MARIJUANA DEMONSTRATORS SHOW SUPPORT FOR CROSSLIN, ROHM

Rainbow Farm Revisted

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- The Bob Marley anthem thumping on the boombox said
it all for the handful of marijuana rights activists paying sidewalk
tribute to their friends Grover "Tom" Crosslin and Rolland "Rollie" Rohm on
Tuesday night.

"Get up, stand up. Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up. Don't give
up the fight."

This northern Michigan resort town is more than 200 miles from Rainbow Farm
Campground near Vandalia.

Mentioning either the place or the September 2001 deaths of Crosslin and
Rohm a year ago to locals would result in a quizzical look at best.

But the quartet holding signs adorned with photos and rainbow pinwheels
wasn't deterred by the infrequent honks and thumbs-up from drivers on the
busy street alongside the demonstration site.

Traverse City resident Tracy George, who helped to organize another, larger
rally back in May, said even her husband thinks she's wasting her time.

"He just thinks it's a lost cause. But I don't agree with that. Somebody
has to change laws," she said, holding a sign reading, "Free Pot Prisoners."

"When I went to Rainbow Farm, that's when I realized these laws had to be
changed. If this had happened to one of us, I don't think they would've
gave up."

Besides the high traffic volume, demonstrators chose the site for its
proximity to the joint Traverse City-Grand Traverse County law enforcement
center, county jail and county courthouse.

Last winter, the group held weekly vigils there to support what Melody
Karr, one of the demonstration's organizers, called "drug war prisoners"
housed little more than 100 yards away.

"This sort of thing, you never know who you're going to touch," said Karr,
of Mesick, Mich., a town south of Traverse City.

Karr arrived at the demonstration just after a road trip to the vigil held
Monday night in Cassopolis, an event she organized in de facto fashion by
sending an e-mail announcing she planned to be there to observe the
anniversary of Crosslin and Rohm's deaths. Last Labor Day weekend, the pair
who had hosted popular holiday weekend parties at Rainbow Farm were killed
following a five-day standoff with law enforcement.

During the commemoration events there, Karr noticed covert thumbs-up and
peace signs. By braving public judgment, she hopes to make a few people do
the same and join her ranks.

The Rev. Steve Thompson of Benzonia agreed.

"I'll be 55 years old this year, and it is my hope and dream to see
marijuana decriminalized before I die," he said.

Thompson, who coordinates the Benzie County NORML chapter, stopped briefly
at Rainbow Farm Campground en route home from Ohio on Tuesday for a private
vigil.

"I sat on the stage, and I said a little prayer, and smoked a bowl," trying
to make sense of it all, Thompson said. "This is so ridiculous. Over a
plant that God gave us. A plant can get you killed."