Where Do I Poop?

There have been a few versions of booklets that help gathering participants understand the logistics of the gathering.

Where Do I Poop? is the latest?   Find the full PDF online, print out copies, and distribute when you get to the gathering.

Minimizing LEO Harassment at Gatherings

There are things that we can do to minimize the negative impact of LEO (Law Enforcement Officer) presence at gatherings and render them relatively impotent.

First off, every cop that sets foot anywhere in the gathering should have escorts. Escorted cops can't do much damage. However, it's very important that police escorts be done appropriately.  As with everything gathering related, we should have a minimum of three people. If you see someone walking alone with the cops, join in but only refer to each other by "sibling."  No names in front of the LEOs.

I'm sure there are many other ideas floating around, but as someone who has been spending a lot of time walking with cops over many, many years, here is my 2 cents. 

People escorting LEO should not interfere in their actions and keep a safe distance. Who safe is safe?  That varies by years generally.  If they are friendly, have a conversation with them. If not keep your distance. 

Someone should run ahead and yell six-up to warn our family that cops are coming up the trail.

Hopefully, someone has video equipment and is capturing the entire thing on tape, computer chips or whatever. You never know when a calm cop walk will blow up and the camera needs to be working before the blow up.

People doing escorts should not have any outstanding warrants or be carrying anything on their person that would be judged illegal by a court of law.  If you are high, it's not your turn. 

It helps if you have can display a non-confrontational demeanor and remember to walk like Ghandi or Robin Williams.

It's best to have three or more people doing this on each escort, but due to a lack of folks helping with cop watch these last few years, I've spent a lot of time on my own with 6 or 8 cops in the woods - definitely not a great situation and one I don't recommend unless you have a lot of practice under your belts.

If you can carry on a friendly low key conversation with any of the officers, that helps minimize tension.


If anything happens, video, write down details and if someone is arrested, make sure someone knows and will go after them to town and bail them out. If you don't know the person being arrested or their friends, go to INFO and post an announcement, let the INFO crew now and please announce it at main circle.

We all know how hard scouting is and access roads are both a blessing and a curse. They provide ease of access for disabled family and kitchens bringing in supplies in hand carts. Unfortunately they also
allow ease of access for the USFS LEOs.

As we don't know what this year's site will be, there's a couple of things we can do to minimize problems. Keep kitchens and camps off the road. Just cause a road goes through or near the sites, doesn't mean everyone needs to set up there. Explain to people before the gathering, at the front gate, at Welcome Home and when you see them setting up that the folks camped near the road or hanging out there are easy pickens for cops.

If you don't deal well with cops, then please don't. When someone yells six-up, just fade into the woods and let them pass. Engage in passive resistance.

OK Here's my pitch for middle aged + women. I'd love to have a tight crew willing to do cop walks together and even do it naked if we need to. Nothing like some nice cellulite and saggy breasts to take the fight out of the cops. I think middle aged + women make awesome cop walkers.The cops generally aren't threatened, we tend to be good at idle chit chat, and it's a great way to walk off those extra pounds.

Finally, cop watch is not an organized thing. If you see cops walking or driving and they are not being escorted, then tag you're it. If you get tired, try to recruit replacements before you drop out.

And my desperate plea. If someone walking with the cops taps you on the shoulder and asks you to run a message to someone, please take this seriously and do as you are asked - the person you keep out of jail might be your husband, wife, brother or daughter. We need to work together on this. 

Respect

The gathering of the tribes is dedicated to creating peace on earth and the positive evolution of the planet. Sometimes peace seems so hard to attain, it can be helpful to focus on strategies that create opportunities for peace.  Today's concept is "Respect."

From the beginning, the gathering included concepts of respect. The invite to the first gathering in 1972 started off:

We, who are brothers & sisters, children of God, families of life on earth, friends of nature & of all people, children of humankind calling ourselves Rainbow Family Tribe, humbly invite:
All races, peoples, tribes, communes, men, women, children, individuals -- out of love.
All nations & national leaders -- out of respect
All religions & religious leaders -- out of faith

 If I were authoring the invite today, I would modify it to:
All races, peoples, tribes, communes, humans and other living things -- out of respect and love.

So how then does respect contribute to creating peace?

Peace needs nurturing and dialog to plant its roots and grow.  Peace needs food and water.  If we do not respect the needs of peace and honor those needs, we are doomed to failure.  So how then do we go about creating respect at our gatherings?

When we gather, we are a community with a diversity of backgrounds, religious beliefs, political affiliations, interests, hopes and dreams. Honor that diversity in each of us -- our differences are what make us capable and interesting. Our connections are what make us strong.

The following ideas are commonly shared ideas, I didn't invent them, but I find it helpful to be reminded of them.

Respect is one of the core values in our attempts to create an egalitarian culture. By approaching my family with respect I am laying the roots for a relationship. By treating people the way they wish to be treated, I can connect with others. If I offer respect to another person, that person is more likely to offer respect to me and to others. People who are treated with respect, learn how to treat others with respect.

We are all part of this big, wonderful planet called earth and hence we are all connected. Rather than trying to severe these connections, let's strengthen them. In 1994 at the Wyoming annual gathering, a forest fire occurred at the edge of the gathering up on a ridge. We formed a human bucket line from the creek at the bottom of the meadow to the ridge. None of us could have individually carried enough water up that hill quickly enough to put out that fire. But standing shoulder to shoulder and passing buckets hand to hand, we connected water and fire and extinguished the flames.

Separate issues from people in a respectful manner. When someone is engaging in non-respectful behavior, respect the person enough to explain why the behavior is creating an issue that needs to be addressed.  And always focus on the behavior not the person.

Acknowledge the emotions behind the inappropriate behavior and ask the person if they could refrain from the behavior and share their feelings with us instead. We all do this with our children when we refrain from saying "you're bad" and instead say "you made a poor choice"  or "please use your words to tell your brother why you are upset instead of hitting him."  Why can't we use this same method with adults?  Especially those of us who are children in the bodies of adults.

As the early gatherers (or earlies as they are more commonly known) wrote a long time ago "we are all of us children" as we are just now learning how to live with each other.  Be patient. Some of us learn more quickly and some of us learn less quickly. We all started from different places so we all have different journeys ahead of us. Let's be fellow travelers on this uncharted sea.

Everyone has an opinion and their opinion is no better nor worse than my opinion or your opinion. When we create space for people to freely share their thoughts without fear or judgement, we are creating a space where we respect each other.

Listen. We show our respect to others by listening to what they have to say. We not only listen with our ears, but our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our hands.  When people feel heard, they feel respected. When they feel respected, they are more likely to respect others.

Respect is an important starting point for creating peace.

Filtered Drinking Water Fundraiser May 9th on Zoom

Please help support clean water for drinking in the woods!

Saturday May 9, on https://EverybodysZoom.net

8pm ET Kitchen Sanitation/Water Filtration Tech-Talk

9pm ET Variety Show/Open Mic

Donate: https://gofund.me/1dd8ac1ed

If you would rather bring supplies than donate $$, please reach out to to rainbowwaterfundraiser at gmail dot com and ask for a shopping list.  Be prepared to arrive with purchased items very early as we will need them on or around June 19th.

 

 

On Shanti Sena

 

Some would say the phrase “Shanti Sena” means “peace army” from Sanskrit and has its roots in Gandhi’s concept of non-violent volunteer based peace keepers. While in gathering lore, some would translate the phrase as peace scene.  No matter the logical translation you wish to put on it, I translate it as being part of a family and looking out for my family in peaceful ways.

In the years of the strife between gatherers and the United States Forest Service Law Enforcement Officers (USFS LEOs), the phrase came to spell trouble for the LEOs and by 2008/2009 many gatherers actually thought the cops were the Shanti Sena (so not true). Because of the many misconceptions floating around, I thought I would take the time to rap about my perspective on keeping the peace at a gathering.

As many of my friends point out, “Shanti Sena” is a verb not a noun. In other words, no one “is” Shanti Sena, but many people “do” Shanti Sena. Most functions at the gathering are verb rather than noun based.

In a culture where individual liberty and communal needs often clash, countless opportunities arise to “do” Shanti Sena and keep the peace.

Before we worry about keeping the peace, we need to define “peace.”  For different people, “peace” takes on different connotations. For some, acting peacefully precludes any acts of physical violence, but yelling is considered peaceful. For others, cussing is not peaceful. For every one hundred gatherers, there are probably ninety different perspectives on what “peace” means. When we gather, I believe that 99.999% of gatherers have every intention of creating peace. We’ll get back to the 0.001% later.  So how then do we create and increase the peace at the gathering and take those skills into the world at large?

In my perspective, the single most important aspect to “doing” Shanti Sena is to be observant. Sure there are big movies that happen and lots of gray haired folks get involved with radios, but most of the time when a big movie happens, the root cause was a failure of each and every one of us to pay attention to the hurt, suffering, pain and/or stress building up around us.  (As an aside, not everyone with a radio has a clue.)

Reality check!  Going to a gathering, especially for the first time, can be very stressful. It’s a crash course in a brand new culture. Learning how to access food and filtered drinking water can be challenging. Being unprepared for the conditions can leave people cold and wet or sitting up by a fire all night to stay warm instead of sleeping. Many people who take medications for chronic conditions often seem to space out on taking their meds, leaving their health further compromised. Dehydration, low blood sugar, and lack of sleep are just a few of the stressors gatherers experience -- add to that doing activities or substances that are new to you. When one small thing goes wrong, people who are stressed out can explode.

Being observant means noticing that some belly is having a hard time or a bad day. Allowing each of us to be our own unique self means not telling other people what to do. Telling people to eat or drink can backfire. So what’s a kind loving brother or sister to do?

Pay attention to the people around you. Notice if they seem to be struggling, are confused or look disoriented. Offer to share your water or an energy bar you might have on you (always good to bring lots of these). Introduce yourself and make a friend. Usually people are more willing to share their troubles with a friend, than someone just trying to fix a problem. Share a song or a joke if the vibe feels right. Sometimes people are in their own head space and don’t want to interact. That’s OK.  You can still stay near them (but not too near) just in case they need help. If it’s two am, please don’t walk away from someone. If someone wants to wander the woods all night, grab a couple of friends and trail after them just in case they need your assistance. 

If someone is using mind altering substances, make sure they are using the buddy system.  If they don't already have a few friends to hang with, please be that person or find someone who can be that person. Multiple times over the years, people who were under the influence wandered away from the main gathering and ended up dying. Please, please, please be your sibling's keeper.

If someone doesn’t have a safe place to sleep, try to hook them up with a camp that can help. If they have small children, Kid Village is a great place. But there are lots of other kind loving camps at the gathering that have the space to squeeze another body into a crowded tent or provide emotional support. If you yourself are new to the gathering (blessings to you for helping others), you can stop by INFO and ask for some advise.

If you find a lost kid, you and a couple of friends should escort the child to Kid Village or INFO. Make sure to take the child up to the kitchen and announce very loudly that you have a lost child. DO NOT JUST DROP THE CHILD OFF AT KID VILLAGE or INFO.

If someone is having a health crisis and is willing, take her/him to CALM (First Aid). Most of the larger kitchens/camps like Om Shalom, Loven Ovens, and Kid Village (to name just a few) have medical people as well. If the person isn’t willing to move, find someone with a radio and medical people will come to your location. If that doesn’t work, send a runner to INFO or CALM with as much information as you have about the situation. By taking care of people’s critical needs before people reach the point of explosion, we create the peace we want to see in the world.

Other times we have conflicts that arise from differing lifestyles. For example in 2002, the gathering site was small and we ended up with Tea Time and Yoga Space next to each other. Talk about a mismatch in energies. Tea Time likes to stay up all night, serve tea and make raucous noise at 3 AM. The Yoga folks are more into silent mediation and mellow energy. Two distinct energies colliding is a classic gathering issue. If we want each camp to be free to express their own vision of peace and love, what to do?  When space permits, it’s always best to camp in an area that meets your vision of what comprises peace and love. So don’t be expecting to sleep in silence until noon every day if you’re camped in Kid Village as kids wake up early.  But ….

As to the 0.001%, when the situation gets a bit crazy, yell “Shanti Sena” and other people will come and assist. With a circle of people, we can try to get a council going with the parties’ involved and where random calm and centered gatherers can sit down and listen to each other.  Keep in mind that sometimes people’s emotions are volatile and getting a council going is difficult at best. Then what?

SITTING down on the sidelines and oming tends to help ground energies. If nothing else, it makes misbehaving people feel a bit silly and often times that breaks up the situation. This doesn’t mean the root cause of the problem is solved, but at least it buys some time and space to work on the issues. I’ve experienced a beautiful voice singing an appropriate song calm everyone down as well. Peaceful, mellow music helps everyone feel better.

Sometimes problems don’t seem resolved at the time. That’s OK. Rainbow magic takes time to work. I’ve sat in circles with people who were full of anger. At some point the primary people stomped out of the circle and didn’t return.  Then a day or two or three later, I ran into those same people again, very happy and peaceful. Rainbow magic doesn’t always have a logical cause and effect.  Sometimes, just hanging out with someone for six hours prevents someone from getting lost in the woods (yes it really happens and if it’s cold out can be a cause of death), drowning in a lake (yes this has happened multiple times at gatherings) or wandering up to the road and getting arrested (you know this happens). Plus you’ve just made a new friend. The more we get to know each other, the more we create community. The more we actively work on creating community, the more we increase the peace.

If you are not able to help when the universe calls you, please, please, please, make sure someone else helps. Ask others for assistance, guide the person to one of the larger kitchens, go to INFO or CALM and let them know what’s going on. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Many years, we have Shanti Sena councils or workshops at the gathering where people who have “done” more Shanti Sena share the lessons they’ve learned with those who have “done” less or no Shanti Sena. As with everything gathering related, we are all of us teachers and all of us students. In the spirit of sharing other ideas on what Shanti Sena is and does, here are some other voices on the subject.


From Welcome Home with links to multiple Shanti Sena Raps by well respected family (must read).
From Niman - a scholarly look

Rap 121

Ask not what the gathering can do for you; ask what you can do for the gathering.

We are our siblings' keepers.