You know you’re in Yelm when. . .

---you see your old crazy college professor selling “Tachyon Busters” at a refurbished church.

---you see people line their hats with tin foil.

---you suddenly feel like you’re in a science fiction movie where everyone is irrationally compelled to wear loose, light, comfortable cloths, snow white in color.

---suddenly you realize that you’re in the capital of the world for water filter salesman.

---you hear people talk about Ramtha changing the world, yet all you see is fast food restaurants, chain stores, and your wife kneeling in the alley behind the cinema.

---you can’t figure out who smells worse, the Cascade hillbillies or your water-filter salesman husband with the deviated septum.

---you find yourself saying, “Didn’t I see this in Berkeley in the 80s?”

You know your in Yelm when...

Somebody in the next car over calls the cops on you for drinking a beer.

Your surrounded by christian women driving very large oversized ford pickup trucks.

Your in the grocery checkout line and somebody mentions "I just recieved my windfall" and glares at you like your supposed to understand what that means.

People walk around in sweatpants and sailing boots.

You get the uncanny feeling that somebody doesn't know how to design streets.

The QFC becomes the alternative cool people hang out.

You see an inordinate number of business names with the word "Blue" in it or the word "Star" in it.

If you are "current" then you may proceed normally, otherwise you may be subject to an impromptu "teaching".

„Somebody in the next car over calls the cops on you for drinking a beer.“

That is cool....!

And don’t forget those christian-well-educated-corpulent-styled-women, walking on their asphalted nature-trail, just in strong-unified-groups, glaring at you like fat fast-food-grizzly-bears.. and you don’t know if they want to eat you up .. or just vote for some further prohibitions.....

..because you smoke a cigar.

You really, really know you’re in Yelm now because…

---old fashion anti-Christian bigotry sneers at you right in the face, blatant, naked hatred from the “cult of love and peace,” exposing their growling chops of New Age fundamentalism, sneering, growling, howling, baying like a pack of dogs raging against the Light.

You know you're in Yelm when such as Steve Klein wins less than 40 votes in a mayoral race in spite of glossy photo signs.

You know you're in Yelm because there are still family owned businesses.

You know you're in Yelm when business owners treat you as a Person, take time to answer your questions,and do small jobs for nothing.

You know you're in Yelm when narrowminded bigotry such as expressed in this thread is tolerated and the writers prayed for instead of mocked.

It seems there is a place ..somewhere in infrared, where demons are trapped in their emotions, using swear words all the time.

„You know you're in Yelm when business owners treat you as a Person, take time to answer your questions,and do small jobs for nothing.“

I do appreciate this!

And perhaps there is a star in their businness-name.
You obviously consumed this kind of service.
But do you offer yourself this same service to others?

Who do you think is frequency-specific to this attitude?
Is it you – or is it me?

io,
No one is frequency specific to anything. The concept is unsubstantiated, otherwise known as fantasy.

virtualreality ..is also fantasy!

You know your in Yelm when:

--people argue the validity of RSE teachings

--People want to point out where you are mistaken, or have gone wrong.

--the lighthearted poking fun at ourselves becomes a grave threat to our integrity.

--it takes 35 minutes to travel from the high school to the veterinarians office.

Agreed! And do you know what else is virtual reality and fantasy? Take a guess...

The hidden dark-force-troups of EMF?

"And perhaps there is a star in their businness-name." No IO - just down home honest hardworking Prairie "folkies" - no stars, no blueness,no rhetoric.
Why do you find it necessary to bash Yelm? What, where is the healing in that?

Graced said:

"You know you're in Yelm when narrowminded bigotry such as expressed in this thread is tolerated and the writers prayed for instead of mocked."

?????

I don't understand Graced. Please clarify. Are we being mocked by someone? Are we narrow minded and bigoted? Or are we just being called that by someone else?

I thought a good healthy dose of satire would be a healing thing. Maybe I was wrong.?

My apologies Two Socks and everyone else for my comment -- I suppose satire can be fun or helpful. I just get tired of small rural communities, and Yelm in particular, being mocked and criticized. Yelm isn't at fault here; Yelm hasn't brainwashed people and stolen their money etc. I know that many many many Yelm folks pray and love and offer kindness to all those who are and have been involved with JZ. They don't deserve mockery. No matter where a smoker is in the US (at least), they're likely to be criticized.

Thanks Graced!

And there was no intention to bash Yelm. Why should I do that?

The only reason I get involved in this thread was..
because I get tired of that kind of monkey-mind-game as..
you know you are a ramster when .. or you know you are in Yelm when.. blablabla!

smoker IO

hey all -

besides the small skirmish, I think what the thread points out is that Yelm is kinda schizophrenic - extremes in many regards...
- the town & gown issue (causing friction)
- new age vs. strong Christian faiths
- rural vs transplanted sophisticated 'city' people
- growth vs. no growth
- health-conscious vs obese
- HOT car/truck mentality vs save the planet users
- tree huggers vs logging families

... it is amazing fisti-cuffs don't break out on a daily basis!! All concentrated in a small area, pretty much just now on the brink of change.. new suburbia, shopping, et al.

I think it is sad, that you know you are in yelm because of the lack of underlying harmony in the place. The sense of community is so torn by endless divisivenes in values of the people. Usually, communities have a sense of commonality, cohesion, bringing with it a sense of well-being. The 'immigration' (not just foreigners) to Yelm has been tremendous - it shows you the work of tolerance that has overall, made Amrika what it is - 'a melting pot' before elistism became acceptable as a primary mode of operation... and ramsters are elistist - they think they are better than others, because they have special knowledge, are going to be 'saved' et al.. I mean really, Yelm would be one more little sleepy town just waking up to the growth boom in the South Sound if it weren't for the purchase of one horse property in the 1980s..

some (kinda) facts re Yelm's growth -- about 1990, at the Ranch, I was talking with a local fireman - he said that Yelm was rapidly growing and that Judy's minions were NOT the cause/source of the growth.
McDonalds and Burger Kings are the harbingers of 'suburban' type "development" - - even if every single "current" student from all over the world moved to Yelm, it would not be the cause of the economic development of Yelm. Walmarts to not come to town because of a handful of spiritual elitists. Judy's horse rance is one teeny tiny practically miniscule drip in an ocean of factors. The bringing of 10,000 military families to Fort Lewis has a tad more to do with the 'boom' than Judy's pile of horse manure.

And all that Agape says is true -- there is diversity; loggers and tree huggers -- and on that note - There must have been enough 'tree huggers' prior to Judy's place to have this area deignated as a "Tree America" (or some such - there are signs along the highway - meaning, this area, at the least, replants).
I guess, bottom line is, let's at least examine if we are accepting Judy's PR re the impact of her drama on Yelm's economy.

yes nelly. you can go to town nowadays just for shopping, without meting ramsters.there are in fact people you have to explain to who jz knight is.the days when the ramsters are a significant okonomic force r definitly over.jz cant kill buisnesses anymore.like she tried with the cinema during nascar.also she couldent swing the vote for her pupetmajor which was a briliant try prepared over several years .yelm has made some planingmistakes and dosent take its grows very well but this is typical for growing comunities and you can see this everywere.

“jz cant kill businesses anymore like she tried with the cinema during nascar”.

This is true but… Judith operates in Yelm much like a neighborhood bully,
She only needs to beat up or threaten just one or two kids to control the block.
So far her strategy has worked but as with every bully..
they are cowards at heart and will eventually fall.

Hi Nellie,
I would add that the "boom" in Yelm's growth over the past few decades is also part of the overall growth in the Puget Sound area. I worked on the last U.S. Census here in Yelm and met people commuting to jobs at Boeing and Microsoft, people who had moved here from California to find lower housing prices and property taxes, and Yelm residents who liked those state jobs in Olympia but preferred to live in a more rural area.

Hi AGAPE,
As an ex-Ramster, I look at the “extremes” you pointed out and see NOT that Yelm is “kinda schizophrenic” with a “lack of underlying harmony in the place,” but rather, as you said, “the work of tolerance that has overall, made America what it is—a melting pot.” Yes, some Ramsters “think they are better than others, because they have special knowledge, are going to be 'saved' et al..” But over the years I’ve lived in Yelm, no Ramster has ever knocked on my door to try to save me with their special knowledge…just a lot of Jehovah’s witnesses!

Even when Ramsters have worn RSE sweatshirts and ponchos all over town, I’ve never seen fisticuffs break out between Ramsters and “locals.” All in all, Yelm seems to be to be a pretty peaceful place. Even during the Nascar and Walmart controversies, the debates were peaceful. And I know plenty of ex-Ramsters and locals who were on the same side as the Ramsters on those issues.

IMHO, there IS underlying harmony in Yelm—not divisiveness, but diversity. I’m not sad, I’m glad to live in a place where people with diverse values can get along.

I am friends with an ex police officer who is a long long time local from Rainier.

He told me that the Bald Hills Area was notorious for weird folks way before any ramsters showed up.

The term that this ex police officer used for these folks was Satanic.

Long time locals are very aware of this part of their history.

Da Wolf,

I heard the word satanic used as far north (not that it's so far north, mind you!) as Lacey/Olympia, not only in Yelm.

I don't know how true the stories I heard are, but they were ...unfortunate. You are the first person outside of the one that told me what I was told (about 10 years ago), that has mentioned this.

In 1990 I worked for a community services org. One of the professional employees spoke of how scary it was/(had been long before Ramsters arrived) to visit clients in the Bald Hills area - drug dealers and such. She would ususally inform police of her going into the area in case she didn't get back!It's probably why the land was cheap and so many Ramsters settled there. Now the area is known for the meth doers makers dealers.

re: history of Bald Hills: cheap land, satanic, meth makers Thanks for the info, as I have never understood why I am so uncomfortable in that area.. it really gives me the creeps. I know of ramsters w/neighbors who are making meth.. they are afraid to do anything about it. No local would let that happen - their children are at stake.. that is not a shared value at all. They don't want to draw attention to themselves, aka secret society ...

And all those Clearwood hamsters evacuating due to all the military families moving in... do they share values with them? they are stocked up too. But, oh yea, weapons, not food. Who's gonna be eating that food?

As far as tolerance, Nellie, I have never met people so intolerant as ramsters. Some are better than others, usually a measure of how much poverty they have gone thru and experience with the kindness, charity of others.

It is my view that the locals provide the tolerance, as they want the business (stores) and/or treat others with respect as it is christian to do so.

Ramster Tolerance? Best example is leaving the ranch parking lot after ANY event. Even after the loftiest 'sermon' these people just about run you over trying to be the first one out the gate. The new message from Judy re: intolerance (read: non-acceptance of her) regarding Yelm has harmed the community. This site is helping to educate. With diversity one side of the coin, Steve K. and Ed W. just cannot get enough people to rally to make it divisive. They want to. Again, values differ, they need a group to lobby it.

BTW, my reference to 'fisti-cuffs' was poetic image, reflecting how R'sters hold their beliefs so dear they would fight over them. They do-verbally.

No shortage of impromptu teachings..

But back to point - Yelm: underlying harmony, meaning unspoken, vibes, random acts of kindness, Et al. Rainer, McKenna, Tenino, Roy do not have the same vibe. More traditional, higher percentage of locals, fewer new tract homes. Suburbia goals/values drive their choice to be here: money, safety to raise children, desire for shopping convenience ('course, after those long commutes). So here you have $80,000 households (wife traditionally not employed) driving SUVs. Contrast this to Jelm ramsters raising children in a foreign country, poor, maybe without plumbing, driving something with wheels - it is shockingly different. Or the other possible scenario is the GRandmother ramsters, trying to influence their grandkids, wanting to keep them in the fold. That one is TRULY scary, one parent Christian, one RSE. I have seen this and the sympathy I have for that child growing up.. THAT RSE IS DIVISIVE IN FAMILITES DUE TO VALUE DIFFERNCES IS INDISPUTABLE.

So, I am glad there is a dilution by suburbia in yelm, but it does not change the values schism that exists between reality and non-reality (magical thinking).

Thanks for the info.

Agape, what did you mean by the "new" approach Judy has used to deal with her non-acceptance ? I know she did some "marketing", by purchasing an advertisemet in the NVNews to broadcast what revenue "her" students brought into the area when events are going on.

Let me share this; having filled out those type of spontaneous "surveys" in the arena before - that the students are given the paperwork to ESTIMATE a whole bunch of data. I am sure that the figures in the paper can't possibly be more than a possibly inflated tally that students filled out in a few short minutes...that's how it was when I filled those out. Unless someone says it has changed in any way, that's how it goes.

"Contrast this to Jelm ramsters raising children in a foreign country, poor, maybe without plumbing, driving something with wheels - it is shockingly different. Or the other possible scenario is the GRandmother ramsters, trying to influence their grandkids, wanting to keep them in the fold. That one is TRULY scary, one parent Christian, one RSE. I have seen this and the sympathy I have for that child growing up.. THAT RSE IS DIVISIVE IN FAMILITES DUE TO VALUE DIFFERNCES IS INDISPUTABLE."

if the first part about driving anything with wheels weren't so true, it would be funny.
Except the end punch line. So very very true.

Thanks GUEST,

For your comment. I am really happy to know that there exists an easy tolerance. I can see what you say is true.

-TS

"They must find it difficult...
Those who have taken authority as the truth,
rather than truth as the authority."
-Gerald Massey

to ex: this was posted originally by "ex" (see below) on a thread that is now deleted for reasons not connected to ex. we're going to move your post over to here, EXACTLY as you posted it. it's the closest thread topic to what you posted.
the moderators



some zen wisdom:1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone.

2. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

3. Always remember that you're unique. Just like everyone else.

4. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

5. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.

6. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

7. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

8. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

9. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

10. If you always tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

11. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

12. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

13. Some days you're the bug; some days you're the windshield.

14. A closed mouth gathers no foot.

15. Duct tape is like 'The Force.' It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

16. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

17. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

18. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

19. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.