OjaiNews.com

The heat is off, and the sixth anniversary of 9/11 has just passed. Today's common thread: Diversity.
Take a look at the variety of things going on in our Valley lately!:

• Wilma Melville, founder of locally-headquartered National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, receives a $100,000 Purpose Prize for her efforts to help the two- and four-legged, which will be used to build a centralized local training center.
See and hear her story here.

• The Ojai Valley Green Coalition drew over 125 people to its most recent meeting, the purpose of which was to organize volunteers into action committees for food and agriculture; alternative energy; building and construction; environmental health; waste management; transportation; and water and land use. Per the OVN, the remaining committee meetings are as follows:
- Food and Agriculture Committee will meet Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at the old Honor Farm, a.k.a. new Help of Ojai West Campus on Baldwin Road.
- Energy Conservation Committee will meet Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at a location to be announced.

• Affordable housing issues return to City Council chambers, where over the years project after project has run up against some type of trouble or another. Currently awaiting a home: the $500,000 that the City set aside in 2002 to aid the Area Housing Authority in purchasing a then-$600,000 lot, a transaction which ultimately failed.

• The office of County Supervisor Steve Bennet and Ojai Rotary have arranged a special Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) to be held on the next three Saturdays - September 15, 22, and 29 - from 10am-noon and 1:30-3:30pm in Room 3 of the Oak View Park and Resource Center. There are only a few openings left in these classes, so if you're interested contact Cindy Cantle in Supervisor Bennett's office at 654-2703 or cindy.cantle@ventura.org by 5pm on Friday September 14th!

• The Upper Ojai Search and Rescue Fundraiser will be on Sunday September 23 from 4-7pm at Boccali's Restaurant, with dinner, live music, raffle, and silent auction! Cost is $30, and funds will go toward the following equipment needed to serve our community:
2 - Kokatat SAR Gore Tex Dry Suites ($3,000-3,500)
10 - GPS mics for our HT1250 Radios $(400 each)
8 - Tracker DTS™ is the world's first digital avalanche beacon ($800-1,000)
1 - Motorola Vehicle Repeater GR1250 ($2,000-3,000)
30 - Brush Jackets for Wildfire residential evacs ($4,000)
30 - Smoke masks (carbon X) ($2,000)
1 - 4x4 quads with winch ($8,500)
1 - titanium stokes litter ($1500 each)
4 - GPS Garmin Etrex Summit units ($300 each)
4 - hand held portable radios, Motorola HT1250 (~$800 each)
8 - extra radio batteries Motorola HT1250, HT1000, MT1000 and Kenwood TK-270 (~$80 each)
1 - Honda 4,500-5,500 Watt portable generator ($1,500-2,000)
For more information call 987-8197

• The Ojai Valley Birth Resource and Family Support will hold the grand opening of the new Nan Tolbert Nurturing Center on September 29 from 11:30am to 2:30pm at the Oak View Park and Resource Center, 555 Mahoney Avenue in Oak View. The celebration will include live music, children's plays, and great summery goodies to eat, along with a guided tour of the new infant-toddler space. Many in our community will remember that Nan was a wonderfully gentle and nurturing spirit who died a few years ago from brain cancer.

• In celebration of the United Nations' International Peace Day, the Ojai Valley community celebrates "Living Peace in Ojai" from Friday September 21 to Sunday the 23rd. The suite of events is intended to "explore and exemplify how we can activate and express Living Peace in ourselves and in our beautiful community every day, to help heal our fragile world." Visit the website for a full schedule of events, as well as contact info for volunteers!

• And finally: PIIIIIRATES! They descend upon Lake Casitas once again, on the weekends of September 22-23 and 29-30 from 10am to 6pm each day. The Gold Coast Pirate Faire, touted as the "World's Largest Gathering of Pirates", will feature a recreated 15th to 17th century pirate village complete with three stages of continuous entertainment, an outdoor market, and themed food and drinks, with plenty of activities for kids. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors 62 and older, $7 for children under 12, and free for children under 5; pARRRking is $5.

This Editor's Journal has been brought to you by today's word: Diversity!

Something to say?
The Editor's Journal is cross-posted at the Ojai Post, where you can make comments and generate dialogue!

Or: As Ojai Goes, So Goes The World

The Ojai Valley News reports that a potentially gang-related vandalism and assault incident took place on Tuesday on Santa Ana Road in Oak View, resulting in one arrest.

This comes on the heels of the Ojai Valley community's first major International Peace Day celebration, convened by the Retreats of Ojai, the Ojai Peace Coalition, and the Ojai Interfaith Alliance and titled "Living Peace in Ojai". The weekend-long event included the awarding of the first-ever Noble Peace Prize to local activists Clive and Marion Leeman, performance of the nation-traveling play "The Gift of Peace" which explores and urges support for the creation of a U.S. Department of Peace, and a well-attended and inspirational interspiritual gathering.

The Peace Alliance's campaign to establish a Cabinet-level Department of Peace - which holds "Effectively treat and dismantle gang psychology" as one of its foundational efforts - is led by Ohio Congressman and Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who was in Ojai over the weekend for two appearances. At the Ojai Retreat on Sunday afternoon, Dennis outlined his philosophy of "Strength Through Peace" to over 100 local supporters. Later that evening at the Glen Muse estate on Libbey Ave, a more informal gathering left many feeling uplifted and hopeful for the Kucinich's new post-election home.

The White House will soon see a $23 billion package that contains a nation's-worth of water- and flood-control projects, one of which is the $144.5 million removal of the Matilija Dam. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill because it's expensive. Meanwhile, war costs us $259 million every day.

War is the subject, or at least a main character, in no less than four (and as many as six) of the over 50 feature films, shorts, and videos in this year's Ojai Film Festival, which runs from October 4th through 7th with screenings at Libbey Bowl, the Ojai Arts Center, Matilija Junior High School, and the Ojai Playhouse. Brief descriptions of the films are HERE, and the schedule is HERE.

Something to say?
The Editor's Journal is cross-posted at the Ojai Post, where you can make comments and generate dialogue!