Rainbow Tribe attacked at annual Gathering of the Tribes

My Deadhead comrades report that there was a violent event this year at the Rainbow Gathering (which the Yippies used to lovingly call "The Rainbozo"), if you can believe it. The first Gathering (also known informally as the "gathering of the tribes") was in 1972, and has been held annually ever since during the first week of July, on National Forest land. There are also other Rainbow Gatherings on other continents, but I don't know much about those.

I have investigated, and apparently, this IS true. (((EYES BUG OUT, AS IN OLD TEX AVERY CARTOONS: BOINN--NNN-GGGG-GGGGG!))) For those of us who remember The Rainbozo as one of the most mellow, peaceful, accepting places on earth, this is something of a shock.

The idea of violence invading the Gathering is upsetting enough to cause actual disorientation.

It's interesting that my own experience with The Rainbozo was in West Virginia, and everyone warned us that the local rednecks would not countenance naked hippies dropping acid in the woods. That turned out to be totally untrue; nobody cared, or if they did, not enough to make trouble. This pattern would be re-enacted over and over again, as various participants in places like Arkansas and North Carolina were warned that Dangerous Rednecks Hate the Hippies, and they will attack. To their credit, the Rainbow Family always said nonsense--we welcome the locals! We LOVE YOU! PEACE AND LOVE! COME ONE, COME ALL!

Every Gathering had funny stories about locals who came to jeer at the hippies and, unprepared for the unconditional love (much less the powerful acid), "went native" and ended up joining the Rainbow Family for keeps.

I don't remember any problems ever reported at previous Gatherings, although readers can certainly correct me if they know of any other incidents I may have missed. (But Wyoming??? I just want to stop and draw everyone's attention to that word: WYOMING!!!! It didn't happen in the south!)

Accounts are just now trickling in, since the Gathering just ended, and my Deadhead spies do not write the most coherent emails, particularly after tripping in the woods for a week, but hey. All of the accounts sound more or less the same: law enforcement decided to go roust the Gathering, at long last. What didn't even happen in 1972, has happened now, in 2008.

My investigation turned up the usual "warnings" issued before the Gathering, that the Rainbow Family has heard since its inception. From Rivertonradio.com, this story dated June 28:

Federal officials began arriving in Riverton earlier this month to prepare for the arrival of the group, which calls itself the Rainbow Family of Living Light.

Anywhere between several hundred to a few thousand members of the group are expected, and their arrival has already drawn the ire of some locals. Civilians and councilmembers alike are concerned over rumors and speculation which seem to follow the group around the country.

To help aleviate fears, the Rainbow Family participated in a town hall meeting in Pinedale last week, saying they were a "people of peace," and asking for a moment of silence.

Still, local law enforcement in Green River has advised the public not to pick up hitchhikers as members of the group begin to arrive in the area for the gathering, which is scheduled to begin in full July 1. Residents who are disturbed by the arrival of the group have cited reports of fires and crime which have arisen in the last week near the area where members of the Rainbow Family have already assembled to justify concerns.

Rescue searchers found the pickup of missing 24-year-old Garrett Bardin this week in the Big Sandy area of Pinedale, not far from where the Rainbow Family has been gathering in recent weeks for its event.

On Monday, a wildfire was extinguished in Lander after it had burned a quarter of an acre in the same area where residents had complained about the behavior of some of the group's members.

Some of the rumors about the clan may not be entirely unfounded. In February, officials in Florida relocated the group as they hosting a similar meeting at the Ocala National Forest near Orlando. The group was forced out, and officials cited some members for minor violence, drug use, and violation of federal land permits.

Earlier this month, the Boy Scouts of America conceded that the arrival of the Rainbow Family had forced them to reschedule a planned forest restoration project.

Wyoming Senator John Barrasso has written a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, complaining the group has not respected the process of reserving federal land.

"The Rainbow Family Gathering displaced the Boy Scouts of America who had planned to do an ecological project," wrote Barrasso, as reported by the Casper Star Tribune on Friday. "In addition, livestock permittees, recreationists, cabin owners and lodge visitors are impacted by this gathering. All of these users have completed the appropriate permit process and worked with the agency to properly plan their activities."

The group's website stresses that this year's gathering will be peaceful, and says the group "is an international loose affiliation of individuals who have a common goal of trying to achieve peace and love on Earth."

God forbid, you displace the BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA!!!!

And hey! Happy 4th of July to you too!

Five arrested in Rainbow Family clash with feds

By BEN NEARY – July 4, 2008

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — About 400 members of the Rainbow Family threw rocks and sticks at 10 federal officers as they tried to arrest a member of the group, the U.S. Forest Service said Friday.

Five members of the group were arrested and one officer was slightly injured. A government vehicle was also damaged.

About 7,000 members of the Rainbow Family are camping this year on Forest Service land near Big Piney. The Rainbow Family is a loose affiliation of eccentrics, young people and hippie types who choose a forest each year in which hold a weeklong national gathering.

Ten Forest Service officers were patrolling the main meadow of the Rainbow Family's camping area Thursday night and apprehended one person described as being uncooperative, Rita Vollmer, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, said in a statement Friday.

"Officers began to leave the gathering site with the subject and were circled by more Rainbow participants that began to physically interfere," Vollmer said.

About 400 Rainbows surrounded the officers trying to leave, she said.

"The mob began to advance, throwing sticks and rocks at the officers," Vollmer said.

State troopers have also arrested two people this week on felony drug charges for allegedly possessing 96 hits of LSD, said Sgt. Stephen Townsend of the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

This is so ridiculous, I can't believe how ridiculous it is.

The Jackson Hole Star-Tribune seemed far more liberal in its coverage:

Arrest leads to Rainbow riot

By TOM MORTON
Star-Tribune staff writer

U.S. Forest Service officers pointed weapons at children and fired rubber bullets and pepper spray balls at Rainbow Family members while making arrests Thursday evening, according to witnesses.

"They were so violent, like dogs," Robert Parker told reporter Deborah Stevens of the libertarian-oriented, Round Rock, Texas-based We the People Radio Network after the incident.

"People yelled at them, 'You're shooting children,'" Parker said during an interview on the network's "Rule of Law Show."

About 7,000 people have arrived at the gathering near Big Sandy in the Wind River Mountains for the annual Gathering of the Tribes, a seven-day event of fellowship, partying including illicit drug use, praying, and living on the land.

They camp on Forest Service land around the country every year, but the Rainbow family's non-hierarchical methods -- no one can speak for the Rainbows, much less sign a land use permit -- often have stymied their relationships.

But rarely do the tensions escalate into violence.

The Forest Service's Incident Command Team in Rock Springs issued a press release Friday morning, saying officers were patrolling the main meadow of the gathering Thursday evening when they contacted a man who fled and was later caught. Another Rainbow was detained for physically interfering.

Officers began to leave the area with the subjects and were circled by Rainbow participants, according to the news release from Rita Vollmer of the Incident Command Team.

Ten officers were escorting the detained subjects when about 400 Rainbows surrounded the squad, and more officers were requested, according to the news release.

"The mob began to advance, throwing sticks and rocks at the officers. Crowd control tactics were used to keep moving through the group of Rainbows," the news release said.

Other law enforcement agencies were called to the scene, the news release said.

Officers made five arrests; one officer suffered minor injuries and was cleared by a local hospital; and a government vehicle sustained damage, the news release said.

"This lawless behavior is unacceptable and we will not tolerate it," said John Twiss, Forest Service director of law enforcement. "The safety of our employees, public and Rainbow participants is our number one priority, and we will continue to protect everyone on the national forest."

Vollmer of the Forest Service Incident Management Team did not return calls requesting comment Friday.

Rainbow Family members' accounts told a different story.

One member who identified himself only as "Ryan" told Stevens he was with his two children in his tent at the Rainbows' Kid Village north of the main meadow where the major prayer circles and dinners are held.

One of the 10 officers pointed a pepper spray gun at him and his children, he said. His girlfriend was using the latrine outside when four officers came to her and asked if she was smoking marijuana.

The officers then ran through the Kid Village and through its kitchen, and chaos erupted, he said.

Other witnesses recounted seeing about 10 officers of the Forest Service's incident command team drag an older man from the woods near the Kid Village, according to interviews by Stevens.

A woman in the village told the officers to take their guns out of the Kid Village. An officer threw that woman to the ground and pulled her head back by her hair while she was being handcuffed, one Rainbow named Rick told Stevens.

"I got out and yelled, 'what the f--- are you doing?'" Rick said. "That got it started."

The officers backed up in a defensive position, and some used their Tasers on Rainbows, he said.

Rainbows called for their crisis management team, and Rainbow family elders urged the crowd to remain calm, he said. However, the crowd kept moving, and the Forest Service officers began randomly spraying the crowd with pepper spray bullets.

The officers, with their two suspects in custody, found an exit trail from the main meadow, and the peacekeepers urged the crowd to let them go, he said.

"These people deliberately, for hours, were aggressively working the camp over and working the people over," Ryan said. "They chose the kiddie village -- the one place, the kids, to take their stand and create a riot, and I bought into it. ... They were looking for an excuse to do some damage to us."

Ryan's partner, Feather, told Stevens she was pepper-sprayed, and saw another Rainbow with welts all over his body.

Feather also recounted seeing a couple with a young child and an infant who had just emerged from the woods and didn't know what was happening.

The couple asked the officers what was going on, and the officers pointed their guns at the children. The officers walked away, but one turned around and pointed his rifle at the baby, she told Stevens.

Robert Kinn of Afton told the Casper Star-Tribune in an interview Friday that he and his family had been camping and drove to Big Sandy because they'd never been to a gathering.

Forest Service officers gave Kinn a citation and a $175 ticket for allowing someone to ride on his vehicle's trailer, and said the officers weren't polite. "I was scared, was harassed."

Kinn and his family went to the main circle for dinner, when they heard people yelling about needing help to put out a fire in the Kid Village.

About 10 minutes later, people came back to tell the main circle the fire was over, and the crowd resumed eating, he said.

One of the senior Rainbows gathered the crowd and explained the clash with the Forest Service, and another man showed where rubber bullets hit him in the stomach, Kinn said.

Kinn and his family drove home that night, he said.

And finally, the American Civil Liberties Union has been called in. (Don't leave home without em!)

ACLU plans to investigate Rainbow Family treatment

By BEN NEARY – July 6, 2008

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union said Saturday that it plans to investigate the actions of federal law enforcers who arrested five Rainbow Family members in western Wyoming during their annual gathering.

The U.S. Forest Service says a mob of about 400 members of the Rainbow Family, a group of hippie types and eccentrics who camp on public land every year, threw rocks and sticks at Forest Service officers who tried to arrest a member of the group.

Up to 60 federal and local law enforcers responded, Forest Service officials say, and fired "pepper balls" — similar to paint balls but containing a pepper solution — at the crowd to control it.

As many as 7,000 members of the Rainbow Family camped out this year on Forest Service land near the Big Sandy Reservoir. The group holds a weeklong gathering on public land in a different area each year.

The Rainbows and federal officers have clashed before, and in 1998, the Forest Service established a national response team to deal with the group.

The ACLU plans to accept collect calls from Rainbow Family members for the next two weeks to hear their version of events, Linda Burt, executive director of Wyoming's ACLU, said Saturday.

Burt said she has been concerned to hear reports that Rainbow Family members have been ticketed for small traffic infractions. She also said she has heard reports that officers have walked among the Rainbow camps asking people whether they're using drugs.

"I have some real concerns about how this is handled," Burt said. "Particularly the pretext arrests — the idea that people are just cruising around looking for people to arrest when there have been no complaints and no reason for them to be there."

Burt said the ACLU's response to the matter will depend on what it learns from Rainbow Family members. It's possible the ACLU will issue a report, she said, and it may also consider posting observers at future Rainbow Family gatherings.

Rita Vollmer, spokeswoman for the Forest Service, declined Saturday to name the five people arrested Thursday or say why the agency was trying to arrest the first person.

Italics mine, of course. Stating they have "clashed before" is interesting. They have? Translation: The Feds have harassed the Rainbow Family before, and the Rainbow Family has always relied on love and peace to talk the various authorities out of mass arrests for LSD and reefer.

I guess this time--? What happened differently?

I'd like to know.

***

EDIT 7/10/08: I got a couple of emails asking "Just who is the Rainbow Family?"--and this is the best description I have found online.
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Listening to: Grateful Dead - The Music Never Stopped
via FoxyTunes

Odds and Sods - June is busting out all over edition

Left: Sacred Heart of Jesus (stained glass) from St Mary's, oldest parish in Greenville, SC.

~*~

Good News! The Blog Carnival for Progressive Christians is here at last:

The carnival for Progressive Christians came out of a conversation about frustration with the organized Christian church. As a Christian without a church, I am in a quandary about sacraments, worship, fellowship…all those things that happen in a church, and I am deeply conflicted about attitudes and behaviors I see within the organized church, attitudes that, in my opinion, do not reflect the mind of Christ. The Carnival is open to anyone, and is a safe place for queer/trans/non-normative folk.

Do you ever feel frustrated with Church? What do you do to keep in touch with God? Have you written about your experiences and how you deal with them? The theme for July is “Community”.

If this speaks to you, go submit an article.

~*~

One Good Reason I Oppose the Death Penalty:

There are INNOCENT PEOPLE on death row.

At left, Glen Edward Chapman, who spent 14 years in prison, a good deal of that time on North Carolina’s death row. He was convicted of two murders in Hickory, NC, in 1994. Nelda Holder reports in Mountain Xpress:

That conviction, however, was reversed in 2008, due to diligent work by a legal team [see “Sprung” in the previous week’s Mountain Xpress] that has just been announced as winners of the WNC American Civil Liberties Union’s 2008 Evan Mahaney Champion of Civil Liberties Award, which they will receive on June 7.

Marion attorney Frank Goldsmith and Chapel Hill attorney Jessica Leaven share the award spotlight with mitigation specialist Pamela Laughon — a psychology professor at UNCA who brought student volunteers into the research — as well as Asheville-based private investigator Lenora Topp. The case for Chapman’s release was built on a series of legal missteps uncovered by the team, including evidence never submitted in his original trial and a confession by another person.

Chapman is the 128th death-row inmate to be exonerated and freed, nationally, since 1973, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

For more information, see also the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Photo of Chapman from Mountain Xpress.

~*~

I first heard Sean Costello's music only quite recently. He was a prodigy, releasing his first album at the age of 17. And now he has left us, already, only one day before his 29th birthday.

So, so young.

House of Blues Radio Hour fans may have heard the musical eulogy given by Elwood on the weekly radio show. The official cause of death isn't listed online, and Elwood only mentioned that Debbie Smith, Sean's mother, has set up the Sean Costello Memorial Fund for Bipolar Research, with instructions on Sean's website about how to donate:

The Sean Costello Memorial Fund for Bipolar Research
c/o BB&T
3620 Tramore Pointe Parkway
Austell, Georgia 30106.

Such requests usually signal a death from substance abuse and/or suicide, and my deepest condolences go out to Ms. Smith. The loss of one so young, so talented, is just wrenching.

Yall might contribute if you can.

~*~

Also:

JoJo gives us great photos (and a guided tour) of the Edward Gorey house in Yarmouthport, Massachusetts. G is for George, smothered under a rug/H is for Hector, done in by a thug. I'd love to visit the house on Halloween!

The latest asshole to storm Blogdonia is one Rachel Moss, who tried to be Ann Coulter and (of course) pissed everybody off. And then, the whole thing mushroomed when other rightwingnut partisans jumped in. It's quite instructive to read about how these things get out of hand; a study in Blogdonia-swarms, as well as anonymous racist baiting, all spiced up with hatred of fat and transgendered people.

Now, poor Rachel Moss is hysterical and probably in hiding. (Stay there, okay?)

~*~

And finally, the best for last! From Axinar's, comes one Harriet Christian (no relation to my man Ted, don't think!) who is giving it to us straight:



Tell us how you really feel!

Single gender education in Greenville County public schools -pt 2

Left: From my living room wall.

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The conservatives in South Carolina never rest. On and on it goes.

However, in fairness, my liberal cousin believes this is a positive thing. We have agreed to disagree:

Single-gender classes growing here

By Lark Reynolds • STAFF WRITER • May 27, 2008
GREENVILLE NEWS

Taylors Elementary School has joined the ranks of Greenville County schools that will offer single-gender classrooms in the next school year.

Taylors is one of a growing number of schools across the state and nation to test the waters of single-gender education.

Critics say the move toward single-gender classrooms will erase the progress that has been made in gender equity in education since the Title IX act was passed in 1972 barring discrimination based on sex in any activity that receives federal money.

Supporters say the initiative takes advantage of natural differences between the ways boys and girls often learn best.

I wrote about this previously, and received emails telling me this was discriminatory and successfully halted in various other localities.

For the most part, no one knows how to proceed, or if this is actually legal.

More than 60 schools in Greenville County have expressed an interest in learning more about single-gender classrooms, according to the state Department of Education. Statewide, 96 schools in 46 districts are offering single-gender classrooms.

One school interested in the change is Blue Ridge Middle School, where parents and teachers attended an informational meeting April 21. Pattie Kellams was one of many parents who had questions.

"I'm a little concerned about the transition of children who are in single-gender classes going into high school, and suddenly, boys and girls are in there together," Kellems said.

South Carolina is considered a pioneer in single-gender public education. Leonard Sax, founder of the National Association for Single-Sex Public Education, said South Carolina is the only state with a full-time state Department of Education position dedicated to single-gender initiatives.

The man who holds that position, David Chadwell, stays busy traveling around the state presenting information to parents and teachers about single-gender classrooms and training educators in how material is best presented in single-gender classrooms.

Sax said providing comprehensive training and support for teachers who will be in single-gender classrooms is crucial to the success of the initiative.

"Simply putting girls in one classroom and boys in another doesn't accomplish very much," Sax said.

Chadwell said the large number of teachers in the state who are already teaching in single-gender classrooms is a valuable asset and a support network for those teachers just beginning to teach in such a classroom.

Calvin Auman, a second-grade teacher at Taylors Elementary who will lead an all-boys class next year, was one of 20 teachers and staff at the school who participated in a training conference earlier this spring in Columbia. He said he learned that boys often respond better in seating arrangements that don't have them face to face, which they can view as confrontational, and that they tend to do well on timed activities because they like the added pressure. Girls tend to prefer the opposite, he said.

Auman said he could identify in himself many of the tendencies boys have in the classroom.

"I remembered myself back in elementary school and thought, 'Man, I wish they would have had this when I was there,' " he said.

Chadwell said one of the most important points to understand about single-gender education is that the tendencies for boys and girls to learn better in differing environments are in no way absolute.

"These are generalized differences," Chadwell said. "This does not mean that all boys learn one way and all girls learn another way." That's why it's important that participation in single-gender classrooms be voluntary, he said.

Chadwell also emphasized that the curriculum for all-girls and all-boys classes is exactly the same. Only the method of teaching it differs.

Where are they getting this "research" from?

I don't like the website, which sounds decidedly conservative and riddled with that Venus and Mars nonsense.

The American Civil Liberties Union has voiced opposition to single-gender classrooms. The organization contends that the brain research upon which such initiatives are based is inconclusive and that "single-sex education fosters sex discrimination" and undermines the achievements of Title IX, according to official comments made to the U.S. Department of Education.

The ACLU said the 2006 amendments to Title IX that have allowed school districts to introduce single-gender classrooms weaken the original intent of the law, which was to ensure gender equality in education. In addition, the organization contended, single-gender education violates the equal protection guarantees of the Fifth and 14th Amendments to the Constitution.

The National Organization for Women also opposes single-gender education on the basis of a lack of available studies that prove single-gender classrooms increase learning. Under such circumstances, NOW President Kim Gandy said, there's no reason to open the door to potential gender discrimination in schools.

"In our decades of experience with gender discrimination, separate is unequal," Gandy said in the statement.

Dan Willingham, professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Virginia, cautions against basing differing curricula for boys and girls on brain research.

Willingham said the anatomical differences that can be observed between male and female brains might or might not justify conclusions about how each sex learns. The real justification for trying new things in the classroom needs to be data from the classroom itself.

"You believe or don't believe that an intervention works in a classroom based on data that come from the classroom, not because there is brain research that kind of seems to fit," Willingham said. "

Here in South Carolina, surveys of single-gender participants have yielded positive impressions. Among fifth-graders, 82 percent said learning in a single-gender environment increased their desire to succeed in school, and an identical percentage said it increased their self-confidence.

Wendy Roach said her daughter, who will be in sixth grade at Blue Ridge next year, is excited about the opportunity to be in an all-girls class. Roach said her experience as a teacher has convinced her single-gender classrooms would increase participation for both groups, especially at the middle school age, with hormones starting to kick in.

"When girls a lot of times want to speak up and say something, they're not going to with those males around," Roach said.

Well, I suppose it will be more viscerally pleasant for the gay kids. That's the only good thing I can say about it.

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Listening to: Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose
via FoxyTunes

The Death of Victoria Arrellano

From fabulous Drakyn comes this story that he found too upsetting to read. It regards the death of Victoria Arrellano.

From the Washington Post:

In recent months, the ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of detainees in California, naming ICE and the Division of Immigrant Health Services, which provides care to detainees, among the defendants.

"We've been saying for a long time now that we have serious concerns about the medical care provided to individuals in detention," said Tom Jawetz, a staff lawyer for the ACLU's National Prison Project.

"It's been a closed system for far too long. People are going to continue to die unless changes are made," Jawetz said.

Arellano, a transgender person whose given name was Victor, was the first to die, on July 20. She was detained in May for entering the country illegally for a second time.

During detention in San Pedro, attorneys said, her AIDS treatment lapsed. As she vomited blood, fellow inmates cared for her in vain. She was eventually taken to a San Pedro hospital and died while shackled to a bed, an attorney for the family said.

From la.indymedia.org:

In mid July, transwoman Victoria Arrellano died in immigrant detention. Arrellano had AIDS, and was living due to the medication she was receiving, however, once detained; she was not given the right medication, although she repeatedly asked to see the doctor. Arrellano knew exactly was her prescription was, in fact, it is well known in the medical field what the treatment for her disease is. She pleaded to her captors for mercy, and was denied. She spent the last weeks of her life begging to live, as her body was ravaged by the virus. Instead of a nurse, her fellow detainees cared for her the best way they could, and they even protested for her right to be treated by chanting "hospital...hospital" over and over again. Her being trans was overlooked by the inmates, and the movement that stirred all the detainees to action was that of humanity, which should bind all of us, regardless of our supposed differences. Sadly, even the entire group's voices were ignored, and Victoria passed away in a hospital due to lack of medical treatment.

Arrelano had once been a patient of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center's state of the art AIDS clinic. Lorri L. Jean, the Chief Executive Officer of the Center, stated "Given today's medications, people with HIV at the stage that Victoria was at do not decline that quickly. And I have no doubt in my mind that Victoria died because she was denied the medications that she needed to stay alive". Jean and her staff recently had a meeting with U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) to discuss what happened.

Unfortunately, this outrage is not an isolated incident, in fact, 3 other deaths were reported in the same week in immigration detainment through out the country. There have been over 60 cases (reported) total. But what makes this particular case so strong, is that Arrelano was in detention for weeks, long enough for them to know how to treat her, but instead, she was just shackled to her bed, as she vomited. The appalling and horrendous conditions of the medical treatment of immigrants being held in custody is unconstitutional, and barbaric, and will have to be revised. The lack of standards system responsible for these senseless deaths (one would dare say murders) needs to be examined. There has to be accountability for these tragic losses and the authorities need to enforce action. A independent/public investigation and oversight needs to be done by the federal government on Victoria's death, because an investigation from only the immigrant department will not be sufficient (because they would basically just be doing an investigation on themselves, and we know what that means- are they really going to want to incriminate their own people?!). Pressure needs to be placed on Congress members to protect the human rights of immigrants, even if they are in detention. Yes, many Congress members will find it politically risky to stick up for immigrants, but if enough people urge them to, it will make a difference. Please ask your Congress person to have this case investigated.

I can't add anything to that. Let's make sure Victoria is not forgotten.

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Listening to: The Replacements - Alex Chilton
via FoxyTunes