RAINBOW FAMILY

All Encompassingly pointed me to this site for the Rainbow Family. They are an assemblage of representatives of every extreme liberal group in the United States. On their Home Page, the Rainbow Family is defined in the following manner.

Some say we're the largest non-organization of non-members in the world. We have no leaders, and no organization. To be honest, the Rainbow Family means different things to different people. I think it's safe to say we're into intentional community building, non-violence, and alternative lifestyles. We also believe that Peace and Love are a great thing, and there isn't enough of that in this world. Many of our traditions are based on Native American traditions, and we have a strong orientation to take care of the Earth. We gather in the National Forests yearly to pray for peace on this planet.

In a nutshell, they claim to be a unorganized group without defined membership dedicated to saving the planet and praying for peace at gatherings once a year in the National Forests. The yearly events have been occurring for at least two decades.

Having reviewed their site and related media accounts (here and here) of their organization and events, my take is that they are an amalgam of anarchists, socialists, communists, militant vegans, eco-radicals and other left fringe extremists who are regularly breaking the law on public lands.

They claim to have no leaders and no organization and there is a reason. Since their inception, they have repeatedly violated the laws governing use of the National Forests and the US Forest Service has attempted to prosecute the organizers. To avoid prosecution, they conduct their activities in a clandestine manner such that the organization and its leadership are kept secret. Basically, nothing is written down and no one will point a finger. The Forest Service has been frustrated by not being able to hold any individuals accountable for the mischief that 10,000 or more people do to the National Parks and Forests. Although their Home Page identifies no leadership, they do define some individuals as "focalizers" as described in the following ridiculous passage.

One of the important things to realize is that focalizers aren't in charge. They aren't in control of anything or anyone but themself. People listen to focalizers out of respect, not because they have to. The best focalizers are invisible at a gathering. Most of us that consider ourselves focalizers are just info-maniacs. Just cause somebody may have a mailing list, or do a newsletter does not mean they are part of the "Rainbow Beurocracy (sic)", and you can turn over your responsibilities as a human being to them.

Patterned after the 1969 Woodstock event in upstate New York, the yearly gatherings are comprised of ten to twenty thousand people meeting on public land for an extended weekend during the summer. It's a big party. And, as with Woodstock, the aftermath is a quagmire of trampled vegetation and trash. The event takes place without required permits.

If the yearly gatherings were held on private property, there probably wouldn't be a law enforcement problem. But no sane person would want to have their property trashed by thousands of people having a party. By gathering on public land, the taxpayers are forced to pay the bill for cleanup.

My contention that these people are extreme leftists is based upon the organizations indicated by their website. I can't think of a liberal group that's not represented. Visit the site here for the complete listing.

With respect to liberals getting together and trading ideas, its fine with me. However, when they intentionally break the laws of the US and are not held accountable, then I have a problem. About two months ago, 9,000 Rainbow Family members gathered outside Salt Lake City in the Uintas Mountains National Forest and local news filed the following report:

Nine thousand Rainbows, that's the final, official estimate for the number of hippies, peace lovers and counter-culture radicals who camped out in the High Uintas last week.

Now, the Rainbow Family is leaving. But how much of a mark will they leave on the land? Environmentalists, forest rangers and even sheep ranchers have been nervous about damage to the area.

Short-term effects are clearly present and obvious. It's likely to be awhile before anyone can fully assess the long-term results. [and]

The Rainbows have kept law enforcement busy the last couple of weeks. There have been about 18 arrests, more than 200 tickets and citations and several hundred more warnings issued.

Malcolm Jowers/Incident Commander, US Forest Service: "We've seen typical behavior that we would have expected...we still remain concerned about the amount of illegal drug use."

Taxpayers will have to pick up the tab, at least a half-million dollars, for the federal effort to control the event.

What disturbs me most is that these liberals, who are trashing public land with taxpayers footing the bill for cleanup, are the same people who go to great lengths to have the Boy Scouts banned from using public land because they are a religious-based organization.