Testimonial letter from Nancy F. Basham

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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 Nancy F. Basham. It is "Exhibit A-1033" 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 one page.

AREA CODE 805-969-2228
Santa Barbara Properties Company
Montecito
1274 Coast Village Road
Santa Barbara, California 93108
July 20, 1983

United States Government
Department of Justice

Attention: Department of Immigration and Naturalization

Re: Pending Ruling on Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

Gentlemen and Ladies:

Having visited Rancho Rajneesh in its early stages and again recently and having seen at first-hand the remarkable transformation of a barren, remote portion of Oregon to a well-planned, self-sufficient, attractive and viable community, I would like to point out that the Bhagwan and his followers have demonstrated qualities that we Americans are proud of and applaud. To wit:

A pioneer spirit
A desire to be self-sufficient
Resourcefulness
Good planning
Diligence and Hard work
Enthusiasm
Cooperation
Good Humor
Kindness
Trust
Warm-hearted hospitality
Tolerance

The Bhagwan opens his Ranch to visitors and encourages all to come and see the remarkable accomplishments and to enjoy the happy, busy atmosphere that he and his followers have created.

We should be glad that the Bhagwan chose to settle in the United States and has brought to us a current example of the great American spirit!

Sincerely,
[signed]
Nancy F. Basham


(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.)