January 24, 2004

Dear Jeff,

I thought I should share a few thoughts with you.

First, commendations for bringing together the people you did in San Francisco. Despite whatever remarkable views may have been expressed, and despite however far from what you may have dreamed of, that meeting was no doubt a valuable step.

Last year, in going through the permit process, there were agreements given to me and accepted by me in good faith, put in writing and spoken clearly as recorded agreements. Most of these were lived up to. In general things like the traffic, public safety, health, and environmental protection went extremely well.

But there were certain major commitments that were not kept to, and in particular these I bring up here have cost us much goodwill.

The first of these is that the Incident Command Team treated me endlessly like the only person they could go to talk to about dozens of issues they knew could only be resolved by the people working in those areas (medical, traffic, water, kitchens, etc.) Despite the Undersecretary's letter which declares bluntly that a signer attains no capacity as an officer, the IC Team put me de facto in that position.

In the same vein, the Operating Plan itself was not put together by onsite volunteers and Forest Service personnel as agreed; no, it was unilaterally prepared and delivered to me, without discussion with any onsite workers/planners/volunteers. Several problems that occurred could or would have been avoided if that operating plan had been worked out with participants.

Eventually the FS resource people began communicating directly with the people involved, and that contributed to an excellent cleanup. From my first written contact I requested - and it was agreed - that the cleanup crew specifically would receive a letter from the Ranger District indicating that the rehab work was successfully completed, and this be given to the crew on departure.

This letter was delayed two months, and then only after repeated written, phone and faxed requests was such a letter sent, to who? To me. Not even the courtesy extended to the hundreds souls who did the hardest job of the whole Gathering, by addressing this "cleanup" letter to them. This was no mistake, not after all the discussion specifically on this point; nor for a moment do I think it was the hard-working District Ranger who determined that it just couldn't be addressed to the people who did the beautiful job.

The fourth assent was that given a legal (permitted) event and a cooperative process, we would see a reduction in law enforcement throughout the Gathering. That's not what we saw. And the reason is that the IC Team didn't believe the permit would be granted even if applied for. Why not? Because they themselves were working to invoke inapplicable Utah State Laws, in order to keep the Gathering illegal.

And they found themselves at the last with a huge posse of Special Agents, already brought in, already arranged and paid for...with a legal Gathering to attend to. And we saw people torn from their cars and searched for no reason but DWR (Driving While Rainbow); rogue officers spreading patently untrue sexual allegations that they fabricated; officers ticketing people who put down their dog's leash for a moment to shoulder their own pack, federally deputized horses peeing and pooping in kitchens, children's areas, bakeries, and the mounted officers atop them threatening arrest for "interfering" to anyone who dared so much as speak up about this, etc.

These are what has made it impossible for me to find so much as two persons willing to come forward and follow the permit course. I approached that task last year with as much positivity and hope and deep thought and hard work as I could to make that permit process work; I felt I kept my parts of the bargain I signed.

But it is up to the people who watched it happen to decide for themselves whether this is a workable process, or to continue to try to change the way things are.

I think that if the government had addressed the various volunteers at the event regarding all the processes of the event; if the government had prepared the operating plan with participants; if the government had delivered the cleanup letter to the cleanup crew as promised; and if the government had shown an appropriate level of law enforcement at a lawful event, there would be a line of people ready to be the next signers. Everyone gave me a fair chance to show how the process works, or could work. I continued thru with the process even when - along the way - there were obvious indications that Incident Command wasn't honoring agreements made by Administrative Staff. We are - for better or worse - on the road these actions have brought us to. Maybe, by the final order not to address a simple letter like the cleanup letter as agreed, the IC thought they were adding the final straw to alienating the participants from wanting to participate in the permit process, and maybe, in that, they were right. I can only hope that intelligent minds like Regional Forester Blackwell, his administrative superiors, his staff, and those they can count on, will see some way to work this out with the real volunteers who come forward to prepare the upcoming Gathering. I think everyone is willing to work together in the field(s and hills) to make a fine Gathering. It's on the papers and in the fine print that it's more difficult.

When, briefly, I met Mark at the Gathering during the 5th of July Brunch, we spoke about a get together to talk sometime later in the fall. I do have some regrets about not attending, after helping in many ways to arrange the meeting, but the actions I've just described put me in a corner where the only way I could be sure to see the Agency talking and listening to those other than myself was by my absence. I hope no one, you especially, takes any personal offence at this, but it seemed the only way to be clear about where people really stand.

Again, I've heard many renditions of the Park Branch Library Meeting, and I know you suffered much watching it. But it was a brave thing to instigate and in the end after the catcalls subside the real value of what you did will be clear.

Garrick