Home for the gathering

Authorities have recorded more than 370 incidents, including 120 violation notices, in the past week ...

Forest Service spokesman Lawrence Lujan says most of the violation notices handed out since June 14 are related to alcohol, and drug and traffic violations. Some of the people who were issued notices were required to appear Monday in federal court in Albuquerque.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationw...

A better article would provide much more detail about why the group gathers, what ideas they share, and what they actually DO during the gathering (besides eat and maybe get in a little trouble). Ten to twelve thousand is a lot of people. Do I want to go check it out? Reading the article, I come away with no idea.

That has got to be the best article on the Gathering that I have read in a long time. I would venture a guess that this reporter may have based this article on actual personal experiences. Makes me wish I was there right now.
Other than the account of the lone Leo firing pepper balls(obviously, this reporter did not witness the kiddie village commando scene of 2008) this article seems rght on target. We still get a mini-commercial about the plight of the Forest Service and, of course, all the money they insist on wasting with their yearly harassment campaigns. Who asked these guys to oversee the gathering in the first place ? Answer me that question please.
Still, all those positive vibes from the locals just touch my heart.
We Love You.

wuzzy wrote:

That has got to be the best article on the Gathering that I have read in a long time. I would venture a guess that this reporter may have based this article on actual personal experiences. Makes me wish I was there right now.
Other than the account of the lone Leo firing pepper balls(obviously, this reporter did not witness the kiddie village commando scene of 2008) this article seems rght on target. We still get a mini-commercial about the plight of the Forest Service and, of course, all the money they insist on wasting with their yearly harassment campaigns. Who asked these guys to oversee the gathering in the first place ? Answer me that question please.
Still, all those positive vibes from the locals just touch my heart.
We Love You.

We're watching to see whether or not these folks walk their talk this year. It's one thing to scream oppression, it's another to leave huge open latrines and piles of garbage in your wake.

On top of that, any gathering of this size has a large law enforcement and first responder presence. If you don't want to get on their bad side, don't break the law in front of them. It's their job to enforce it, not that you all would know much about employment.

wuzzy here again cuz ade from sante fe brings up some good points.
Who are Rainbows ? we are all rainbows. The only real requirement to be a Rainbow Family member is that you must possess a belly button. You must also want to be a Rainbow...no forced membership here.
Why go to a Gathering ? Why Gather ? What do they do ? What do they think ?
In a community where all people are accepted as equals and all religions and all philosophies are embraced there are as many answers to these questions as there are people.
Jesus camps, the Radical Faerie camp, Anarchy camp,Aloha camp,Kiddie Village, Sisters circle, Vietnam Vet camp, all the different kitchen camps, regional camps, A-Camp, Meditation Meadow, Yoga camp.
There are more activities posted daily at info, then you can possibly find time to do. Granola Funk builds a stage each year and has talent shows. Don't get me started on the non-stop drumming circles everywhere. Some people work all day on support duties:cooking, cutting firewood, hauling in supplies. Trade circle is like an open air market with no money exchanging hands,where batteries, flashlights, candy,and backrubs all become currency. Some people just try to see everything, and they can...in a fairly safe atmosphere. I could go on, but there is a really good website www.welcomehome.org that can tell you all you should need to know.

Yukkk!! Dirty, dirty hippies. Hippy is just a cool term for white trash.

wuzzy wrote:

That has got to be the best article on the Gathering that I have read in a long time. I would venture a guess that this reporter may have based this article on actual personal experiences. Makes me wish I was there right now.
Other than the account of the lone Leo firing pepper balls(obviously, this reporter did not witness the kiddie village commando scene of 2008) this article seems rght on target. We still get a mini-commercial about the plight of the Forest Service and, of course, all the money they insist on wasting with their yearly harassment campaigns. Who asked these guys to oversee the gathering in the first place ? Answer me that question please.
Still, all those positive vibes from the locals just touch my heart.
We Love You.

First the “gathering” who claim to love the earth come from cities across the nation and build a city in the middle of a pristine area disrupting the natural order there, then make claims of “restoring” the area when any simple country boy knows that you put that many people in one area that area will not be back to where it was for several decades.

Secondly it is painfully obvious that you have taken the one side without actually engaging your brain…..the “commando scene” came about because of a tip that this drug dealer was bring in LSD and other hard drugs, LEO’ attempted to stop him and par for any cowardly drug dealer/terrorist he ran into the “kiddie village”. If you want to blame anyone blame his cowardly actions.

don't understand how that many people can go into the forest without a group use permit and an environemntal assessment and be out there diggin latrines, cutting firewood etc. etc. Why can't the usual recreational use requirements be followed and why aren't these being enforceed?

I am taking up 20 cases of Lysol and Listerine to sell.

A moveable disaster.

The audacity of children!
.
Teaching how to feed 10,000 for free. How to share. How to shit in the woods.
.
The Institute of Applied Autonomy (coming soon to a location near you!) is currently offering courses in
Be-ing An Elder In Your Tribe of One
Praying For Peace With 10,000
Diffusing Difficulties With Panache!
Adventures In Authenticity
The Dreaded Gom-Boo! or The Imaginary Disease That Religion Seeks To Cure
Woodscraft, Storytelling, Music & Dance
Cashless Societies
The Hidden History of Free Peoples Throughout Time (Your Clan)
Traceless Clean-up of Nomadic Cities
and many more!
.
extra credit skills offering:
Enduring Containers For Holding Light
Every Day's A Wally Day!
.
You too may be the recipient of a rare education at The College Of The Mists! Cost requirements: Belly Bearer. Surrender Bad Vibes, Paradigm Paralysis At The Gate. Limited Offer.~Fiat Lux~

As usual no one posting seems to have ever been to a Gathering nor do they seem to understand the issues. Group use permits ? Environmental assessments ? You'd be bitchin about those costs too. The Rainbows just want to peacefully gather on public lands, a constitutional right that has been taken away by a government afraid of it own peoples' freedom.
About the July 3rd,2009 kiddie village raid...who fed you that garbage? The forest service goons followed "someone of interest" into kiddie village. They could have just as easily followed this guy out of kiddie village and arrested him anywhere else, but they didn't. They brought guns, both real guns and pepper ball shooting air guns, into an encampment of parents camping with their children. When concerned people came to find out why a bunch of gun toting rangers had invaded their camp they were met with barrages of pepper balls.
I am not here to say that the Gathering is a perfect world, it is not. I like it there, and I've been there. I missed the commando raid by minutes, but I saw the aftermath.
You folks that don't like the clean-up job...we can't clean up the entire national forest, we just work on the part impacted by our gathering.
What is up with all the negativity towards the so-called "hippy" ?
Rainbows are just people.
Sign me the only poster that has seen with his own eyes what you-all just talk about.

I'm always interested in firsthand experience versus secondhand opinion. I'm happy the paper is covering the gathering and hope it follows up with reports on the clean up and observations of the locals. Staci Matlock is a great reporter for the job. She understands rural issues and I trust her to be objective. But why do we hear so many negative things about Rainbow gatherings if everything is so groovy and they leave the forest in better shape than they found it?(And why are the streets of Santa Fe currently full of panhandlers on their way to the gathering? Aren't they self-sufficient like they claim?)

wuzzy wrote:

As usual no one posting seems to have ever been to a Gathering nor do they seem to understand the issues. Group use permits ? Environmental assessments ? You'd be bitchin about those costs too. The Rainbows just want to peacefully gather on public lands, a constitutional right that has been taken away by a government afraid of it own peoples' freedom.
About the July 3rd,2009 kiddie village raid...who fed you that garbage? The forest service goons followed "someone of interest" into kiddie village. They could have just as easily followed this guy out of kiddie village and arrested him anywhere else, but they didn't. They brought guns, both real guns and pepper ball shooting air guns, into an encampment of parents camping with their children. When concerned people came to find out why a bunch of gun toting rangers had invaded their camp they were met with barrages of pepper balls.
I am not here to say that the Gathering is a perfect world, it is not. I like it there, and I've been there. I missed the commando raid by minutes, but I saw the aftermath.
You folks that don't like the clean-up job...we can't clean up the entire national forest, we just work on the part impacted by our gathering.
What is up with all the negativity towards the so-called "hippy" ?
Rainbows are just people.
Sign me the only poster that has seen with his own eyes what you-all just talk about.

I see the results of it every time I Go into the area of the Gila Forest that they met in in 1977, it has not fully recovered yet, then there is the Carson meeting area from 1995, where it took 4 months of clean up after the "family" had finished. And today has not fully recovered. If you want to build a city somewhere to it within a city....after all you can panhandle better there than here.

wuzzy wrote:

As usual no one posting seems to have ever been to a Gathering nor do they seem to understand the issues. Group use permits ? Environmental assessments ? You'd be bitchin about those costs too. The Rainbows just want to peacefully gather on public lands, a constitutional right that has been taken away by a government afraid of it own peoples' freedom.
About the July 3rd,2009 kiddie village raid...who fed you that garbage? The forest service goons followed "someone of interest" into kiddie village. They could have just as easily followed this guy out of kiddie village and arrested him anywhere else, but they didn't. They brought guns, both real guns and pepper ball shooting air guns, into an encampment of parents camping with their children. When concerned people came to find out why a bunch of gun toting rangers had invaded their camp they were met with barrages of pepper balls.
I am not here to say that the Gathering is a perfect world, it is not. I like it there, and I've been there. I missed the commando raid by minutes, but I saw the aftermath.
You folks that don't like the clean-up job...we can't clean up the entire national forest, we just work on the part impacted by our gathering.
What is up with all the negativity towards the so-called "hippy" ?
Rainbows are just people.
Sign me the only poster that has seen with his own eyes what you-all just talk about.

Beside all that you are only WANT-A-BE hippies..

wuzzy wrote:

As usual no one posting seems to have ever been to a Gathering nor do they seem to understand the issues. Group use permits ? Environmental assessments ? You'd be bitchin about those costs too..

about the costs - he that proposes the event should pay for it. Why should it be any different for you?

Cost of federal oversight of 2008 Rainbow gathering 340,628 Fork your arse!!Babylon

We don`t need your stinking fascist oversight.
The rainbow nation will out live your fascist jack boot nation.
Freedom is a wonderful thing.
Only problem is, most of you chimps are bound and gagged.
Death To the new world Oder.

Ambro wrote:

Cost of federal oversight of 2008 Rainbow gathering 340,628 Fork your arse!!Babylon
We don`t need your stinking fascist oversight.
The rainbow nation will out live your fascist jack boot nation.
Freedom is a wonderful thing.
Only problem is, most of you chimps are bound and gagged.
Death To the new world Oder.

Ambro, remember the original Planet of the Apes? All of those humans living off of nature, eating fruits and berries. Nice and natural.

Then those nasty-a**ed fascist apes harvest them.

It is the constitutional right of all americans to freely gather on public lands.
How much does freely gathering cost ?
Who should pay to freely gather ?
Who should be allowed to freely gather ?
Let us cloud this issue even more.
Why is a constitutionally guaranteed freedom so much of an issue ?
Rainbows gather in National Forests because National Forests are truly public land. Rainbow representatives work closely with the Forest Service throughout the year to find a site and to make sure that site is adequate. All potential impacts, environmental or otherwise are considered long before a site is picked. There are no "open pit" latrines, that would be unsanitary. Rainbows only burn downed wood and local rangers seem to appreciate the clearing of all that dried underbrush.
As with all groups of thousands of people in the same place(usually called cities), there are problems. Crime, trash, panhandlers, every society has these ills - why single out Gatherings ?
Speaking about who pays for things:
Who pays for your July 4th fireworks ? Me-the taxpayer.
Who pays for all the wars we are in ? Me-the taxpayer.
Who pays so people who are not even american citizens can gave healthcare that american citizens cannot get ? Me-the taxpayer.
Who pays all of these law enforcement officers who are patrolling the Rainbow Gathering ?
Should I go on ?

wuzzy wrote:

It is the constitutional right of all americans to freely gather on public lands.
How much does freely gathering cost ?
Who should pay to freely gather ?
Who should be allowed to freely gather ?
Let us cloud this issue even more.
Why is a constitutionally guaranteed freedom so much of an issue ?
Rainbows gather in National Forests because National Forests are truly public land. Rainbow representatives work closely with the Forest Service throughout the year to find a site and to make sure that site is adequate. All potential impacts, environmental or otherwise are considered long before a site is picked. There are no "open pit" latrines, that would be unsanitary. Rainbows only burn downed wood and local rangers seem to appreciate the clearing of all that dried underbrush.
As with all groups of thousands of people in the same place(usually called cities), there are problems. Crime, trash, panhandlers, every society has these ills - why single out Gatherings ?
Speaking about who pays for things:
Who pays for your July 4th fireworks ? Me-the taxpayer.
Who pays for all the wars we are in ? Me-the taxpayer.
Who pays so people who are not even american citizens can gave healthcare that american citizens cannot get ? Me-the taxpayer.
Who pays all of these law enforcement officers who are patrolling the Rainbow Gathering ?
Should I go on ?

let's hear some more lame excuses. Federal agencies are required to have a public environmental process when there is an action on this scale on federal land. Meeting with you'all (who did they meet with?- I thought there was no leadership) is one thing, actually looking into what is proposed, disclosing that to the public and letting the rest of us provide our input is another. This may be a benign thing, but if there is no public disclosure and nobody taking reponsibility - who is to say? People have all kinds of things they want to do in our forests that they say will have no effect on the environment or anyone else, but it should be aired out the right way.

There is no absolute right to do anything in a national forest - quit talking like one of those friggin lawyers for the Pacific Legal Foundation and spouting stuff from the libertarian alternate universe.