Barrytown welcomes Bard College people and local villagers

You must have heard about my courtesy visit to our neighbor, Bard College*. I did not go there to bomb the buildings or to steal anything.

At Barrytown we welcome not only Bard College people, but also the local villagers. We even made a special nature trail where they can walk when they want to visit. Barrytown is for the benefit of all.

Plaque on trail reads:

Father’s Trail

“If you want to be recognized and needed by God, you must live for the sake of God and for the sake of humanity.”

S. M. M. July 16, 1975

Dedicated by the class of 1981

* Moon Is Arrested With 10 Followers For Trespassing

The New York Times May 7, 1977

WHITE PLAINS, May 6 - The Rev. Sun Myung Moon termed it “sightseeing,” but Bard College in Dutchess County said was trespassing and called in the state police to arrest the leader of the Unification Church and 10 of his followers.

Mr. Moon and his group were stopped by the police yesterday afternoon while walking through a remote corner of the college campus with walkie‐talkies.

The 11 were taken to the state police barracks at Rhinebeck and given tickets.

Tonight, all but Mr. Moon appeared, as ordered, before Justice Elmore Fraleigh in Red Hook Town Court for arraignment. Mr. Moon, who was represented at the hearing by his attorney, Noel Tepper, was granted an adjournment until May 27. The others, all of whom pleaded not guilty, were ordered to post $100 bonds and given until Monday to raise the money.

“There was a warning issued to them saying, ‘Unless you are invited, you’re not welcome,” according to Leon Botstein, president of the four‐year liberal arts college, about the stern attitude has taken toward the sect. “And if they came, they would be prosecuted for trespassing.”

A college security guard encountered Mr. Moon and his followers near sewage‐disposal plant close to a waterfall on the posted property.

“Their explanations to employees, their identification and their answers were not very convincing,” Mr. Botstein said. “We don’t have people running around with walkie‐talkies very often.”

The security guard called the state police, who, on the request of the college, arrested the group for trespassing.

A spokesman for the Unification Church, which has stirred deep controversy because of its recruitment methods and charges that it brainwashes members, said that Mr. Moon had been visiting students at the movement’s seminary in Barrytown, N.Y., and had visited the waterfall because it was a local sightseeing attraction.

“It seems to me to be a very silly little thing,” he said. “I haven’t heard any account of his [Mr. Moon’s] direct personal reaction.”