In our neck of the woods we have wind, rain coming down
pretty well, more wind and more clouds coming in – like so many others we are
wondering when Spring will arrive.
Had a good, ‘late’ Easter dinner with some of the kids
yesterday. We always cook for left overs and just let them divide up the
leftovers for each family. We will all be eating left overs for the next
couple of days.
It was good seeing everyone – difficult getting more than
two together at one time with so many variations in schedules, days off, etc.
We share the menu so everyone brings something, much easier
for Carla and me; and we all enjoy the feast.
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FYI: This is a long dissertation, but, I felt I had to
say something.
For those that have read my book, you have basically read
this most of this before.
I just finished watching the six part series, “Wild, Wild
West” which is about the Rajneesh era in the County of Wasco, Oregon.
It is a good propaganda piece for the Rajneesh Religion, but
errors in ways that I can only begin to discuss.
Sheila purchased the Big Muddy Ranch in Southeast Wasco
County on behalf of the Rajneesh and his religion.
Her stated purpose to the people in Wasco County and
eventually to the rest of Oregon, was that they wanted to have a place for him
to reside, be with him and for them to practice state of the art agriculture
techniques.
I am pretty sure that is also what she told the Realtor that
showed her the 100 square miles, 64,000-acre ranch.
If she had told the Realtor that she wanted to build a
community capable of dealing with 10,000 people or 100,000 people, depending on
the day, she would have been told that this is zoned for agriculture only, and
structures supporting that many people would not be allowed.
In addition to housing was the need for the things that
would be needed to support such a population, starting with available water.
(Yes, I know they dammed up the creek and made a nice lake, which would
help, but couldn’t begin to cover the needs of a large community and keep it
sustainable.)
This was a cattle ranch. While some farming could be
done on the lower parts, (just a few very acres) the rest of the property
is many made up of sage brush, junipers, very little top soil, rocks and land
that is usable only for the raising of cattle. It took several acres to
raise one cow due to the sparseness of vegetation.
There have been several stated (or speculated) reasons why
she chose this ranch over places she had visited. First, it met the
criteria of isolation, they could go about their life without outside
observations.
Also she felt this would be the ideal place for where her
husband could be reincarnated and come back to her.
She fell in love with the ranch as she drove down the narrow
road and just had to have it.
For those that have never visited the ranch, going over a
small knoll looking out over the property you see purple hills and a feeling of
serenity as you drive down the long narrow road to the bottom of the ranch
where the original house still sits.
You are away from the world, isolated and unencumbered by
cell phones and other wireless technologies along with noise, pollution, and
other things that encroach into your life that disturb you in the rest of the
creation. It is beautiful.
Her stated purpose was farming and that there would only be
about 150 people living and working there.
When KD and others met with the Wasco County Planner, Dan
Durrow, that was what they told him. When they went around to the
different service organizations assuring everyone that they would be good
neighbors and good farmers they continued to state there would be very few
people on the ranch.
The whole movement in Wasco County, the whole precept was
built upon a lie that was soon shown to be a lie; as hundreds of people started
moving onto the ranch and non-agriculture buildings started being erected it
raised everyone’s concerns.
What were they really doing?
To be sure there were those that were opposed to the
Rajneesh religion itself and therefore the followers – especially after the tax
and other problems they had in India and many had watched the film “Ashram”
which was filmed at the Rajneesh Ashram in India and depicted a very violent
culture.
The illegal building heightened their concerns about the
followers and what they thought they were capable of doing.
But Planning Director Dan Durrow, the Wasco County Planning
Commission, the Wasco County Court as well as the other officials, elected and
appointed, couldn’t care less about the religion, they were charged with the
responsibility of upholding existing laws.
And the first and most prominent laws the Rajneesh were
breaking was the Land Use Laws of the State of Oregon. They were cited,
went to court fighting the citations, and when they lost they appealed –
continually building the buildings that were not agriculture related.
As an example, they wanted to build a large building to hold
their meetings, it amounted to over 88,000 square feet. They were told,
no. It was not compatible with farming.
So, they decided to build a greenhouse in the same location
with the same dimensions, but, low and behold, after building it they found it
couldn’t be used as a greenhouse – so it became their meeting area.
I have a friend who managed a propane company in
Madras. They supplied the tanks and propane to the commune. One day
a couple of them came in and asked him what it would take to heat such a
building.
When he asked the size, they told him 2 acres. He
looked at them and said, “I don’t know, I have never figured heating by the
acreage before.” He figured it out and that was how they heated the
greenhouse/meeting area.
They treated the laws of Oregon like a strong-willed child
tries to treat the rules of the parents. “You tell me I can’t, well, I am
going to do it anyway.” If they are not held accountable they continue
the behavior and it becomes worse over time.
Because the Appeal process takes so long, there were no
immediate repercussions for the Rajneesh actions, so they continued, even
though the judge knew they were continuing to disobey the law and warned them
that they might end up having to tear down all those buildings.
In the United States one of the worst claims you can make
against an official (or anyone else for that manner) is unfair bias and
treatment for a religious reason – and the Rajneesh worked that to a fine-tuned
machine.
They made the whole issue about being told no because of
their religion. They milked the sentiments for all they were worth.
In the series there are segments of news casts of local
residents who were opposed to the Rajneesh. Frankly, it showed many as
being the prejudiced people they were accused of being and gave the perception
that these news segments were taken right after the Rajneesh started in.
Those segments are not dated. But as you look at some
of the background you can see several children dressed in the Rajneesh style
clothing as well as several Rajneesh standing around – these people were part
of the responses to what was happening when it became obvious the Rajneesh were
breaking the law.
The Rajneesh were intelligent and were more ‘sophisticated’
than their ‘country cousins.’ They used intimidation and aggressiveness
like an ax as they cut through any opposition and the residents were getting
the brunt of those tactics.
Early on the residents of the county felt that they were
ignored by the State Officials as they tried to get them to look into their
situation. Many of those officials just called them bigoted rednecks,
refusing to listen or help.
Since the Rajneesh were having difficulty with the county
permitting system they decided to have their own city at the Ranch.
Any incorporated city in Oregon not only can issue its own
permits, but they can establish ordinances, create a police department, create
their own court system, obtain access to the National Crime Information System,
the DMV data for Oregon among other things. They can pass taxes, they can
receive proportional support for the gas and tobacco taxes.
In short, they can become autonomous, free from the County’s
rules and decisions on planning.
Eventually Wasco County allowed the creation of a City at
the Ranch, but in the meantime the citizens of the City of Antelope, knowing
how a city operates, were very concerned that the Rajneesh had targeted them
for a takeover.
They decided to disincorporate the city charter and just be
a community dependent entirely on the services of the county.
As the election date neared more and more Rajneesh came into
the community. Under Oregon law, at the time, they could declare
residency and sign up to vote on the same day as the election and several did
just that.
City of Antelope became City of Rajneesh. A police
department was created. They went from having very little (and needing
very little) law enforcement presence; the citizens now had 24 hour a day
coverage with at least two officers on duty if not all the time, most of it.
They made their presence known. I was told they were
constantly shining lights into residents’ homes, closely watching the less than
40 residents and all their movements.
The closest law enforcement agency to the city was actually
in Jefferson County, the county seat is Madras, about a half hour away – the
Sheriff’s Office was small, which didn’t matter, because they didn’t deal with
Antelope, that was the responsibility of Wasco County, and we were stationed in
The Dalles at least two hours (in good weather) away. To be sure the
Oregon State Police also could respond to any emergency, but they too were a
long way off and understaffed.
With Law Enforcement being hours away when called upon, the
longtime citizens actually felt they were in occupied territory from a foreign
invader and the Rajneesh did nothing to relieve that feeling.
The one State Official that took action as soon as he could
was Dave Frohnmeyer, Oregon Attorney General. His allegations that the
cities of Rajneesh were operating illegally, being controlled by the religious
needs of Rajneesh, were eventually proven out.
He advised the Police Academy to stop allowing the Rajneesh
officers to come to the academy and not to certify them as officers – among
other things.
He was vocal, and more importantly visible, in his efforts
to curtail the lawless behavior of the leaders.
Tension between the residents in the area, Wasco County in
general and the Rajneesh continued to escalate. Each fearful of the
other.
There was prejudice on both sides; neither trusting the
other.
In addition to continuing to build – even after they became
a city at the ranch they would build in the area outside the city and refuse to
obey the rulings handed down on those areas – they started plotting ways to
take over county government.
They brought in homeless people from major cities all over
the country. It didn’t take long to figure out why, they would use these
people to vote and take over the county; making sure that elected officials
they deemed more moderate to them were elected – with the eventuality of
electing their own people to the County Commission and they could then appoint
someone they could control as the Planning Director among other things.
The series briefly touches on what happened in the court
house when a bus load of the people was brought in to register to vote.
However, it isn’t a fair depiction.
Then County Clerk, Sue Profit, read a statement to everyone
in the hallway, she was accompanied by her chief deputy, Karen LeBreton and
another clerk Linda Brown. While she did say that all registration from
that point on would be rejected – and that is where the series stops – she also
said that they would have a means for everyone to come forward and prove they
had been in the county for the required 20 days (state election law had been
changed due to the take over of Antelope) and were citizens. The exclusion
of this information badly skews the truth.
AND it wasn’t just the Rajneesh’s homeless, it was
EVERYONE. Some citizens’ registrations had been ‘mysteriously’ changed to
another residence and had to re-register – they too had to go through the process.
Among the many other crimes that were committed by the
Rajneesh, that I felt the series didn’t give enough information on, was the
poisoning of the salad bars of several restaurants of The Dalles with
salmonella bacteria. This was a test run to see if they could get enough
people sick that they would not go to vote and thus lower the votes where they
would have a better chance of it going their way.
This had a profound effect on everyone in the County.
Over 750 people sought medical attention, flooding the
hospitals in The Dalles, Hood River and Goldendale. Many others just
toughed it out or saw their doctors later. In the series, I believe, it
is glossed over.
Some restaurants had to close their doors almost
immediately, as they lost business and their reputations, others struggled for
years before they had to close their doors. Hundreds of citizens suffered
for several days, many several weeks and a large number are still suffering
from that attack more than 34 years ago.
The bacteria seem to be their basic weapon of choice as they
assaulted and almost killed county commissioners and the Jefferson County
District Attorney and some of their own people.
During the investigation in September of 1985, Oregon State
Police Lieutenant Dean Renfro led the investigations on everything except the
Immigration issues and wire tapping.
In addition to the State Police investigators, the Attorney
General had several investigators, our office and other agencies did what we
could to support them.
While I have heard many comments that the Rajneesh were
completely open to the officers giving them all needed information and help
they could; they did not. They screened calls, among other things, only
giving a small amount of useable information.
They tried to control the investigation – criminal
investigators don’t answer to victims, witnesses or possible suspects, they
have to follow the investigation wherever it leads even if those they are
investigating don’t like it.
OSP lead investigators were in constant contact with two
Assistant Attorney Generals. On the day of the search warrant both
attorneys were on site in a command vehicle in case they were needed.
Personally, I had a daily conversation with Frohnmeyer.
While I understand the devotion to Rajneesh by his followers.
While I appreciate their frustration on what they felt was unfair treatment of
him and consequently, their religion, they are blaming the wrong people.
Many of the followers worked hard, they loved Rajneesh, they
had a feeling of accomplishment; but they had very little idea that their
paradise was built on lies and a complete disregard for the laws that governed
land use in Oregon.
While they are proud of their accomplishments at the ranch,
it was all built on sand. It was doomed from the start when Sheila lied
about why she was buying the property and then instigated the many violations,
harassment, and crimes to make it happen.
In the series she states she served her time and is now
free. She once again lies. She served her federal time, but not her
state crime.
The federal authorities were to call the Oregon Corrections
Dept the day she finished her sentence so the department could pick her up and
bring her back to Oregon.
They didn’t do it (we can speculate on that). They
didn’t call until later the next day allowing her over 24 hours to get out of
the country and go to Switzerland where we do not have an extradition treaty
with the U.S.
The series tries to consolidate the four years the Rajneesh
were in Wasco County into 6 hours less the credits time. That was a
daunting task and some things had to be left out of the series.
It is understandable how they could not possibly cover it
all, but I feel they downplayed the crimes, the ‘torture’ the local citizens
underwent and how much of it was based on the Rajneesh leaders’ arrogance,
disrespect of county citizens and their elected and appointed officials,
willful wrong doing – thumbing their noses at all of them.
The leaders were criminally culpable for their
actions. Those actions, beginning at the signing of the papers awarding
them the ranch, to the attempted murders, arson and multiple other crimes, is
what caused the downfall of the ranch.
They never should have purchased and built on that property,
Sheila duped the followers – she should have purchased property where they
could legally build on and accomplish their dream. That property was
available throughout the United States including Oregon.
She did not.
That is the reason Rancho Rajneesh is no longer in
existence.
In my opinion the last hour, in particular, plays on the
emotions of the followers, way more than it should – thus downplaying the
emotions of the other victims, the citizens of Wasco County.
Later, Art (-:
