Peace

[dancerjodi]

I've been reading the Cage Free Family Blog and I look forward to the sporadic updates as they continue with their adventure. I'm not looking to do anything as far as going off grid, but its been inspiring to read of one family's efforts to do so (as well as blogs of other readers commenting with their own blog urls). As I try and scale down the stuff and scale up the love, friendship and experiences in my life, reading about these folks' bare-bones approach to things is thought provoking.

Their experience at The Gathering (a big hippie-type camp out) turned violent. More details are coming of course, but here's a taste of it:
http://www.cagefreefamily.com/2008/07/fear-and-terror-at-gathering.html

I hope to learn more about this and hope that the local media, ACLU and other organizations get more information out there. People are so scared of the strange that they are very quick to attack. Hopefully some coverage of these events may help folks stop and think before reacting like this.

Comments

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Wow. What the hell?? Why would "authorities" do that, especially with witnesses?

What is "off grid"?

[erik-j-meyer.livejournal.com]

According to AP sources the authorities claim they were being assaulted. link

I usually hear 'off the grid' and think of folks living in a cash only or maybe barter system.

[dancer.livejournal.com]

Here's some off grid stuff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-the-grid

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's a bigger number than I expected.

[isolatory.livejournal.com]

Tried to find some video on YouTube, but no luck.

If you can believe it, I went to a rainbow gathering back in 1989 or 1990. It was an interesting experience, not particularly my bag, but certainly worth it.

Back then, there were certainly no National Park police issuing tickets for smoking pot. When I see the 'war on drugs' taken to this level, I am truly sickened. I don't smoke pot, I don't like pot, but honestly resources could be better spent than hassling hippies. Wonder if the order trickled down from Nixon's student, Shrub. The current administration is frightenly like the old.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

My path crossed that of the Rainbow Family back in - 1980 or 81, maybe, when I was at a different event out in South Dakota hosted by the Lakota Nation. They seemed pretty nice - worked like dogs, and were unfailingly cheerful, although they drew fire from the AIM folks for using too much water and going around naked in front of the elders (said elders actually didn't mind; some officious types just wanted to piss on the "white hippie trash.") We actually had a guest appearance by a real (double) rainbow while we were setting up for the big concert at the end, which struck me as poetic. I also got a giggle out of the fact that the "white hippie trash" were catching hell for bathing, although their excessive use of water was indeed inappropriate for that particular setting. There was a river not too far distant that they could have used, and that would have been a better choice.

Man, that was long ago. I honestly don't know what I'd do if I had time to take a real vacation again. Somewhere around here I've still got a rock shaped like a footprint that I picked up out there.

Thanks for posting this

[disownedheidi.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the website. It's refreshing to know that this group of people exists, and that they do these wonderful things, and that they fight back when they see civil liberties being violated.