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Spokane.net »
Sudoku
 | Thursday, June 14, 2001 |
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Spokane Spokane gets the rain, Idaho gets the Rainbows Dan Hansen and Carla K. Johnson
Remember when then-Commissioner Steve Hasson said he had to leave Spokane once in a while to find culture in California? Remember when triple-A baseball decided Spokane was still a single-A town? Remember when Forbes magazine said this was a lousy place to do business? Well, we've been dissed again. This time, it's the Rainbow Family, which apparently has decided to hold its summer gathering in the Boise National Forest, although an exact location hasn't been picked. The group had been expected to pick a site in Eastern Washington or North Idaho. That means more than 20,000 hippies and other free spirits will be wandering through Boise, rather than Spokane, on their way to a meadow somewhere in the woods. The weekslong gathering, which is moved every year and draws participants from across the country, culminates July 4, when gatherers pray for peace. Those who have money will spend it in potato country. Those who are broke will But, dang, Spokane was ready. In the past several weeks, there were at least five meetings among various groups to plan for the gathering. Downtown Spokane business owners feared an increase in panhandling and talked of beefing up security. Public health officials talked of passing out free condoms. Food bank directors wondered how they could help the travelers and still meet local needs. Police feared jail bookings would break their budget. Churches saw it as an opportunity to evangelize and minister, and started holding prayer meetings to gird themselves for the task. Some eager Rainbows had gathered in Spokane, and others had set up camps in the region's forests to await instructions for where to go next. They assumed it would be somewhere in the Okanogan, Colville or Idaho Panhandle national forests. "We'll probably stay here until it (the location) is announced for sure," Jaydee Esperry, 21, said Wednesday, as she sat on the sidewalk outside Spokane's downtown library. "We don't want to leave too soon and waste gas money" by going to the wrong place, said Aaron "Springwater" McCue, 25, one of Esperry's two traveling companions. The trio hit it off with with street preacher Josh Collins, a Spokane resident who had not heard of the Rainbows until Wednesday. He was already planning to join the gathering. "I love camping and I love ministering to people and trying to bring them to Jesus," said Collins, 27. "The end is coming." Tuesday morning, a seven-member Forest Service task force that does little but monitor the Rainbows pulled out of Spokane, where they had been preparing police, business owners and others. They were so sure the Rainbows were coming here that they had made no similar effort in the Boise area. People in Lowman, Idaho, "are a little bit in shock," said Sharon Sweeney, spokeswoman of the National Incident Management Team. The speck of a town is near the likely sites for the Rainbow gathering. Near Lowman, at Cache Creek Meadow, 75 to 200 Rainbow people -- estimates vary -- are gathered this week for the group's spring council. They've narrowed the options for the summer gathering to three sites in the Boise National Forest, said longtime Rainbow member Garrick Beck of New Mexico. One woman attending the council gave birth to a girl earlier this week. She delivered in a van. "Everybody thinks it's a good sign," said Beck, one of the organizers of the first summer gathering in 1972. Spring council is the traditional decision-making body that chooses the gathering site. It can take a while, since the leaderless group strives for consensus, rather than majority rule, and allows anyone to participate. Sweeney said two Rainbows met with rangers at the Lowman Ranger District on Tuesday to ask their advice for a location. They were told that just about anyplace they meet will damage the habitat of lynx, gray wolves and other endangered critters. The spot they picked for spring council would have an especially big impact on bull trout and other endangered fish, Sweeney said. Sweeney said the district ranger suggested a few meadows where the effect of tens of thousands of campers might be lessened, and the Rainbows seemed willing to consider those locations. The final decision for the gathering location will be announced on the group's "unofficial" Web site, www.welcomehome.org. Once the location is known, someone might want to contact former commissioner Hasson. Like the Rainbows, he eventually left Spokane for Boise. This summer, he might not have to visit San Francisco to find culture.
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