Testimonial letter from Martha Stott Diener
This letter is one of a remarkable series of over 2650 letters amassed in 1983 to support Osho's attempt to get permanent resident status in the US at the time of the Oregon ranch. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Oregon Historical Society. Information about their collection of these letters and other supporting material -- the "Jeffrey Noles Rajneesh Collection", named for Osho's immigration lawyer Jeffrey Noles, who compiled them in 1983 and donated them to the OHS -- can be found at this page. The wiki is grateful to the OHS for making access available for these documents. For more information and links to all the letters, see Testimonial letters.
This letter is from Martha Stott Diener. It is "Exhibit A-1140" in the Noles collection.
The text version below has been created by optical character recognition (OCR), from the images supplied by OHS. It has not been checked for errors but this process usually results in over 99% correct transcription. Most apparent "errors" are correct transcriptions of typos already in the original. The image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file of the original letter, it has 2 pages.
 Mill Tract Farm I, Martha Stott Diener, wish to submit a sworn affidavit in support of the granting of a permanant visa for residence in the United States to Bagwan Shree Rajneesh who presently resides in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon, 97441. I am a 70 year old white, Protestant, Republican, citizen of the United States with a conservative New England background. My experience has been varied. I served for twenty years on the Board of Directors of the Polymer Corporation of Reading, Pennsylvania and held the position of Vice Chairman when this plastics company, with plants in the U.S.A Japan, England and Germany was sold to the A.C.F. Corporation of New York City. I served, for seven years, on the Board of Trustees of Wilkes College in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and I have served three separate six year terms on the Board of Directors of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. in New York City and on numerous local Boards. My first encounter with Bagwan Shree Rajneesh was in 1977 , when I went to visit my son at the Rajneesh Commune in Poona, India where I stayed for ten days. I mingled freely with all the members and attended one and a half hour lectures by Bagwan every morning. I had gone to Poona with a heavy heart because I had the stereotype misgivings that most parents feel when their children join groups that are foreign to their own up-bringing, culture and religion. What I found was a group of people living in harmony and with complete freedom to make their own decisions. The lectures that I attended, along with everyone in the Commune, were extraordinary in the breadth and depth of scholarly knowledge that they demonstrated. Bagwan Shree Rajneesh spoke of other religions, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist (and many others) with respect and far deeper understanding of their faiths than I, for one, have generally heard about the Christian religion from the pulpits of many churches I have attended in my long life. In February of this year I again visited my son at Rajneeshpuran in Oregon and (He had visited me regularly in the interim since my trip to Poona) again I moved freely all over the city and was amazed at the diligence, happiness and dedication of this group who are led by this extraordinary man. Far from being a sex crazy, kooky group as they are depicted by those who make uninformed presumptions and listen to frightened gossip, I found what would almost seem a miracle taking place on 64,000 acres of virtual desert land in Oregon. Because of the leadership and vision of their teacher, this group has created a well ordered city on a small portion of the land where there are no drugs, no crime of any kind, and where every effort is made to live according to the laws of the State. They have built an enormous dam and created a lake without, in any way, depriving their neighbors of water. They have built a dairy, a poultry farm and have converted part of the land into a large beautiful truck garden producing much of their food where nothing grew before. They have pumped millions of dollars into the economy of Oregon and are noted for the honesty and promptness with which they pay their bills - All this in two years! I am not a disciple of Bagwan Shree Rajneesh nor in any way connected, except through the fact that my son lives in Rajneeshpuran but from my own observation and all that I have learned from my son and the people I have talked to both in Poona, before they moved to this country, and in Oregon I cannot imagine why we are not welcoming this highly intellectual man and urging him to settle here permanently. His knowledge and gifts are of the highest artistic and intelluctual development and his presence in our country can only enhance the quality of life in America. How can it be that we accept the dregs from Cuba’s prisons, uneducated peasants from Vietnam, and deny this superior intellect because his followers choose to wear red as a mark of identification? Whatever happened to freedom of religion in this country? I strongly urge that Bagwan Shree Rajneesh be granted immediate legal status as a resident of the United States. He should be recognized as an important influence in his teachings of peace, non-violence, and environmental protection that can only be considered a national Treasure as he and his followers provide a much needed example of responsible citizenship. [signed] |
(Please note: We assume that the above letter is still copyrighted, but we regard its historical interest to constitute a Fair Use exception for publication in this wiki.)
