Ojai Peace Coalition: Action Blog

In This Post:
Another Great Parade!
Dear Army: Please Stop Shooting Pigs
Radio: Play "One Love" for Peace Day
Volunteers needed for Fair tabling!
Living Peace in Ojai needs volunteers!
Peace Pole update!!
Farmer's Market petitioning

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Another Great Parade!

Our entry felt really good to me and was well-received by the parade-watchers.
There's a clean, attractive energy to the whole "local food" thing, and the connections to Peace become more and more clear. For more photos, try THIS.
Of course, it takes many hands to make something like this happen! BIG THANKS and BIG LOVE go out to:
David for the use of the tractor
Ashly Piano Crafts for the use of the trailer
Kris for the inspiration, good energy, and hard work
Donna, Dallas, and Callie for painting the signs
MoveOn Ojai for financial support
Renee for the use of her Earth flag
McGrath Family Farms and Mud Creek Ranch for the cornstalks
ALL who carried signs, banners, and flags, helped construct and paint on the morning-of, made crafts and decorated bikes, and showed up with smiling faces for Peace!
Thanks also to Sue and Noel for hosting the peace-lovers' potluck that evening.
Brilliant community-building!

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Dear Army: Please Stop Shooting Pigs

As reported on the Ojai Post, the U.S. Army got approval from the Department of Agriculture to conduct medic training at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii by shooting live, anesthetized pigs with M4 and M16 rifles in order to train for managing traumatic battlefield wounds.

PETA and i wonder why other alternatives - such as sophisticated non-animal simulators or live training in inner-city hospitals - are not being used, and you can read a little more about the issue and send a message to some Army decision-makers HERE. If you're a Facebook user, you can also join this Group.

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Radio: Play "One Love" for Peace Day

A few folks from all over the planet have an idea: let's get radio stations around the world to all play Bob Marley's song "One Love" at the SAME TIME (9:21 GMT) on International Peace Day, Sunday September 21st!

SO...call or write your favorite radio station and ask them to get on board with this campaign! i wrote to KJEE, a rock station in Santa Barbara that plays Marley and has a reggae radio show on Sundays anyway!

here are your resources:
· write to KJEE 92.9
· the official campaign website
· the official petition
· the MySpace group
· the Facebook group

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Volunteers needed for Fair tabling!

Just outside the County Fair's main entrance gates is a "free speech zone" of sorts, where community groups are allowed to table for their various pursuits. Our local Veterans for Peace have been there for several years, and they are joined this year by two new friends: VC Stop the War and the Ventura Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War...and they need our help!

The Ventura County Committee to Stop the War, of which the OPC is a member organization, currently has a petition campaign underway to end military recruitment in Ventura County, and more specifically to CLOSE the Oxnard recruiting center. If this is a key issue to you, contact John to find out when you're needed!

Iraq Veterans Against the War has a small and relatively new chapter here in Ventura County, led by my good friend Cherish. i spent some time with them recently handing out informational material in downtown Ventura, and wrote
about it on the Ojai Post. IVAW's three goals are:
· Immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces in Iraq;
· Reparations for the human and structural damages Iraq has suffered, and stopping the corporate pillaging of Iraq so that their people can control their own lives and future; and
· Full benefits, adequate healthcare (including mental health), and other supports for returning servicemen and women.
They will be tabling at the fair to gather support and to raise funds to send one or more of their members to the upcoming IVAW Conference in Colorado. If you are supportive of their goals, contact Cherish to find out when you're needed!

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Living Peace in Ojai needs volunteers!

Last year's first-ever "Living Peace in Ojai" event was a success by all measures, rain and all. For our part, the OPC held the first screening of the inspiring film "Peace One Day" and awarded our first Noble Peace Prize (we'll award our second this year...more to come!)

The peace energy and support for this event has been building ever since, and this year promises to offer more than last year. Consequently, it's going to require more! It takes a community to build Peace, and it'll take a community to build a Peace event. We have offerings planned for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday September 19-21, with the last day being the actual date of this year's International Peace Day. If you have ANY time, talent, or treasure that you can share in support of local Peace, please contact the Living Peace volunteer coordinator Elizabeth at 805-798-0626.

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Peace Pole update!!

It's been slow going, but i'm excited to report that our Peace Pole is very nearly ready to be passed into the hands of the local artists who have generously volunteered to grace it with their craft. My new goal is to plant this pole at its new home - Ojai House, on Montgomery Street - on Friday September 19th as part of the opening afternoon/evening of the Living Peace in Ojai weekend! i want it to be a big deal, not only because i feel personally invested in this project, but because it's a tremendous gift to our community and has been specifically funded by some of you. It's also sparking new ideas for additional poles throughout the valley! You'll hear much more about it as the Living Peace weekend approaches.

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Farmer's Market petitioning

We still have an open campaign to gather signatures to petition the City of Ojai to adopt a resolution calling for an end to the War in Iraq. My goal is to present the gathered signatures sometime around International Peace Day, so we need to up the ante a little in terms of signature-gathering.

The petition exists online HERE, and you're welcome and encouraged to sign it there. In addition, i'd like to have some folks positioned at the Farmer's Market each Sunday until Peace Day to gather signatures from folks there (i'm open to more locations too, if there are volunteers at least in pairs). If this is something have energy for, please let me know so i can schedule it!

email me
call: 805-746-3750

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Peace!
evan austin
Ojai Peace Coalition