h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0629-34.htm

A peaceful, charitable group called the Rainbow Gathering are being persecuted by Bush and his cohorts. Unbelievable.

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Morning PC

It is paranoia, born of fear.

Novo

Other pages I've read suggest that they simply need to apply for a free permit from the forest authority, which will respond within 48 hours.

I googled it quickly, and found a page where it detailed a distinct lack of medical facilities within their camp, but no other concerns that I would consider serious. That was this page:



http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:7LQxpGHr-3EJ:www.fs.fed.us/forum/group_rules/gc6.htm+Rainbow+Family+Gathering&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=6

>>>try to shut down their right of free assembly? <<<

It sounds a bit like our 'tea party' outside the Houses of Parliament

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/commons/story/0,9061,1559299,00.html

Not a good trend, this.

"Other pages I've read suggest that they simply need to apply for a free permit from the forest authority, which will respond within 48 hours."

That's the impression I got too, having read a bit about it. It's a classic case of a bunch of hippies showing up somewhere and the forest service (quite understandably) saying they should ask for permission first. There was apparently one incident when officers overreacted and drew weapons but that was it - no violence or arrests. The notion that they're being deliberately oppressed by the evil Bushhitlers strikes me as nonsense. They're hardly a serious threat to him anyway.

Good, detailed information about the group and their issues with US park officials here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Gathering

I'm not sure how they can arrest random individuals for going on to public land.

If organised gatherings need permits, then it's reasonable to expect under law that the organisers would be charged. But not indivduals. I can see that the absence of organisers makes this a problem for law enforcement, but I still fail to see how arresting random individuals is legal.

Random individuals like Walter Wolfgang and John Catt say ?

Who are they?

"Who are they?"

Walter Wolfgang was thrown out of the Labour conference for heckling Jack Straw. Apparently, some of the legislation used to briefly hold him fell under the terrorism act and so some internet people insinuated Labour had ordered him effectively arrested as a terrorist (untrue). He was later apologised to and re-admitted.

No idea about the other one.

Oh, ok. In that case, no I wasn't meaning such individuals. I was meaning people who would normally be allowed to camp in a National Park but are being arrested solely on the basis of being with too many other people at one time. They're not even heckling.

I assume it's the John Catt who was stopped and searched (same legislation used against Walter Wolfgang) and wearing a T-Shirt which said "Blair is bad" or something along those lines. I've only seen one newspaper article on it and it doesn't give the full story so I've no idea if he was actually arrested or allowed to carry on.

"Random individuals like Walter Wolfgang and John Catt say ?"

Incidentally, these both refer to the UK and UK law whilst the Rainbow thing is an American issue. So there's no relevance whatsoever.

Large gatherings are liable to cause various sorts of disruption, such as leaving behind waste or causing fires, even if they do think they're in touch with nature. The forest authority is charged with protecting this environment, and so needs to know where they are, I don't think its unreasonable to expect the party people to register their prescence.

Scratch that, I've been ill informed, seems they did apply for a permit, sorry:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9414076/detail.html

"Forest Service officials said the group's permit application didn't meet the required guidelines. Officials first attempted working with members of the Rainbow Family in September 2005 for this year's gathering."

"The group showed up without any coordination with the Forest Service, even after numerous attempts," Forest Supervisor Mary Peterson said. "Events of this magnitude require planning and careful consideration of public safety and natural-resource protection. No one is exempt."

"The agency said the site proposed for the gathering is served by only one road -- not enough to get large numbers of people out in case of a fire at a time when fire danger is high."

This seems reasonable enough without invoking Neo-Mccarthyist conspiracy theories.

From the wikipedia site they do seem like disorganised hippies. I wonder if they walk the walk and clean up the sites, or does it look like Glastonbury after they leave?

Even if they do clean up, that many humans in one base is bound to leave an impact.

sprout

Sprout, I'm curious - which bits of the wiki article led you to use the term 'disorganised hippies'?

There is a difference of course between the intentional lack of central organisation and the kind of disorganisation that you are implying i.e. the kind where nothing gets done or nothing works.

Just so we can dispense with that particular mistaken generalisation about hippies.


>>
"The Rainbows did a good job of cleaning up the site and following through with their commitments to restore the site," said Stephen Ryberg, district ranger for the forest's Evanston and Mountain View districts.
<<

http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/sites/utah2003/cleanup.html

More links to information about rainbow cleanups here (3/4 of the way down the page): http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/sites/annual-site.html



You might also be interested in this:

>>>
WAVELAND - Across from the Waveland Police Department in the Fred's parking lot is a group of people set up to feed up to 1,000 people a day. Let me repeat that....1,000 people a DAY. They have a clinic set up like a battlefield triage center. They are giving out tetanus shots and vaccinations, prescribing heart medication, fully licensed medical practitioners who have made it a life style to camp out in national parks all over America every year surviving on nothing more than the land. They subscribe to no religion or political party, they have no hierarchical structure to speak of and they don't take "no" for an answer when it comes to helping those who desperately need it. They pitched a tent, started working with a Christian organization out of Texas who were already on the ground there by the second day after Hurricane Katrina hit, and began forming what may be the most efficiently run disaster relief center on the entire Gulf Coast. And who is funding this well-oiled machine, you ask?

No one.

Meet the "Rainbow Gathering" out of Asheville, NC. A group (more like a "tribe") of PhDs, MDs, nurses and other professionals who took it upon themselves to purposely take their survival skills and their medical and professional experience into the "battle zone" with nothing more than the small amount of money they raised between themselves and a small fund raiser in their town of Asheville, North Carolina. They have been braving unbearable heat, ungodly humidity and the sheer numbers of people coming to them for help. Feeding up to 1,000 people a day can take its toll on anyone...but imagine doing so in one of the most inhospitable environments in the United States today? Even so, they have affectionately named their haven and hovel "The New Waveland Cafe". A fitting and friendly name, befitting a fitting and friendly group of people. http://www.newwavelandcafe.blogspot.com/

With little more than tents over their heads during the day, sleeping in the backs of their cars at night and pulling 16-hour shifts, Brad Stone, RJ, Scott and Hawker - along with about 30 other associates - are doing what no government or donor-funded organization has done so far....gotten organized. And I don't mean just your average organization. This is a totally non-competitive, non-hierarchical, transparent accounting, complete sharing of lessons learned each and every day group. They have a plan of attack each and every day. They have a HAM radio set up to call out to the EOC for supplies (and thanks goes out to Mike Sweeney at the EOC who has been in touch with them, getting them all the supplies they ask for! Thanks, Mike!) They teamed up with the Bastrop Christian Outreach Center, out of Bastrop, TX (http://www.bastropchristianoutreachcenter.org/) who had been on the ground there from the very first days after Hurricane Katrina struck. What is interesting here is that a Christian ministry and a secular organization who holds to no set religious beliefs have come together, joined forces and are a powerhouse of efficiency! They have been gaining momentum in caring for the people of Waveland, including getting medical supplies, but they have received very little assistance from FEMA in any way.
<<<

http://www.gulfcoastnews.com/GCNnewsKatrinaHancock15.htm


I'm not saying they are paragons of efficiency, just let's not make assumptions eh?

Well. Maybe I've met the wrong hippies.

To be fair, they do look like they are organised internally (different sites for kids, people with vans etc - internal security service). Apparently only a 'few' people get sick from drinking the water, and only a 'few' people bring dogs into biodiverse areas.

You can see why people whose job it is to look after the forests might find them a touch frustrating though - "whose in charge here? No-one, we're all equal" Is that acceptable when you are bringing thousands of people into a wilderness area - does the fire and forest service really have to be able to deal with that kind of working method?

sprout

I've met all kinds of hippies Some very proficient, others living on another planet

(there's a link off the wiki page I think that shows the problems the gatherings have had, although they seem to be from the 80s and early 90s).

In general I agree with you about the problems for the authorities. Except the rainbow lot have reasonably good cultural reasons for not 'organising' in the way that the authorities might want them too.

If they are 'organised' anarchically, then having central leadership would destroy their intrinsic values. It seems to me that this issue is about to what extent the dominant culture can tolerate or accomodate anarchistic cultures.


I think that there is probably a point in terms of size beyond which such gatherings become inherently untenable. Not sure how close 20,000 is to that mark.

Both of the people I mentioned were arrested for anti-war comments - John Catt was wearing a t-shirt saying Bush and Blair should be charged as war criminals, Walter Wolfgang was complaining about what Jack Straw was saying about the reasons for the invasion of Iraq.

Whilst it may not be relevent to the group of hippies, I did think it fitted the title of the conversation quite well.