Testimonial letter from Ruth Shanor
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 Ruth Shanor. It is "Exhibit A-528" 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.
 Reyes Gatolicos, 16 Dear Friends, I cannot claim fame nor prestige; but I was born lucky. I was born American. I’m a child of the roaring twenties and mother of war- babies who eploded in the sixties and are trying to put their lives and their families together in the eighties. They introduced me to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh by long distance---books and tapes. Because I also exploded in the sixties, left suburbia end came to Spain---I was really ready to listen in the late seventies when I began to read Rajneesh. The great distance from the States and the passage of these seventeen years have given me a point of view from which I can truly appreciate the Unique essence of my country. Freedom and Equality are not just words, but principles in action. I watch my country manifest her mother-love for the oppressed. I marvel at her ingenuity, her good humor, her courage, and her faith that well-developed individuals can live in collective harmony. Because America IS all of this, she logically must welcome Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh into the family. America must recognize him as an eminent observer of and spokesman for the values in life which we believe in and stand for. Rajneesh’s clear insight and realistic interpretations of life bring all the religions, philosophies, psychology, and politics into sharp, understandable focus. America must continue to express her unity of purpose by welcoming the Einstein’s and the Rajneesh’s to live with us---as well as the peer and oppressed. We need thea all. Respectfully, |
(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.)
