Friday, July 08, 2011

Rainbow Gathering in Washington Was a Bum Trip for Some

In case you missed it, about 19,000 hippies gathered outside Trout Lake, Wash., over the July 4 weekend for the Annual Rainbow Gathering. The countercultural "intentional community" has been going on each year since 1972. This year's event took place in a remote meadow in the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest. As The Oregonian hilariously reported, "acid trips are common" at these events. But more importantly, so is widespread environmental damage. Christy Covington, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, said the impact to some areas of the forest was severe, but there is no estimate yet of the cost to clean up. We checked up with Skamania County Sheriff Dave Brown on Wendesday, as the crowds were dispersing, to get his rundown of notable circumstances to law enforcement. He said the Rainbow Gathering wasn't all peace and love. Brown said the event was marred by one incident of domestic violence and three other assaults—including one with a baseball bat. Another of those assaults took place when a woman recognized a man as a registered sex offender out of Colorado who had sexually assaulted her before. In another incident, a naked man Brown says was obviously "under the influence of something" began approaching cars on the main road to Trout Lake and ramming his own vehicle into trees. A deputy arrested the man for DUII and took him to a local hospital, Brown said. And on the morning of July 6, a 25-year-old California woman died of an overdose from an unknown drug. In all, the U.S. Forest Service issued about 150 citations, and Brown says the U.S. District Court in Tacoma had a full docket from arrests made at the event. Brown says it all was too much for an event billed as a peaceful gathering...more

Would they have let 19,000 cows in there?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The woman who died there this year did so from natural causes -get your facts straight brother!
I was at the Gethering this year, my frist time. I was amazed at how there was not one cigarette butts on the ground like all other fastivals I've been to, people cleaned up after themselves unlike most common public gatherings. There was only three incidents of anger/violence? Well, isn't that utterly amazing for any get together of 19,000 people!?! i'm impressed!!
There was more love at this gathering then one can get in a lifetime living in Babylon (the 'real' world). There was acceptance of the weak, odd, and different. There was an abundance of giving, more than I believed human could give; of themselves, food, water, love...
It was an experience that changed me forever for the good! I hope you all get a chance to experience the wonder of a truely functional society of caring for all and without the total distruction of the earth -like what we are doing daily to the real world.
Peace my brother and sisters, lovin' you!

Anonymous said...

19000 cows would have left a much more severe and lasting impact than a group of back to the land hippies. The few incidents are miniscule in relation to the number of people there. Of course the 150 forest service citations and the "full docket" of the local court is the real coup de gras. The court and LEO's are after what little money the people had, or maybe some free labor for the sheriff and judges.

Anonymous said...

After reading those last two comments it seems like the effects of the drugs are long lasting.
There must have been lots of outhouses on site, or did the great unwashed clean up that also?
As for the cows, at least they add fertilizer to the soil as opposed to the litter from the moonbats. Besides, cattle are more pleasant to deal with, and they take their flies with them. lol

Unknown said...

I went there expectintg environmentally conscious people but instead, I realized that this once pristine wilderness could never sustain 10,000-15,000 people...thus came the guilt of even being there. The garbage left, although dispicable, wasn't the main harm, I observed trees cut, trampled earth/new trails, and human waste everywhere. Hippocrasy. Very sad.

wctube said...

We checked up with Skamania County Sheriff Dave Brown on Wendesday, as the crowds were dispersing, to get his rundown of notable circumstances to law enforcement..