I then went home and began making the list.....

Security continued:

With 15,000 additional people in the valley and only the narrow road serving it, I wanted to be sure there would be no blocking of the county road.  One of the conditions to be met was to have a tow truck on site during the festival and ready if an accident should occur to remove any vehicles.  I would not have my staff or other emergency personnel kept from going into the area for any reason.

I knew that when an official wanted to contact someone at the Ranch it could be very difficult.  The Rajneesh made sure that people could be hard to find and deputies and other county officials would waste time trying to find them.

The Sheriff’s Office was continually serving civil papers on the Commune, often being stone walled. 

I understand they had over 150 separate corporations set up.  The corporate offices were located in the office complex above the mall.  Each corporation had a designated location within the office, for example one might be the top drawer of the fifth desk in the third row. 

Then if no one was at the desk at the moment, the deputy had to wait until they came back.  It was a game the Rajneesh enjoyed playing. 

It was also difficult to get in touch with the Police Chief, a fact I had already found out.  Therefore I also wanted the condition to include the Chief of Police would be available to me 24 hours a day during the festival and that she would return any and all of my calls within 20 minutes. 

I told them I would not work with a reserve or a security person it HAD to be the Chief, who I knew would be there the entire time.

Because the population would increase the first part of June, when some followers would be coming in to attend various classes and then stay for the festival; and after the festival when other followers would be staying over to attend other classes, I requested a daily count of people coming onto the ranch beginning June 20th. 

Someone from the Police Department was to call my office each morning by 8:00 am and give us a count.  I had a good idea of just about when people would arrive, but the daily census would help confirm the population growth. 

Since the visitors had to travel through the county it allowed me to schedule personnel accordingly.  It also gave me an indication of the numbers on the ranch at any given time. 

There were other conditions concerning the safety of the visitors, etc.  The last thing concerned the weaponry they had on the ranch.

For some time I had been told the Rajneesh had automatic weapons, there were even those that swore they saw a mounted machine gun on the helicopter that flew over the route that Bhagwan drove over every day. 

I knew that ammunition for various weapons for the rest of Oregon was in short supply and some dealers had shipped truckloads of ammo to the ranch.  Therefore, I also wanted the count and type of weapons available to them during the festival and how much ammo they possessed.

I ran the conditions by the District Attorney and informed the Commissioners I would like to present it to them during the next meeting as consideration for requirements for the permit.

I was on the agenda for the meeting. 

I presented my list of conditions for my approval to the County Commissioners who in turn gave it to the Rajneesh.  The Commissioners endorsed my list. 

The Rajneesh challenged my standing as the Sheriff-elect and my right to make conditions since I was not the Sheriff.  One of the commissioners pointed out that I would be taking office shortly, I would be the Sheriff during the festival, and therefore the conditions were to be met by the Rajneesh.  They were not happy.

They were also told that the decision of whether to issue the permit was postponed until the new commissioner be sworn into office.

The Rajneesh were very upset.  They wanted the permit approved NOW; in fact they were demanding it be approved right then.  The commissioners were well within their rights to postpone the vote and didn’t budge.

The Rajneesh were concerned because the new Commissioner had originally resigned his office when he had been advised to rule in favor of the Rajneesh over specific issues.  They thought he would be more likely to rule against giving them the permit.

The one commissioner that had lost the election frequently voted in favor of the Rajneesh; I knew him well.  He was an honest man that had a Christmas Tree Farm and with whom I had many occasions to talk.  He voted as he did out of a sense of it was right.  While many felt he had become a pawn of the Rajneesh, he was not.  While I too didn’t agree with all his votes, he was not being devious.

The other two commissioners were not so favorably impressed with the Rajneesh – and the Rajneesh were concerned that if one of them chose not to vote for the festival they would lose on a possible 2-1 vote.  These are the two commissioners they had poisoned the previous summer.

In the end the permit was issued.

They himmed and hawed for several weeks, but, finally came up with the conditions I required. One of my sergeants met with their security people and was satisfied that they had an acceptable plan.

They also had to meet conditions for the planning and health departments - all those conditions were met. 

They didn’t want to give me a weapons or ammo count, but I used their tactic of submitting a “public information request” and received an inventory.  I knew that I really had no way of verifying the information, and that it probably wasn’t completely accurate, but we at least had an idea of what was on the ranch. 

There were no automatic weapons listed nor any “machine gun” attached to the helicopter.  It would not necessarily have been unlawful for them to possess automatic weapons.  As long as the federal firearms laws are followed anyone may possess an automatic weapon.  But they only listed semi-autos rifles and handguns, revolvers, bolt action rifles and pump action shotguns.  Pretty standard issues for Police agencies.

Our deputies told me that they thought it was a fairly accurate depiction of the weaponry they had seen at the ranch.  They had never seen a weapon on the helicopter, nor had they ever seen any automatic weapons.

 

I had no reason not to approve the security and did so.

I later regretted not making one more condition, which will be written about later.  It wouldn’t happen again.

1 Samuel 18:6-9  And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick.

⁷ And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

⁸ And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom?

⁹ And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.

The relationship between Saul and David was extremely complicated.  God had originally seated Saul as King over His people, but Saul disobeyed and God told him that He would lose the kingdom.

David would be the new King and God orchestrated the events that brought David before Saul.  David served Saul with honor and obedience.  But Saul tried to have David killed many times.

The above verses are just one part of many that describe Saul’s animosity and while I am writing about these we must remember it is not an isolated incident and must be factored in with what was going on at the time.

In a word, jealousy describes Saul’s feelings towards David.  He was jealous of David’s reputation among the people and he was jealous of David’s relationship with God.

Jealousy can destroy us if we allow it.  It comes in all manners of temptations, clothing, money, cars, houses, spouses, prestige, power, authority.

In Saul’s case, he was the King.  He was the leader of a nation, yet, he was jealous of David’s rising fame.

He could have embraced David.  He could have genuinely lifted him up and given him the credit for which he deserved.

Instead, Saul saw the people’s love and admiration of David as a threat to his sovereignty and power.  In the ensuing years he would do all he could to see that David would suffer injury and be killed.

In most cases we see people aspiring for something better and being jealous of those that have attained what we want.  But we also see it when people in a higher position deal with an underling that is gifted and does well.  The person, as Saul, becomes jealous of the ‘lower’ person and refuses to give them their due.

We may think we would never do that; we would never try to kill or injure a person in a fit of jealousy.  It is done though, all the time.

And even Christians do it figuratively speaking.  They may not try to physically harm the person, but they will speak behind their backs and try to undermine their credibility.

If they are a supervisor they will try and keep the person from being successful; to keep them from becoming a threat to themselves.  They do damage because they are jealous of the person’s ability and afraid that if they give them encouragement or credit, passing along that information to THEIR supervisor’s they may be passed over for promotion in favor of the employee.

That is bad enough, but it also happens in the Church.  We see Christians gossiping and undermining other Christians because they are jealous of them.  It could be anything, the other person is ‘too perfect,’ seems to be able to move through life without struggles, has the perfect job, the perfect family, their spiritual life seems to grow without having to really work for it.

Meanwhile this person is struggling with an imperfect life; they are struggling with finances, with domestic strive.  They cannot find comfort in their spiritual life, it seems they are always struggling and just can’t meet God’s expectations.

So they start looking around, they are jealous of that ‘perfect’ person and look at ways to undermine them.

None of us are perfect, of course.  That seemingly perfect person, who is going through life unabated, may be having struggles we don’t see; and it could be far worse than we have ever faced. 

Jealousy can rule our hearts.  It can give us excuses why someone is better than us, or why someone else is getting all the recognition while we are overlooked.

Jealousy stands between us and God.  Instead of focusing on God, we focus on what others have that we don’t have.  It interferes with our relationship with God because we can’t accept where we are at the moment and want something someone else has.

It is not an easy thing to overcome.  But, it must be done.  We need to understand that God loves us and that He wants to give us all we need.  But to receive those gifts from God we must put aside ourselves and concentration on Him.

Saul lost the blessing of God and he saw it being given to David.  Who knows what could have been accomplished had Saul said, “Lord, I am sorry for my sins; I just want to serve you.  I see David being blessed by you and I want to help him become successful.”   

Philippians 4:11-13  Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

¹² I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

¹³ I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

We need to be like Paul and focus on God, not our circumstances; and certainly not on others who may seem to be doing better than us.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again