| 
Part VIII : Help from the media
On 5 November, Osho is transported 30 miles to El Reno Federal
Penitentiary
Every jail where I was was twenty-four hours surrounded by news
media. Hundreds of cameras, televisions, radios, newspapers—twenty-four
hours. And whenever they were taking me from one jail into another,
just the small space between the jail and the car and they will
ask me, they will say, "Bhagwan, just say one thing, are
they harming you? Then we will see them. Have they ever touched
your body? Then you don't be worried. The whole world is with
you." That made them afraid.
Thousands of telegrams in every jail, letters, poems, hundreds
of flowers….
They had to change jail to jail for the simple reason because
the moment the news media became aware that I am in one jail,
then they harassed them, asked them questions, how I am, how is
my health, where is the doctor, and we want to meet the doctor.
And this was a very dangerous situation that they had put me under
David Washington's name, and now everybody knows it.
They changed me into another jail, sixteen miles away from the
city, so perhaps no news media may reach there. But they were
wrong. News media perhaps in the West has become tremendously
powerful in helping individuals, in helping their freedom. It
is no more just informing people about incidents; it is something
more now. It is a protection against the government, it is the
protection against your own government. last428
There was great sympathy all over America. Even people who had
no idea of who I am and what I am doing became aware, by putting
me into jail they made whole America aware of the commune, aware
why government is destroying it; aware of the fascist attitude
of the bureaucracy. And all the way, I was loved and appreciated.
Not a single person who was against me—in the jails, outside
the jails; going from one jail to another jail, both the sides
of the road people were standing, throwing flowers, waving hands,
that don't be worried.
Because they will not allow media people. The media people are
inventive. What they have done—they had put their microphones
on a long rod, above the car, so when I come out of the gate I
am facing their microphones. They will not allow them, but they
cannot prevent them taking the microphone above the car. And they
simply wanted to tell me that "We love you, Bhagwan. And
whatever is being done to you remember, it is not we who are doing
it."
In fact, they have taken a wrong step. They have made America
realize that their own government is not in favor of poverty disappearing,
of people becoming rejoicing and happy; that their own government
is their enemy. And they created great sympathy for me. The sympathy
was such that I could have contested for the president, because
all the newspapers were full of sympathy, all televisions were
full of sympathy, all radios were full of sympathy. The government
must have had a shock. They had not realized that this will be
the outcome of it. last429
|
