United Stand (Building Code Confrontation, California Style)

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The course chosen was to pursue all possible administrative remedies without lawyers, while conducting a campaign to educate the public to the motives, ideals, and lifestyle of the code victims. Deprecating stereotypes had to be dispelled in order to establish a broad base of support for their position. In the final analysis, judges and juries are influenced by public opinion. The Mid-Mountain people hoped to stall the judicial process to gain time to affect this opinion. A series of meetings was organized to share the strategy. At this stage, United Stand—the organization and the name—was tentative. Confirmation came at a Ukiah meeting between task force representatives and concerned citizens.

The March 13, 1974 meeting was attended by over 200 people, including a sizable number of longtime residents. The emerging spokespeople and primary organizers of United Stand—Anon Forrest, Saul Krimsly, John Pateros, and Brent Walson—addressed the crowd, defining the problem as they saw it. Don Uhr and other task force representatives also spoke to the crowd. Uhr was cryptic: "Most of you have unsolvable problems." The meeting marked the debut of United Stand and imparted the understanding that the political process must be used to gain relief. It became clear that many county bureaucrats (with the possible exception of Uhr) were not exuberant over the prospects of having to administer the supervisor's program. "Talk to the supervisors," United Stand was told.

Its ranks enhanced by 70 working volunteers, US organized itself into work committees. One group thoroughly studied the code and began a dialogue with the county administrators. Rapport was established with other task force victims throughout the county. Free spot messages on local radio stations were utilized. A bi-weekly newsletter became regularly featured in local counterculture newspapers. Candidates for public office were contacted, and those sympathetic to the cause were supported. A battery of lawyers, many of whom were living an alternative lifestyle, was assembled. A slide show of owner-builder homes and a monologue explaining their point of view were developed. This presentation was to become the favorite medium by which this lifestyle was illustrated.

The task force itself did much to unify people behind United Stand's cause. It continued the taggings in other parts of the county and the tagees readily assembled under the US banner. As Anon Forrest says—in the New Times article—regarding the public relations campaign and the continued taggings:

We needed to be recognized as cohabitants of the county. Except for our hair and funky costumes, we're not very different from anyone else around here. We own the land we live on. We pay taxes on it. Of the 225 people at the church meeting, perhaps 70 were straights . . . old-time residents in town or retired people on little farms and ranches. Before the county officials showed up, we had about an hour to get our message across to them. We outlined what the problem was and what we thought the solutions were. We said that the problem was rooted in fear and misunderstanding. It was our paranoia. We'd left our image
to their imagination, and we came out as Charlie Manson, drug addicts, and all kinds of other bad scenes they'd read about and seen on TV. Some of that started to change at the first meeting. Now a lot of those folks are with us. We owe the task force a lot . . . and this is not just conciliatory crap. It forced us out of hiding and into a place in the community.

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