Hi Sandra, much love to you and your family...

I am 100% with you on this in that I do NOT want alcohol at rainbow gatherings. Period.

A-camp is a conspiracy to destroy Rainbow from within, to make us doubt our core principles, and to water down the lofty spiritual principles that formulated our origin nearly four decades ago. Just the other day I read about an attempted murder at an A-camp somewhere on the US mainland. The alleged perp: a dude called "Buddha" with A-camp tattooed on his arm. This is what rainbow has come to?

A-Camp, to me, is a transitional ground, a hellish realm, filled with illusory happiness, where people must battle their demons before rising back up to the surface-- if they can-- to join the rest of us.

Sooooooo..... dear Sandra, I am open to ideas of how to lose A-camp altogether at our next gathering, perhaps Hawai'i's first International-style rainbow gathering. If we had a hike-in gathering, it would be logistically more difficult to haul in the booze, and drinking might settle down to mellow levels. Or, if we had a distant parking area somewhere-- way out of earshot-- we could invite A-camp to settle there to be guardians of the vehicles. Which is kind of how A-campers see themselves-- as the Warrior caste of the rainbow gathering.

One idea we had was to lose the label "Rainbow" altogether and call our next gathering "Kiddie Village", where it is clearly understood that alcohol is even more unwelcome than sugary snacks for the keiki. But this to me seems like a sad retreat, and I have not given up on the label "Rainbow" yet. I think it still has some core meaning, some core principles, and I have been lately contemplating deeply the spiritual path of the true Rainbow Warrior, for example as seen on this YouTube vid:

www.youtube.com/watch

If A-Camp must exist at all at a Rainbow gathering, it should be out of earshot or farther, and A-campers should understand that though they might be loved unconditionally by all, and welcome to join us when they are sober, we rainbow traditionalists do not like to be unwillingly subjected to their drunk energy EVER, and would prefer that when inebriated, they stay put at A-camp.

For the most part, at this year's gathering, the alcohol energy was indeed confined to A-camp. On a certain night I noticed there was some alcohol energy at main circle. A brother was stumbling drunk, having a great old time being loud and look-at-me-ish, stumbling on our blanket several times, knocking over blissware. Meanwhile, some other drinkers got the message that it must be okay to drink at main circle, and there was some hard liquor going around. And we traditional anti-alcohol rainbow folk kind of sat sheepishly sat for a while, probably not knowing what to do to get our sloppy-drunk friend back to A-camp where he belonged. My 2.5yo daughter asked "Is that man upset?"

So, I picked up the uke and did a little dance, and worked very hard to upstage the brother, and out of that came a very rousing and off-key song, and main circle was subjected to A-camp style raucous music for a while. Then, having wrested from him the centerstage, I switched into my attempt at deeper spiritual music. And the vibe calmed down. The brother did not actually leave for A-camp, but he sat down, and listened, and I have a feeling he realized he was not at his home turf, and at main circle, main circle of a RAINBOW gathering, we have only a limited tolerance for that kind of in-your-face drunk energy, and if you insist on getting yourself loaded and coming to main circle, you may very well be subjected to in-your-face spiritual music-- until you finally get the hint: WE DON'T WANT ALCOHOL ENERGY. IF WE WANTED ALCOHOL ENERGY, WE'D VISIT A-CAMP.

The Rainbow community on this island must stand united on this. Otherwise, we may lose our sovereignty and find ourselves dominated by A-camp, and fearful of them, like what happens at many US Mainland gatherings. Instead, Hawai'i Rainbow folk must look to emulate the international rainbow gatherings, which for some reason have kept the core principles of rainbow in a much purer state.

Aloha,
Benjamin