"The whole earth is in jail and we're plotting this incredible jailbreak."

-- Wavy Gravy   (www.wavygravy.net)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wavy-Gravy

 

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/section/frontpage_lead/story/37997

 

Bringing the love 

 

Rainbow Family members prepare Interdependence Day celebation 

 

By Alexis DeLaCruz 

 

Sunday, July 2, 2006 

 

Instead of shooting off fireworks and grilling hot dogs for the Fourth of

July, members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light plan to form a prayer

circle thousands of people wide and pray for world peace. 

 

Tivana, a Rainbow member and webmaster from Seattle, explained Saturday that

the tens of thousands of people expected to attend the 34th annual gathering

in Big Red Park, about 35 miles north of Steamboat Springs, have been

settling in and preparing for Tuesday's climactic prayer. 

 

"Just like any other group, we have holidays and events. We don't call the

Fourth of July ‘Independence Day,' we call it ‘Interdependence Day,'" he

said. "It's a time for thousands of (Rainbow Family members) to be silent

and pray for peace on the planet and for each other and with nature."

 

The prayer circle, which is scheduled to begin at noon Tuesday, is then

interrupted by a parade of Rainbow Family children, who break the silence of

the group. 

 

"After the kids come through, we start our celebrations," he said. "It's

very powerful."

 

Although Tuesday marks the highlight of the weeklong gathering, group

members have been celebrating in the Routt National Forest for weeks. 

 

Tivana said the infrastructure of the nearly 100 camps that have been set up

provide members with food, entertainment, social opportunities, free

educational workshops and games. 

 

Professional actors, musicians and artists perform nightly at the Granola

Funk theater, the Kid's Village and other stages. 

 

"At night there's a lot of drums, entertainment and shows. We tell

Hipstories, instead of histories, where people get together and talk about

their experiences at past gatherings," he said. 

 

Even though the members spend most of their time helping in the kitchens,

cleaning the woods around them and visiting other camps, most haven't

forgotten what the gathering is all about. 

 

Hare Krishna head priest Visnave Swami Maharaja, a small man draped in

orange robes and carrying a religious staff, said the reason the group

gathers is love. 

 

"Love conquers all. I don't think anyone would disagree with that," he said.

 

 

The prayer circle is the most important event of the gathering because it is

an opportunity for thousands of people to come together for a single cause,

Visnave Swami Maharaja said. 

 

"The Ohm Circle is the build-up. We'll have 20,000 from around the world

chanting and trying to heal themselves, heal the world, end the war (in

Iraq), and all the control before we all self-destruct," he said. "It's an

amazing thing."

 

Hare Krishna camps account for five of about 100 camps, Visnave Swami

Maharaja said. He said the Rainbow Family lifestyle is one that some people

experience every day and that others experience once a year. 

 

The Hare Krishnas "have renounced and given up everything. We do this 24

hours a day, seven days a week. We break the mold of the material

existence," he said. "Whether you come here once a year or once in your

lifetime, it will affect your life forever and every life you touch."

 

Glenwood Springs resident Kay Woods said that type of experience is what she

hopes her 6-year-old daughter, Shirah, gains from participating in her first

Rainbow Family gathering.

 

"I want them to learn tolerance and to be open minded. We live a lifestyle

of diversity, and that's what they get here, only it's more concentrated,"

she said. 

 

Woods and her children were staying at the gathering Kid's Village, an area

dedicated to providing a safe area for families and children. Rainbow Family

members constructed a swing set, kitchen and teeter-totter out of wood for

the children. 

 

"I think it's awesome what everyone has done here. It's pretty amazing that

they used the resources available and made something out of nothing," she

said. 

 

Woods said she had no reservations about bringing her children to the

gathering because of the warmth and open hearts the other members have

toward everyone. 

 

"My kids are very safe here. (Kid's Village) is a very family-oriented camp.

It's very parent-oriented, too, because they have coffee," she said. 

 

San Diego resident Alex Piña said he helps serve about 4,000 people a day at

Kid's Village. 

 

On Saturday, several Rainbow Family youth were rolling out dough for

tortillas and making Mexican-style salsa.

 

"The kids all help around if they can. They like to serve the food and make

it and put it all out," he said. 

 

Piña has been attending the gatherings for years and was excited to bring

his 2-year-old and 18-month-old children. 

 

"Every year this gathering gets better. I like to have the Kid's Village

because it keeps them in a safe spot where moms can feel comfortable leaving

their kids for a few hours," he said.

 

-----------------------

 

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_4003888

 

07/02/2006 01:00:00 AM MDT 

 

denver & the west

 

Rainbow Family mostly unfazed by wildfire risks

 

By Steve Lipsher 

Denver Post Staff Writer

 

Yuriy Rudenko plays with his son Daniel on Saturday at the Rainbow Family

gathering, where Daniel had his face painted. Some 20,000 Rainbows are

expected to hike into the woods for the get-together. (Post / Daniel

Zollinger)   

 

 

Clark - Before the self-appointed fire monitor known as Circus Maximus tells

his fellow Rainbow Family members the bad news that they have to extinguish

their campfires, he often likes to get them high. 

 

"It takes away a bit of their hostility," he said Saturday, where the annual

Rainbow Family gathering was picking up steam going into the Fourth of July

holiday in the woods north of Steamboat Springs. 

 

While many of the 20,000 Rainbows expected to show up here are anticipating

fellowship, spiritual revival and harmony, the subject of a fire ban enacted

this week has the potential to boil the blood of even the most serene New

Ager. 

 

"I get called the Fire Nazi," said Circus Maximus, a veteran of the

gathering who comes from Seattle. "If it's really cold out, I'll give them

hand warmers." 

 

Although the group's leadership council for years has forbidden individual

campfires by unanimous consent, enforcement falls to the group's few Fire

Nazis and U.S. Forest Service officers, who are viewed with general disdain.

 

 

"We're trying to make this work," said Marcia Rose-Ritchie, a forest

resource officer "We know they're going to (have fires) anyway. So we're

trying to make it enforceable." 

 

A countywide fire ban means only "permitted" kitchen and community fires are

allowed at this gathering, and those must meet strict guidelines that spell

out the depth of fire pits and the lack of branches overhead. 

 

And if a fire breaks out? 

 

"We tell them to get to the meadow, and we'll get an evacuation plan,"

Rose-Ritchie said, acknowledging that such an event could be catastrophic. 

 

Staring at a map of lightning strikes in the region from Friday, Kent

Foster, a Forest Service fire-management officer, said the threat of a

wildfire tearing through the stands of beetle-killed trees is so severe that

he loses sleep at night about it. 

 

"That's really our concern, is safety," he said as he headed out into Big

Red Park for another day of spreading the word about the fire danger and

evacuation plans. 

 

A single dirt road, lined on both sides with parked cars, means fire trucks

and rescue equipment can't get into the area, and members of the Rainbow

Family would have trouble getting out quickly if a fire burns out of

control. 

 

As a result, the agency has placed a team of 10 firefighters who rappel from

helicopters on standby at the Steamboat Springs airport. 

 

The Rainbows, however, are not fazed. 

 

Twelve years ago, at a gathering in Pinedale, Wyo., the leaderless group

pulled together with bucket brigades and shovels and put out a wildfire that

grew to 8 acres. 

 

"Most fires are started in places where no one else is around," said a

Rainbow participant who uses the moniker Tender Hawk, as he dug a

grave-sized fire pit. "Here, there are thousands of people around." 

 

Looking like refugees from the '60s, a stream of hundreds of modern-day

hippies on Saturday continued to lug in camping equipment, organic food and

jester-like diabolos - a bow-tie top spun on a string spanning two sticks -

on the dusty 2-mile trail to the sprawling encampment. 

 

From aging Deadheads to teenage runaways, new arrivals were met with hugs,

heartfelt greetings of "welcome home" and a poetic couplet reminder: "Loving

you, too/Cover your poo." 

 

Scattered over six square miles of the forest are hundreds of personal tents

and bigger central camps, ranging from the swing-set-adorned kiddie village

to the barter-only trade village in the bustling "downtown" area, near the

dried-up mud-wrestling pit. 

 

That water now is being put to more critical use, stored in brimming safety

buckets next to every fire and monitored by the likes of Circus Maximus. 

 

"These thunderheads roll in every day and drop a whole bunch of lightning

and no rain," he said. "The other night, we had a false alarm ... As soon as

somebody yells 'Fire!' 500 people come running. But at some point, you have

to have faith that the spirit will take care of you." 

 

A sign at the Rainbows' six-square-mile encampment north of Steamboat

Springs urges members not to antagonize police. (Post / Daniel Zollinger)

 

Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or

slipsher@denverpost.com.

 

---------------------

 

from http://www.rockymountainnews.com/

 

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RAINBOW_FAMILY?SITE=CODER&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-07-01-21-48-00; 

 

Jul 2, 1:18 AM EDT

 

Hippie group founder urges suit vs. feds 

 

By CHASE SQUIRES 

Associated Press Writer

 

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- A founding member of a hippie movement

called the Rainbow Family suggested Saturday that it launch a federal

lawsuit against a growing crackdown on their annual gatherings.

 

Barry Adams, known in the Rainbow Family as Barry Plunker, told a council

circle at the first day of this year's weeklong gathering at Routt National

Forest that federal pressure has gone too far.

 

Dozens of Forest Service officers, county deputies and Colorado State Patrol

officers are manning checkpoints and patrolling camps as thousands of

hippies flood the forest about 30 miles north of Steamboat Springs.

 

Under federal rules, any gathering of more than 74 people in a national

forest requires a permit. Officials have said that in a fire, the narrow

dirt access road would become clogged and campers would be trapped.

 

The clash between Rainbows and federal officers at national parks has become

such an annual tradition that the Forest Service in 1998 established a

national response team to deal with the group. Members defying federal

orders typically are issued citations for camping illegally.

 

Rainbows say this year federal officers are issuing hundreds of citations

and set up a makeshift federal courthouse nearby.

 

"There's only one way to stop these people and that's to take them on,

legally," Adams told about 100 Rainbows at the council circle.

 

Rainbows say they have no leaders to request permits, and they shouldn't

have to beg to express a constitutional right to freely assemble.

 

The Forest Service estimated that by Friday night about 6,000 tie-dyed

hippies were camping in makeshift villages. That number swelled dramatically

Saturday, the first official day of the gathering. An updated official

estimate was not available.

 

Rainbows formed drum circles, exchanged beads, batik and crystals, and lined

up at communal kitchens for meals. Everything is free, from meals to yoga

classes to massage. Hugs are doled out at every turn and members greet each

other by saying, "Welcome home."

 

Adams, 61, was drifting with a group of fellow hippies in the 1960s after

his service during the Vietnam War when he decided to fulfill a vision of

holding a giant gathering based on peace and love. Since the first Rainbow

Family gathering in Colorado in 1972, he said, the federal government has

denied permits and has done what it could to block the annual gathering.

 

Adams has spent months in jail for violating assorted bans and has fought

his own cases. 

 

Traditionally, he said, the Rainbow Family has refused to let itself be

pinned down as an organized group.

 

On Saturday, he said it's time to realize the government already considers

the Rainbow Family an organized spiritual group. Then Rainbows need to take

advantage of that classification, hire attorneys and demand rights as a

religious organization.

 

"I never thought there would be a problem with our federal government for us

to go out in the woods and pray," Adams said. "We as a people have rights.

We have a right to free speech."

 

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be

published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our

Privacy Policy.

 

----------------

 

Please send any reports of findings to the publicly archived list 

where there are day by day newspaper articles and email reports

from those closest to the scene available in message archives at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Rainbow-Colorado2006

 

More info on Rainbow Family is at

http://www.welcomehome.org