Printed in the White Mountain Independent, Navajo County Edition, on July 3rd, 1998. Volume 90 Number 53
Copyright 1998 White Mountain Publishing Company
To the Editor:
My family has lived in Round Valley for about six months now, and this is the first time that I'm actually ashamed to admit it. As a resident of Round Valley and as a Christian, I am appalled at the behavior of our city councils and the chamber of commerce.
The "Rainbows," as the locals like to call them, came to our valley for spiritual reasons. Yes, some of them came just to tag along, and some of them came to evade someone or something. But the bottom line is that they are here to spend time in their church with their God. It seems to me that many people keep conveniently forgetting that is why they are here.
I understand that the local businesses have had problems with some of our visitors and have been forced to make changes in the way they do things. I am in full agreement - if you have people destroying your facilities, you have to take action. At least they gave people the benefit of the doubt before taking action. And as the businesses discovered, it's not true that "Rainbows" are causing these problems.
Unfortunately, our city councils and our chamber of commerce aren't that open-minded. Members have chosen to remain ignorant rather than become educated about the Rainbow Family. They have chosen to hang onto their uniformed biases rather than take the chance that they might actually have something in common with the "Rainbows." They were given the prefect opportunity to gain information about this group, and they said no. Not only did they deny the meeting, they won't tell area residents why they denied it.
As far as I am concerned, our city council and chamber board members have absolutely no right whatsoever to complain or even comment about the activities of the "Rainbows." They gave up that right when they chose to turn down the request for a meeting.
We had friends who arrived who went to the Rainbow Family camp. Since they have to get back to work, the could only stay a few days and missed the culmination on July 4. When they asked us how we can stand to live in such a close-minded community, we actually had trouble answering them.
Cheryl Brandenburg
Round Valley