Colorado media coverage

just remember yer not home till ya are..


them that are paid to C tuit that ya have no home will do there best to see toit that ya dont get there..

no worrries..

if ya have none..

love n light..

 

From the Steamboat Pilot

Rainbow Family settles in

Campers set up medical tents and communal kitchens

By Mike Lawrence

Monday, June 26, 2006

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — The farther in you go, the nicer it gets.

At the annual gathering of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, taking place this year near Big Red Park, 35 miles north of Steamboat, there is a lot more going on than the occasional road block and disputes with U.S. Forest Service officials.

Amid the logistical squabbles about forest-use permits, citations, trash removal, fire safety and water sanitation, many participants in the nature-celebrating, peace-oriented gathering are setting up camp and doing their best to create a temporary home for other members of "the family."

Communal kitchens, sheltered bathrooms, a medical tent, running water spigots and a large "kids' village" are intermingled with colorful tent sites that sprawl across more than two miles of Routt National Forest land.

Walking on a packed-dirt trail toward campsites Sunday, Sunny Adams of Las Cruces, N.M., carried his 10-month-old daughter, Anoka, on his back. Adams praised the kids' village as a safe, friendly environment for young people at the event, which officially runs from Saturday to July 7, but already has drawn a crowd of more than 1,000.

"There can be serious craziness out here, but they always keep the kids away from it," Adams said. "It's separated by a big meadow."

The kids' village lies at the most inward point of the gathering, at least two miles from Forest Service Road 505. The meadow Adams referred to is a wide, hilly area lying between the village -- which contains play areas and a large communal kitchen that served rice and beans for lunch Sunday -- and most of the Rainbow tent sites.

The meadow soon will become the focal point of the gathering. Organizer Rob Savoye, a Nederland resident, said that on the morning of July 4, participants will fill the meadow in silence and form a giant circle to meditate or pray together.

"If you've never heard thousands of people ‘Om' at once, it's really something," said Brandy Stark, a 28-year-old Wisconsin woman camped near the kids' village. "Om" is the first syllable of a meditation mantra used by several religions, including Tibetan Buddhists.

"People will start forming (the circle) around sunrise," Savoye said.

You get all kinds

The relative calmness of the meadow and kids' village is a sharp contrast to a visitor's first impression of the Rainbow gathering.

Shortly after turning onto F.R. 505, cars arrive at "A-Camp," the first campsite of people at the Rainbow event. "A" stands for "alcohol."

Stark said that by "family consensus," alcohol at the Rainbow Family gathering usually is consumed only at A-Camp, which is more than a mile from the main camping area.

"For most people, it's alcohol-free," she said.

A look at Rainbow campsites Sunday afternoon showed that Stark is probably right. On a warm summer day, water and coffee were much more common drinks than beer and liquor. Virtually no one was drinking alcohol.

Marijuana use, however, was easy to spot. As law enforcement and forest officials from various agencies -- including the U.S. Forest Service and Routt County Sheriff's Office -- walked through the gathering, Rainbow members yelled "Six up!" to one another, a warning that law enforcement was nearby.

"It means six bullets in a gun," said Barry Summers, a 46-year-old North Carolina resident who is helping out with logistics at the event.

Second breakfast

In a communal kitchen dubbed "Shut Up and Eat It," a New York woman named Jesse tended to a fire beneath two large covered pans Sunday afternoon. The pans contained water, which needed to be boiled because Rainbow gatherers had not finished installing a system to filter and transport water from a nearby spring.

"Anyone who drinks non-boiled water, it's on their own discretion," said Jesse, who declined to give her last name. "And no one drinks water without going on a water run first."

Over the same fire, 28-year-old Zac Monstar of Georgia stirred a big pot of spaghetti sauce. Meals at "Shut Up and Eat It" are served nearly around the clock, he said.

"We're on a ‘Hobbit' schedule," Monstar said, referring to fictional characters created by author J.R.R. Tolkien who eat numerous meals a day. "We do first breakfast, second breakfast, ‘elevenses,' lunch, snacks, dinner, supper ... and fried chocolate treats at night."

In between meals, a daily routine at the Rainbow gathering likely involves a lot of walking around, socializing, and relaxing.

"We do what we're doing right now," said Bellejo Howell of Idaho, as he helped a friend carry supplies to a tent.

"The gathering kind of plans itself," Savoye said, adding that a talent show is scheduled for later this week. Stark said some campsites offer yoga classes. A "trade circle" area, near the medical tent, is a bazaar-style marketplace where people spread out various goods -- including handmade jewelry and clothing -- for sale or, more likely, for barter.

And crowds are still flowing in for the Rainbow event.

"Usually around the 28th, we're kicking into high gear," said "Hawker," an electrical engineer from North Carolina who helped set up water systems for the event.

To reach Mike Lawrence, call 871-4203

or e-mail mlawrence@steamboatpilot.com

 

Here's another



Rainbow technicians cover fire and water logistics

By Dave Shively, Sports writer

Monday, June 26, 2006

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — U.S. Forest Service officials don't believe that a "non-organization of non-members" has the professional capacity to handle natural disasters and care for starving masses, as the group members claim.





Foresters denied issuing the Rainbow Family of Living Light a special-use permit last week because of extreme fire danger at the proposed site near Big Red Park in the Routt National Forest, about 35 miles north of Steamboat Springs.

But for 26-year Rainbow gathering veteran Rob Savoye, the family's fundamental "non-organizational" nature is precisely what allows its volunteer base to thrive in chaotic conditions.

"When we got to (Hurricane) Katrina, they were excited because we brought instant relief with mobile kitchens, a fully trained medical staff and a functional communications center," Savoye said. "We were treating people in the streets in August two blocks from the French Quarter and feeding the National Guard. We can coordinate as individuals. We don't fall apart in the chaos, we just fall together."

Savoye, 47, operates a computer-consulting business in Nederland. He said he was putting 30 years of search-and-rescue experience, Emergency Medical Technician certification and a degree in outdoor-recreation leadership, to work at the gathering.

"We have several dozen medics operating in the core communications group," Savoye said about the 35 to 40 members linked on repeater-capable modified ham radios.

The network of professionally trained technicians, midwives, retired and vacationing doctors and ex-military medics work based out of the Center for Alternative Living and Medicine, or C.A.L.M. camp, assembled directly adjacent to the large meadow where the gathering's main event, the July 4 prayer circle, is tentatively scheduled.

"We're really triage-oriented. We determine the criticality and then decide to pull the stops for an evacuation with our drivers waiting at" Forest Service Road 505, Savoye said.

Routt National Forest supervising forester Kent Foster was touring the facilities and spreading the fire-prevention message Sunday with members of the interagency Northwest Colorado Wildland Fire Program. He was concerned with the bigger evacuation issues surrounding a forest fire.

"Beetle kill's our main concern, with all the dead and dying, there's serious potential," Foster said, adding that Routt County and Routt National Forest officials should be enacting fire-burning restrictions early in the week.

Forest Service spokeswoman Kimberley Vogel reiterated that the gathering area has experienced numerous fires beginning in July, when dry lightning precedes summer afternoon showers. Such lightning started the Mount Zirkel Complex, a blaze that consumed 38,000 acres of the Routt National Forest on July 12, 2002.

The gatherers are also concerned that the site they selected sits in a fire corridor.

"Our plan would be to contract up Silver Creek and evacuate out the valley while we dig a defensive fire line and wait for the Forest Service," Savoye said. "We're part of the resource available to fight the fire. This is our home now. ... It was an amazing thing at the 1994 gathering in Snider Basin, Wyo., to see 3,500 people on a fire line a mile long beat an 8-acre fire to death in an hour and half."

Collective interest in forest welfare eased Savoye's concerns about smaller internal fires, such as the one ignited Thursday that gatherers and Forest Service officials said they quickly extinguished.

Gatherers also rely on self-appointed "firewatch" members, such as "Circus Maximus," a "firewalker" who patrols for unattended fires at night with his Pulaski firefighting ax in hand. The patrols ensure that community fires are contained in rock-lined areas and enforce the family consensus rule that prohibits personal campfires.

Work continued Sunday for other members who were taking charge of logistical tasks to support a projected community of 20,000 for the gathering, which officially begins Saturday.

"Hawker," a 38-year-old electrical engineer from Asheville, N.C., acts as an instrumental volunteer helping to construct an elaborate gravity-feed filtration system.

Without a U.S. Forest Service road block in place, "Hawker" and the Rainbow utility forces were able to bring in the large 400-foot coils of 3/4-inch irrigation tubing to start linking the higher elevation springs to two-stage ceramic filters and then to various kitchens. "Hawker" estimated that after the "primitive high-tech" system is complete, six to eight miles of water line would be installed.

-- To reach Dave Shively, call 846-1129

or e.mail dshively@steamboatpilot.com



More in News

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LAST ONE

Kathy Darden: Meet the Rainbows

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Holy cow, I don't know where to start.




OK, how about the "bathing in the misters" bunk. Use your brain, does that really make any sense to you? Do you have such a closed and hateful mind about this whole thing that you are willing to latch on to and spew every ugly rumor that has ever been spread about any and all rainbows.

How about this, apparently one of your golden little Colorado boys thought it was great fun to heat clothes hangers and brand the bottoms of his classmates. Am I to now assume that every citizen of Colorado has a stockpile of "branding hangers" and all of your little kids have branded rears?

And how about those terrible statistics from the previous gathering. A total of 27 people were arrested -- that would be a whole lot less than are typically arrested in a town of 20,000 people in a three-week period. Why don't you go and see how many people were arrested in Steamboat during the weeks of May 1-21. Just randomly chose that because the filthy hippies hadn't gotten there then.

A huge percentage of the Rainbow Family have full-time jobs and take their two week vacation to go to the gathering. As was reported in an article in this paper, there are doctors, nurses, social workers, lawyers, teachers, mill workers, computer specialists and farmers.

People of every occupation you can imagine will don their tie-dyes and become hippies for a couple of weeks. And you won't be able to tell who is who or who does what. And that's one of the main points. Family, bonded together by a common ideal, love of peace, love of the land, and love of their fellow human.

Then there is a small percentage who are bums, users, thieves, con men and mentally impaired. And as was also mentioned in an article in this paper, there are the young punks who have no idea what Rainbow is all about. They think it will be a wild drugged-out, naked party and they can just come and be jerks. They can't. The Rainbows have a very experienced crew who "police" the gathering. Violence is not allowed. They will do all they can to stop any bad things from happening, and if they can't control it, they call in the local police.

When some idiot kid who has got some nasty drugs from somewhere uses those drugs at the gathering, and goes crazy, there is an experienced team who will literally sit on the kid, make sure the kid is safe, give them water, keep them warm, and get them through it. They won't hesitate to call for an ambulance if needed.

Being out of control at a gathering is not acceptable. You will be taken to the parking lot and turned over to local authorities. Yes, this is done only as a last resort, but it is done when it needs to be. In fact, it is likely that some of those 27 arrests that were mentioned in your article, were initiated by the Rainbows.

So, why don't you get up and go out and meet the folks. They would never hurt you, they would welcome you. Even if you screamed nasty things at them, they would ask you to sit and have some coffee, and get to know them. ‘Cause that's just how they are.

Another FYI is that there are several kitchens at the gathering. No person ever goes hungry there. And none of that food is obtained from Dumpsters. There is "Lovin' Ovens" who bake fresh bread, hundreds of loaves every day. There is "Instant Soup" from a guy who comes all the way from Florida and sets up his kitchen to provide soup to everyone with fresh food that he buys. There is a kitchen that makes vegetarian burritos with produce and beans that they buy, fresh. And those are just a fraction of the services that the Rainbows provide for the gathering. There are numerous water stations and coffee, made with potable water.

The final thing I'd like to address is your forest. For more than 30 years, the Rainbow Family has been doing these gatherings. And never, not even one time, has any Forest Service representative done anything less than praise the way the forest has been left. As was stated in an article in this paper, not even one cigarette butt is left behind.

No matter how many unconscious young punks, no matter how many transient bums, no matter how many unthoughtful people join the gathering, the core of the Family will not leave the site until every trace of the gathering is removed.

Kathy Darden

Brownsville, Calif

 

wow!!! god these are amazing articles!
finaly the media is really taking notice of the truth ...

 

Open fire ban announced

By Mike Lawrence

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — If you want to cook hot dogs over a campfire this holiday weekend, you'll need a designated campsite with a provided and approved fire grate.













Fire officials have banned open fires, effective today, in eight counties across Northwest Colorado. They cited bone-dry vegetation and unseasonably warm temperatures as the primary cause of the ban. The restriction includes all state, federal and county lands in Routt, Moffat, Eagle, Grand, Jackson, Larimer, Rio Blanco and Summit counties.

"Current fire and fuel conditions are about a month ahead of normal," said Fire Management Officer Cliff Hutton of the Northwest Colorado Fire Management Unit, which announced the sweeping ban Tuesday.

Lynn Barclay, spokeswoman and fire mitigation specialist for the Bureau of Land Management, said that although individual agencies will set their own specific fire guidelines, Tuesday's announcement indicated that restrictions will be put in place across the region today.

"That was a broad message indicating to people that there will be some kind of fire restrictions," Barclay said. "The broad stroke is that there will be no open fires anywhere."

U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Diann Ritschard said Tuesday night that though she didn't yet know the particulars, fire restrictions for the Routt National Forest will be made effective today.

Also on Tuesday, Routt County Commissioners enacted a countywide ban on open fires, effective at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

"It's been getting progressively drier," Chuck Vale, director of the county's emergency management department, told commissioners. "We're afraid that we won't have enough (fire suppression) resources if something gets started. We're just barely wetter than we were in 2002."

In that year, the state's Department of Local Affairs reported 36 wildfires in Colorado, including the Mt. Zirkel Complex fire 25 miles north of Steamboat Springs. The Burn Ridge and Hinman fires combined to form the Mt. Zirkel Complex fire, which burned 31,016 acres, injured 14 people and cost $13.3 million.

The complex fire, started by lightning, occurred in the same area as the current Rainbow Family of Living Light gathering, which so far has drawn an estimated 4,000 people to Routt National Forest land near Big Red Park in North Routt County. The gathering ends July 7, but many participants are expected to linger in the area. The Hinman Fire started July 12, 2002.

Barclay said regional fire restrictions allow fires at "campgrounds maintained and established by the Forest Service that are identified and named."

Rainbow participants have created several large, communal kitchens throughout the gathering area. Many of the kitchens include large cook fires in deep fire pits.

Barclay said those fires would likely be prohibited, because the sites are not maintained by the Forest Service.

Routt County's fire ban, similar to the larger, eight-county ban, prohibits the following activities:

■ Building, maintaining, att�--ending or using any fire to burn trash, debris, fence rows or vegetation. Any campfire, warming fire or charcoal grill, except in designated campgrounds, picnic areas or developed recreational sites. Charcoal grills at private residences are not banned.

■ Smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle or building, a developed recreation site, or while stopped in an area of at least 3 feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable material.

■ Operating a chain saw without a USDA or SAE approved spark-arresting device properly installed and in effective working order. A chemical pressurized fire extinguisher and a round pointed shovel are also required for chain saw use.

■ Welding or operating an acetylene torch or other torch with an open flame, except within an area that is barren or cleared of all flammable material for at least 10 feet on all sides from the equipment.

■ Using explosives requiring fuse blasting caps.

The following activities are exempted from the fire ban in Routt County:

■ Any fires contained within liquid-fueled or gas stoves, fireplaces within buildings, and permanent fire pits or fire grates located in developed picnic grounds and campgrounds.

■ Burning of irrigation ditches located within and completely surrounded by irrigated farmlands, where such burning is necessary for crop survival and a specific written permit has been granted in advance by the Routt County Sheriff.

Routt County's fire ban will be in place until county commissioners remove it, upon the recommendation of Vale and Routt County Sheriff John Warner.

 

now that will make this gathering VERY VERY interesting..

i see someone getting a ticket...

 

Wow ,, so hehehe,, im not goin there..

should be some happy campers by the end of this movie...

 

Gray areas in Rainbow clash

Forest Service says officers were hurt in Monday confrontation

By Alexis DeLaCruz

Thursday, June 29, 2006

The U.S. Forest Service estimates almost 5,000 people are in the Routt National Forest for the annual Rainbow gathering, which starts Saturday.

It is also estimated that up to 20,000 will attend the gathering, which is near Big Red Park about 35 miles north of Steamboat.

About 250 citations have been issued to Rainbow Family members since officers began citing the members for not having a special-use permit, Forest Service spokeswoman Denise Ottaviano said.

Ottaviano also said officers used pepper spray and nightclubs Monday to clear a large group of Rainbow Family members who surrounded them.

Ottaviano said one Rainbow Family member was arrested in the incident, although she did not know the person's name or what he or she was charged with. Ottaviano said three Forest Service officers sustained minor injuries in the confrontation.

Ottaviano said the incident began at about 5 p.m. as 15 Forest Service officers walked through the gathering. Ottaviano said the officers were attempting to contact group members about growing fire concerns when a group of more than 100 Rainbow participants surrounded the officers. Some of the officers were shoved by family members, she said.

Ottaviano said no Rainbow Family members were injured in the incident.

Forest Service officers have been accused of undue violence, as well. Marie Jensen, 50, a former child advocacy lawyer and current Steamboat Springs resident, said she witnessed an "extremely disturbing incident" on her way to visit the Rainbow gathering at about 10 a.m. Saturday morning.

Jensen said as she drove up to a Forest Service roadblock near the gathering site, a young woman, likely a Rainbow participant, was sitting cross-legged on the side of the road, with her hands behind her head and fingers interlaced. Jensen said a female Forest Service officer picked the young woman up by the belt loop and shirt collar, then "physically threw her into the ground, face-first."

"It was the most awful thing I've ever seen," Jensen said. "I couldn't believe this Forest Service lady was throwing this girl around. The officer was using unreasonable force in response to the situation -- it was way over the top. There was no eminent danger; there was nothing threatening."

Forest Service spokeswoman Diann Ritschard said Tuesday that she had "not heard one word" about the incident, and "had no idea" whether it happened.

Ottaviano said Forest Service officials will continue to patrol the camps and enforce fire bans.

Officers are "intermittently" manning a checkpoint at the entrance to the Rainbow gathering near Forest Service roads 500 and 550. Officers will continue to advise those who pass through the checkpoint that the gathering is illegal because the Rainbow Family's special-use permit was denied last week.

-- Reporter Mike Lawrence

contributed to this report.

 

Sound off: June 25

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Excessive enforcement





Note to Forest Service law enforcement officials: If you really feel that strongly about the Rainbow gatherers having a "free" permit prior to their official permit dates, then maybe you could escort old Grampa Rainbow himself back to your offices to fill out the necessary paperwork. Don't you think your current enforcement actions are being just a little, OK, a lot excessive? Personally, I'm not a big fan of hordes of hippies congregating in my local national forest. But from what I've seen so far, any conflict that has arisen from this gathering is the direct result of your no-tolerance approach.

Glad you're here

A sincere and heartfelt welcome, Rainbow Family, from one Steamboat old-timer. Or welcome to a Steamboat Springs of the past, when all visitors were welcomed equally. That was a Steamboat of live and let live, when tolerance was a family value and law enforcement officers didn't force confrontations or draw their weapons on unarmed crowds.

Believe it, pedestrians walked around intoxicated, lazy dogs acted like speed bumps in city streets, kids happily skateboarded everywhere, we rode bicycles in the dark without headlights, and people played with dogs in their yard -- unleashed -- without our neighbors calling the cops to report such things.

Stranger still, Steamboat is deliriously happy to welcome up to 28,000 people the last week in December and thousands every week for Triple Crown, many of whom won't even buy groceries here. If you ride snowmobiles or ATVs in the forest, come on up -- we want you in the forest, even the roadless areas. So, there it is. Steamboat has changed. Some of us welcome you and are glad you are here. Peace be with you.

Makes me wonder

I never heard of the Rainbow group until they arrived in Steamboat on their way to the festival. I am sure that most are peaceful, loving souls just trying to enjoy this celebration. However, the few rotten apples that tag along with the group and come into Steamboat to steal, etc., are not welcome. The residents of Steamboat are protective of this beautiful city and will not tolerate this behavior.

Also, I don't see what the problem is with signing a permit to camp if there are over 75 people. That's the law. Abiding by the laws is part of being a conscious, spiritual person. They could have bypassed the whole incident that occurred with them throwing rocks and sticks and guns being drawn by the Forest Service officers if one person in their group took the initiative to sign the permit. It seems as if the Rainbow group is creating their own problems due to a lack of cooperation. Makes me wonder.

 

From Today's Pilot:

"Law enforcement: On June 26, while law enforcement officers walked the gathering to discuss resource concerns, gathering participants attempted to surround their position and became verbally abusive. When officers began questioning the individuals and attempted to obtain their identification, the individuals became uncooperative and ran from the officers. As the officers where in the process of apprehending the suspects a confrontation ensued. Fifteen Forest Service law enforcement officers were surrounded by a hostile crowd of approximately 200+ people from within the gathering. Individuals from the crowd assaulted three officers, pulled the suspects away, and piled on top of one of the suspects to prevent his apprehension. Officers were forced to defend themselves with the use of pepper spray and batons. Three officers received minor injuries that required medical attention including a female officer who was elbowed in the face and chest. Officers were able to escape the hostile crowd and take one person into custody."

 

what an amazing article....and it made my partner feel so much better. his daughter is there with his "stuck in the moment" ex-wife and is worried about his baby because he hasn't heard a word. we assume there is no communication means there. but as i read the article to both he and myself, i was covered with goosebumps.


of course the media is making note. there is a consciousness so strong moving across the globe that its leaking into everywhere. even our media. lets hope sooner than later it gets in our rulers. but well money will always lead some people instead of love. but LOVE is spreading. i feel it and i know you do too even if there is fucked up shit going on in the world, when you dont listen to the reports but "be the change you want to see" you see so much truth passing into peoples consciousness. least that has been my experience. many people arent aware of it yet....but its happening.