I got a huge kick out of an article in The Daily Beast titled Lakota Warriors Vow to Crush Dirty Rainbow Hippies. It is a story about a group of nebulously organized “free spirits” who plan to descend on Lakota territory in South Dakota. The real free spirits appear to be the Lakota activists protesting the event. There are some quite colorful descriptions of some of the protests in the article. This quote kind of describes the big picture:
The free spirits are planning to dig toilet trenches and occupy the Black Hills at the height of the Lakota ceremonial season. “I’ve talked to several Rainbow people who I believe try to be decent human beings,” Clark said. “And then there’s a whole messload of them who—pardon my language—are totally freaking whacked.”
Swan and Joelle say it’s particularly disturbing that the Rainbow Family has no leaders, and no one is really accountable. They pointed to reports that one of the group’s hippie pow-wows cost taxpayers $500,000 in law enforcement and forestry management in 2013.
To prevent any waves of destruction, the Forest Service sends incident management teams from Washington, DC to the Rainbow Gathering every year to supplement local law enforcement.
The article describes the drugs, polluting, aggravated battery, murder and aggravated assault that appear to have been features of previous events planned by the Rainbow Family of Living Light. My ideas on the Rainbow People are not dissimilar to those of the Lakota activists:
“We’ve gotten some [Rainbow people] saying you need to come out here and experience the hippie love,” the Lakota activist Clark told The Daily Beast. “Peace, love, we want to be your friend and respect your people. No, we don’t trust you any more than the government—possibly less.”
Betty Blonde #359 – 12/01/2009
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