
start to expand and go into where the same single-minded focus is put
on hemp as earth medicine, medicinal medicine for the earth, under the
whole concept of their green economy, of the whole concept of
alternative energy. And at some point if that kind of energy can be
put into the focus of hemp, not cannabis and hemp, but as a parallel
energy being put out there. And maybe at some point in time this will
start to morph into this kind of a thing. Now I’ve kind of wandered
around in some seriously crazy realities, right (?). Whatever it is,
somehow whatever’s going on makes a lot of sense in what’s being done.
So for me I hear grassroots, I hear all these different things, and
the labels going on, but if there is such a thing as grassroots
organizing, you are it. This is where it truly is. I mean I hear it as
terminology about different political issues and things but sometimes
I don’t know if it’s really about grassroots, but that’s just my
cynicisms. So for me, being who I am, I appreciate the energy that you
bring. Because it’s about more than an energy of resistance. I sense
it’s about an energy of noncooperation. See in some type of a way the
children of the plant aren’t cooperating. It’s about more than just
resisting and protesting. It’s about more than that. There’s a lack of
cooperation. You’re not cooperating with the mindset, with the
imprinted brainwashing that has been taking place. See the children of
the plan don’t cooperate with that around this issue. But everybody
else, all the movements, they’re cooperating with their political,
social, economic enemy. They’re cooperating with it even when they
protest. They build their thing around protest, when they build it
just around voting, they’re cooperating because they’re still
believing the imprinted mindset that things can change that way. And
noncooperation, because in the long run for us as human beings and how
this is going to work out, it’s really about noncooperation. We have
to learn the ways to not cooperate with their mindset. It’s not just a
protest, rebel against it, it’s about not cooperating with it. And
somehow just organically see this is what’s happening. The children of
the plant weren’t going to cooperate with the lie. And nobody else is
doing this. Everybody else is cooperating with the lie by the degrees
they believe in it. Whether it was the Obama phenomenon, they wanted
to believe, they believed in that. Alright. But cooperate (?). As time
evolves we’ll kind of morph here, because maybe it’ll reach the point
when we don’t cooperate with the fears that they’ve implanted in our
perceptions of consciousness. When we don’t cooperate with their
imposed low self-esteems, the way they’ve manipulated us. See maybe we
will reach that point when we understand it’s about noncooperation.
However we struggle, however we live it, wherever we’re headed, going,
in this time and place, we learn, we all have, because we’ve all been
imprinted with the fears and the doubts and the insecurities. And what
I’m saying is let’s consider, but see every time we go into those
places we’re cooperating. We’re cooperating with what they imprinted
us. So maybe as just a thing that we add onto whatever we’re doing
let’s examine this and think about this noncooperation. These fears,
and these doubts and the insecurities, we should not cooperate with
that lie that has been imprinted into our perception of self. And see
if this becomes a part of what’s already starting to grow out of just
our reality. So anyway, that’s about as brief as it’s gonna get,
because there are people waiting to find out things, I know this,
right? Alright? But really. Pardon? [Indistinct comment/question] Well
I appreciate that, alright, just whatever comes out, comes out. That’s
kind of how it works. But I appreciate that it makes sense. Whatever
sense it makes, I appreciate whatever sense that it makes. Everything
being about energy, the energy of our creative intelligence, our
creative mind, the power that we have. Alright, the power that we
carry as human beings, individually, the power that we have. This is
the example, but have you ever felt powerless? And when you’re feeling
powerless how bad can you make yourself feel with your fears and your
doubts and your insecurities? And how does this affect the people that
you interact with? If you have the ability to do this, then whatever’s
going on you do have power. It’s not about being powerless, because if
you make yourself feel bad, that’s your own power. So that power that
we have. That’s an example of power being used from a distorted
perception of self. An imprinted distorted perception of self and
power being used incoherently and chaotically. So if we understand
that we have power. See, and every time we do that we’re cooperating
with the ones that eat off of our energy. So if we understand that we
have power and we look to recognize ourselves through clarity and
coherence then this power sea we will generate because it’s time to
unleash power, but it’s time to understand what power is, and we are
it. We’re all it. Not one of us is powerless and we really need to get
that. And the self-judgment things. Noncooperation. We have been
imprinted to judge. We have been imprinted to judge and to blame. And
I’m saying don’t cooperate with that. Let’s use the power of our
creative intelligence to recognize reality and not to judge it.
Because when we recognize reality we can see what is being done. When
we judge it we can’t recognize what’s being done because our ability
to recognize is limited by the fears and the doubts and the prejudices
of the judger. Am I making sense? Same thing applies to thinking and
believing. Same thing, and this one gets touchy about believing
because we all use it all the time. I believe this, I believe that.
But noncooperation, as energy, using our energy coherently,
noncooperation. You cannot think and judge simultaneously, I mean
think and believe simultaneously, it’s one or the other. Thinking is
our energy, we project electromagnetic thought. Thinking is projecting
energy out in and energy goes. The energy of thinking is supposed to
flow and it finds its way. But when you take that energy of thinking
and you put it in the box of believing, it’s in a box because belief
is also limited by its prejudices and its biases and its judgments. So
therefore, energy is being taken and being put into this container so
to speak, which is our mind, but its energy, and if it doesn’t have a
way to flow and to go and be creative then what it does is it still
intensifies cause it’s energy, that’s what energy does. And this turns
into the stresses that become a part of how we perceive reality which
are based upon our fears. So no solution can ever come because we’re
not using the power of our creative intelligence to think. We’re using
it, we’re keeping it trapped in how we’ve been imprinted to believe
against ourselves. All, right, okay? So now, anyway, whatever made
sense of that to you, I’m really glad. Alright, and I’m done. But
thank you.