This raises many difficult issues for an event organized by the principles of "free assembly." The gathering runs on "anonymous" volunteer energy, motivated by the love and free giving many spiritual pilgrims and other attendees, who are not "required" to "join", but encouraged to recognize how it works and take up their part, whatever that may be. Helping at the gathering is a kind of volunteer service, for peace, or freedom, or spiritual exercise, or whatever the individual recognizes in his or her life that leads to this place.

Gatherers maintain that their form of internal autonomy has worked well for years. As equals in service and as free individuals, the designation of leaders would only obscure their natural equality and turn-off potential volunteers who have may have had bad experiences with authority. Many individuals who attend gatherings claim to do so because they have learned the joy of giving freely. They return year after year for spiritual regeneration and healing; a modern pilgrimage of peace people from every walk of life.

However, the Federal Police assigned to manage the Gatherings stubbornly refuse to recognize this principle or its success. They have sought rather to "force the issue," often threatening attendees with arrest and other interference; making it a hardship for many to "come home" and enjoy spiritual service. Federal "information officers" have issued disparaging accounts to the press, many of which are based on rumors which sometimes get exposed by good reporters. However, the damage to the gatherers reputation is usually done by the time the truth gets uncovered. Gathering volunteers who have sought work with local communities have been targeted as leaders and issued tickets, and sometimes threatened with court proceedings to stop them from returning to gatherings. These people are individual citizens who were persecuted for gathering because they acted consciensciously to be a good neighbor. Such treatment has discouraged many people from taking up this important aspect of gathering, allowed federal mis-information to fill the void.

From the earliest Gathering in 1972, Federal Agents have enlisted local Police in efforts to stop these Peaceable Assembly from happening. In 1987, North Carolina Gathering, a 'special operations group" of Law Enforcement Officers, some specially trained at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, took over command and control functions of the Gatherings, and this Incident Command Team imposes 'defacto martial law", by having the Gathering declared an 'emergency".

At times the Feds have attempted to blockade gathering sites, prohibiting free ingress and egress. They have erected roadblocks for systematic searching and profiling of gathering attendees, recorded license plate numbers from every attendee vehicle, officially issued false reports to the press and local residents to create an expectation of problems, discouraged local officials and agency resource specialists from having direct contact with Gathering volunteers, dramatically increased police presence on the roads and highways around Gatherings, issuing hundreds of tickets for minor infractions to substantiate their claims that "lots of crime" justified these efforts. In addition, they have repeatedly singled out individuals to whom they issued tickets for the Gathering itself, of violating permit requirements.

While Forest Service efforts have failed to stop the Gatherings, many gatherers have been targeted for tickets or searches simply because they attend this event. In Pennsylvania over 2000 people were stopped by one form of Police Agency or another (see Final Action Report, pg. 19-23, 1999). This chills the attendees' Freedom to Assemble, pray, petition and express themselves openly.

"The Gathering is a peaceable assembly for purposes of free expression, both spiritual and secular... and there's nothing like it on Earth." said Adams, adding "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

5. Official Disapproval:

Forest Service uses "emergency" to chill Gatherings?

The Feds have repeatedly taken the position that the Gatherings are an illegal event because no one will sign a permit. This minor administrative requirement is used to "justify" massive expenditures to bring a heavy law enforcement presence to the threshold of this annual free speech event. But a closer look at the records suggests that exaggerated safety concerns have been used to generate a million dollar budget for summer Police exercises that may not merit emergency standing.

Individual Gatherers, for their part, have explained repeatedly that no one can sign a permit as an official agent of the event because no formal organizational structure exists. The Gathering is a "peaceable assembly" of individuals; people come on their own volition with personal responsibility intact -- there are no designated offices, leaders, or agents, nor one group or group of groups that is "rainbow family". As a result, gatherers are caught between "bowing to Caesar" i.e. signing a permit on behalf of thousands of anonymous unassociated individuals (associated only in Peaceably assembling) and lying about the nature of their association, or possibly being framed as a leader by the US Department of Justice - Or at least suffering a de facto Police State set up on the doorstep of their peaceable assembly.

Even seasoned gatherers are adamant about not being in charge. Instead, everyone is in charge of themselves, takes personal responsibility. Cooperation and consensus process are used to align the many individual efforts harmoniously. there are "Forum/soapbox -style" councils, NOT decision-making councils. This form of unity is a cultural expression. The national incident team interprets this as "thumbing their noses at the law."

In recent years, the Incident Team has supported a large, multi-agency police force to patrol highways, towns and forest roads in the Gathering vacinity. These troops make large numbers of vehicle stops, usually for minor violations or just to tell folks the speed limit, which are then reported as "incidents" to maintain the need for police presence.

Last year in Pennsylvania, the big "offenses" among rainbows was crystals or other "danglies" hanging from the bottom of the inside rearview mirrors - obstruction of visibility, a ticketable offense. Dysfunctional license plate lights were another hot ticket item. While the public does not want to encourage dangerous danglies or bad wiring, one cannot help but notice that this hardly sounds like a major criminal problem... let alone a national emergency. Which brings up an important new fact: last year, and allegedly for several past years, the Secretary of Agriculture reportedly declared the Gathering an "emergency" at the behest of the National Incident Team (1999 Final Action Report; p. 28).

Incident Commander William Fox has requested similar 'emergency' designation from the Chief of the Forest Service for this Year's Gathering (William C. Fox, Incident Commander; memo to Chief, January 25, 2000 - FOIA document). $400,000 in funds already allocated to this "emergency" (Kim Thorsen, Assistant Director, Enforcement and Liaison, USFS - FOIA document). [* FOIA documents are available at ].

A major police presence is allegedly needed to ensure the public health and safety and protect resources. Yet the police-dominated "incident management team" avoids working cooperatively with gathering volunteers who promote the health, safety, and resource protection within the gatherings. Instead, the incident team has repeatedly opted to keep gatherers out of the loop, while projecting the image that gatherers are irresponsible scofflaws who don't care about public health and safety, impacts on resources or local communities. Health and resources personnel have even reported being ordered NOT to communicate or associate with the gatherers.

Meanwhile, gathering volunteers have a strong positive record of friendly and successful cooperation with resource and health professionals. A quick review of Forest Service resource reports Volunteers also keep watch and maintain communications and provide for the encampment's safety from threats such as fire danger or violent/stupid behavior. For example, at the Arizona '98 gathering, volunteers learned a man, located in the Gathering, was wanted for murder in Florida. The volunteers, much like 'neighborhood watch' i.e. "Shanti Sena consciousness", communicated with the suspect who agreed to surrender to authorities. The County Sheriff was contacted and the suspect was taken in; volunteers acted just like any other responsible citizens would do.

Nevertheless, the Feds maintain that "Gathering - Rainbow-style" is a public emergency -- or are they really just maintaining their own budget? I wonder. According to the executive summary of the '99 incident report, emergency designation suspends normal line item budget requirements, enabling transferring of funds among various agencies and purposes. This means that money provided for resource management can be used for cops or surveillance equipment, for example. During the Arizona '98 gathering, the incident team even facilitated "emergency disaster relief" for the local counties, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. What was the big problem? They wanted more cops to patrol the highways to make traffic stops.

Meanwhile various newspaper articles and FS reports have repeatedly suggested that a large portion of this money is needed to rehabilitate the gathering sites, suggesting that Rainbows leave a big mess. This myth was echoed again recently by FS information officer Rose Davis (affectionately known as "mis(s)-information" among gatherers), "Their rehabilitation work varies," Davis said. "It used to be very good, but the last few years they've had a harder time. But I don't see why the taxpayers should have to pay to clean up when these people won't even get a permit and abide by the law." (AP, Spokesman-Review; March 28, 2000). However, not only does the clean-up record fail to support this, but gathering volunteers have found to the contrary that the local districts are left to cover any cleanup costs that gatherers do not successfully attend to, if any. None of the Federal money appears to filter down to this level. Fortunately, the Rainbows have a strong record of responsibility and this has never resulted in a serious problem.

The only complaint from a local district was in Arizona, where "Rainbow Family" was billed for unreclaimed logging roads that were "ripped" after the '98 Gathering. The site near Springerville Arizona had been extensively logged in the late 80s, leaving many skid trails that were never water-barred or recovered in any way. After these were used as foot trails for the Gathering, the gathering was charged for the district's costs to hire a roadripper and extra personnel who allegedly did other work also. This district declined the offer of volunteers to finish up any remaining work for free. The bill was soon after paid by anonymous donors, over the objections of several cleanup volunteers who 'called foul' on the district's actions. Again however, none of the Federal incident budget went towards these alleged impacts.

So where does the money go? No full accounting appears to have made publicly available. From what is in the recent annual reports, salaries and expenses for police seems to absorb most of it. Some years have also boasted large expensive temporary medical facilties (largely superfluous due to the non-cooperative management approach) or major air support components (see Arizona '98 report). Surveillance and communications equipment is also usually mentioned as an expense.

Despite a 28 year track record of good cleanups and very few serious incidents, official disapproval continues to "justify" a big budget and big show of force as LEI Rose Davis puts out the party line likening "Rainbows" i.e. anyone who gathers, to a terrible scourge of locusts about to descend on your town. Far from promoting the public safety, this tactic has generated significant hostility towards gatherers, creating a climate of fear and prejudice that can endanger innocent travelers simply because they look different. In West Virginia '80 two young women on their way to the Gathering were murdered in a brutal hate crime; at the time public officials were speaking out against the gathering and encouraging locals to help stop it.

In fact, the Gathering comes together each year for a Silent Circle Prayer for Peace on the Fourth of July. This is a "peaceable assembly for purpose of worship, prayer, petition" on public land. At the up-coming "Gathering of the Tribes 2000," thousands of individuals will come from all over the world to "pray" for peace and healing of this Planet and the divisions among people; a 'petition' for Peace.

Wouldn't it be nice if the Feds took a different tack this year... maybe even took a hand in the circle of Peace... and free up some tax money to help resolve some real emergencies like global warming, loss of family farms, homelessness, and cultural oppression!

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GrapeVine is an information sharing forum concerning "Gathering of the Tribes 2000", an event coming this summer to a site on public land in Montana or Idaho, around July 1-7.

Disclaimer: GrapeVine is an independent project of concerned individuals interested in sharing perspectives and information on this Gathering and related subjects. The perspectives here published are not representative of any group or any other individual Gathering attendees, participants, or spectators, other than the individual contributors to GrapeVine.

Note: General information on Gatherings is also available on the world wide web at an unofficial Gathering home page.

Site announcements will be mailed to anyone sending a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to: Gathering 2000, PMB 512, 1001 E. Broadway #2, Missoula, MT 59802