Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Flower vs. Power
The US Forest Service needs to chill out. So far they have handed out 200 citations to only 1500 people who have showed up at the annual Rainbow gathering of aging hippies and new agers in New Mexico's forests. The encampment site near Cuba will supposedly host 10,000 Flower children over the next week. The Forest Service has made sport out of hassling these folks by bringing in law enforcement personnel from all over the country. Last year the situation nearly got out of hand with heavily armed squads with drawn weapons in the midst of crowds with children present. It is ridiculous. Hopefully the new Chief of the Forest Service will take stop this unnecessary provocation next year.
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3 comments:
Jim,
I agree with you. Taos was "up in arms" about these folks when they were considering camping near Tres Piedras. These were the neo-Taosenos, not the older residents. Check out the Taos News if you get a chance and look for articles on the Taos Men's homeless shelter. They have been denied a permit to occupy land in town due to neighbor concerns about the undesirables living among them.
Just goes to show - bigotry can be very subtle but is still just as insidious.
Charlie
Yeah quit picking on the hippies already. That is so... 1970s.
I've been to quite a few of these gatherings. Their stated purpose is "to pray for peace on this planet". For me personally, it is that and also a celebration of America and Freedom and our right to assemble peacefully as granted by the Constitution. I think it is no coincidence that the event culminates on the 4th of July. I'm a software architect by trade and while some might consider me a "Hippie", I don't think of myself as one. It saddens me that that so much effort is put into squelching the activities of a minority that is only trying to exercise its rights as Americans.
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