We Have the Power

Eric Ortiz lives in the Wedge with his family. He is executive director of the Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation, a nonprofit youth and community development organization based in Minneapolis.

Our world is out of balance. It has been for a while.

In 1980, on Thanksgiving Day, John Trudell, one of the most respected and influential Indigenous rights defenders, delivered an empowering speech about this imbalance. 

He called on everyone to "Take Back the Earth." 

His observations still ring true:

"We’re faced with a very serious situation in this generation. There are insane people who wish to rule the world. They wish to continue to rule the world on violence and repression, and we are all the victims of that violence and repression. 

We as the Indigenous people of the Western hemisphere have been resisting this violence and this oppression for 500 years. We know that the Black people have been resisting it for at least that long. And we know that the White people have had to endure it thousands of years. …

We have to re-establish our identity. We have to understand who we are and where we fit in the natural order of the world, because our oppressor deals in illusions. They tell us that it is power, but it is not power. They may have all the guns, the racist laws and judges, and they may control all the money, but that is not power.

These are imitations of power, and they are only power because in our minds we allow it to be power. But it's all an imitation.

Racism and violence, racism and guns, economics — the brutality of the American Corporate State way of life is nothing more than violence and repression and it has nothing to do with power. It is brutality. It’s a lack of a sane balance. 

The people who have created this system, and who perpetuate this system, they are out of balance. They have made us out of balance. 

They have come into our minds and they have come into our hearts and they’ve programmed us. Because we live in this society, they have put us out of balance. And because we are out of balance, we no longer have the power to deal with them. They have conquered us as a natural power.

We are power. We are a part of the natural world.

All of the things of the natural world are a natural part of the creation and feed off the energy of our sacred mother, Earth. We are power. But they have separated us from our spiritual connection to the Earth, so people feel powerless."

(Listen to the full speech at bit.ly/johntrudellearthspeech.)

Power belongs to the people. But power means nothing if we don’t use it. 

Throughout history, we’ve seen what happens when people step up. We’ve also seen what happens when they don’t. 

Now is the time to take action, reclaim our collective strength, and create the change we want to see in our communities.

Participation is power.

Power doesn’t just sit in city hall or Washington, D.C. It’s in our neighborhoods, our schools, our workplaces. And it’s exercised by participation. That means showing up. At the ballot box. At city council meetings. In community organizing spaces. In conversations that push for meaningful change. 

True leadership requires actions that serve the common good.

Let’s start with the most obvious: voting. Local elections don’t get the same attention as presidential races, but they are just as (if not more) important. The people we elect to city council, school boards, and county commissions make decisions about public safety, education, housing, and transportation.

Take the Minneapolis city council. In recent years, we’ve seen the impact of how city funds are allocated. The fight over public safety funding continues to be one of the most debated topics in the city. And who gets to make those decisions? The people we put in office.

Community organizing is the engine of local change.

When people come together with a spirit of cooperation and principled pragmatism, we can create real solutions.

The power of organizing isn’t just about big policy wins. It’s about small, everyday victories that make life better for people. It’s about helping neighbors meet basic needs. It’s about creating healthy places for youth to grow. It’s about holding elected officials accountable.

Too often, we wait for someone else to fix our problems. The truth is, we have the power to fix them ourselves. Incredible local solutions don’t need to rely on top-down approaches.

The problems we face aren’t going to fix themselves. But the solutions are within reach if we’re willing to put in the work. Our communities belong to the people, not the politicians.

If we want change, we have to demand it. If we want justice, we have to fight for it. If we want a better future, we have to build it.

We have the power. It’s time to use it.

Eric Ortiz lives in the Wedge with his family. He is executive director of the Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation, a national youth and community development nonprofit based in Minneapolis, and associate director of research for The Pivot Fund, a venture philanthropy organization that invests in community newsrooms serving underserved communities.