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Karen Zirk posted an article five days before about a man who was escorted out of a Gathering because he allegedly had molested a teenage woman.

I saw that scene myself.

Coming up Main Trail just past the big boogie fire pit, I saw a mob of about twenty people surrounding a brother in a purple coat and a velvet top hat. The man was being held by the arms by two other men walking him forward, while the others were walking in a flattened circle around him. There was a sister walking along to the left of the group, yelling around at everybody, "Everybody take a look at this man. He is a SEXUAL PREDATOR! Everybody be sure to remember what this man looks like. See this man in the purple coat? He is a SEXUAL PREDATOR!!"

I felt like I was watching one of those parades they had in Nazi Gemany, where someone had to walk around with a sign saying something like "I'm a big swine and Jew fucker", or one of those parades thru a Paris street, just after WWII, of women with their faces shaved off because they were "collaborators". (Another person that I talked about it with the next day said it reminded her of the climactic scene in the movie "Frankenstein".)

I was totally grossed out by the whole movie. I first tried talking with the sister who was doing the yelling, telling her how I felt like I was in the places I've mentioned. She went on yelling, so I stopped. I couldn't just let it all go by, tho - so I followed it, not really knowing what to do because I felt like I was all alone against all of them, trying to put out the Dresden fire storm with a squirt gun.

They were getting a few hundred feet in front of me by the time they had descended the hill beyond Trading Circle and were getting ready to climb back up from the stream towards Welcome Home. I heard Barry Plunker's voice in the distance in front of them yelling "Stop, stop!". I ran up to the stage as I heard Plunker's voice saying phrases like "treat each other with respect...is this the way the Rainbow family treats each other with love?..."

By the time I got up, he was winding up his speech - and at this point the movie script said, "Enter Butterfly Bill". Without waiting for the others to quiet down I yelled, "I've got some things to say about this", and then went on to compare it to the Nazi and Paris parades, talking louder than I ever have anywhere at any gathering (and those of you who know me in person know that I am usually pretty quiet except when I'm cussung at my own misfortunes). Nobody said much after I shut up. I looked around to see some suppressed sobs and pained looks of "what have we done" on a few of the faces, I heard some muttering, one person tried to argue with me but it didn't get past a few exchanges. I think my final words were, "What appeal does he have from a court like this?" Plunker had dug a break in front of the fire, I emptied the water on it, and all that was left was a little steam rising.

About an hour later I said "I need a hug from Barry Plunker" upon seeing him again, and I went up to him and got a long one. He told me some more things about the story, about how the couple had been carrying on with each other and repeating the classic Cycle of Violence with each other for quite some time - about how he suspected they were into S&M, and agreed with me when I suggested she had managed to create one of the supreme masochistic games for that man by leading him into that movie. According to Barry, an hour later they were in each other's arms again having an Academy Award make-up scene.

- Butterfly Bill

IaHU-NaTaN posted an article correcting me on a few points and I replied with this:

 IaHU-NaTaN said,

You are most likely correct. What I said was hearsay, and I hope I identified it as that clearly enough. Thank you for filling out this story some more.

A painful HO...

Back in ol' Babs, they've been spending a few centuries developing concepts of due process of law, involving such things as fair trials, the rights of the accused, power to call witnesses - all designed to prevent French revolutionary scenes such as the one we've been talking about. These kinds of concepts are still in a very primitive stage of development in Rainbow shanti-sena.

When you get right down to it, every shanti-sena council at a Gathering is a summary trial, "summary" meaning that's all there is, there are no other people involved in it, people that the people in this court have to be responsible to. There is no court of appeals that can overturn their decision if they have been found to have violated the laws that are supposed to apply to everybody - judge, jury, and defendant alike. There is no set protocol for objectively examining evidence, and not letting emotions be the order of the day. (At the council, did the older brother get his 5th Amendment rights to face his accuser and call witnesses? Sounds like he did, but it's not clear.)

This does not mean that the Beast is therefore loose. There are ideals of peace and non-violence that are sought by many Rainbows, and almost always in a shanti-sena movie there will be enough of these people present to prevent vigilante feelings from prevailing. Sometimes it take a long time, tho - the parade under discussion went on for many minutes before Plunker came along to restore Rainbow order.

The intensity of the scene answers the question raised by some of the sisters at the beginning of this thread, about why this man was allowed to stay. If two strong brothers and one firm but gentle talking sister had just escorted him out without fanfare, the problem might have been over real fast. But that virtual tar and feather parade turned the whole picture around. I know I would have tried to defend ANYBODY in the middle of a scene like that, even Mike Tyson or O.J. himself. The young sister was probably remembering Rainbow ideals more than anyone there, wanting to forgive him and bring back peace.

- Butterfly Bill

Rob Savoye replied to this.