The Ojai Post

A pet psychic and a Chumash elder? i am afraid you would have to force me to listen to these people also.

you would never again get me to a fascist government meeting, like Ojai City Council, for the empowerment of the Corporate Gangster Police Murder State. I gave up supporting the Murder Machine twenty years ago.

if you actually want to empower the people, wind down the Pyramid of Patriarchal Provincial Violence ... Save the Bears, Return the Forests, Creeks, Wetlands in the Valley ... bring together and empower the people who are already doing so, planting acorns and trees and returning wetlands ... replacing agriculture with permaculture ... giving up their cars for bicycles ....

directly to the point -- if you want a Bear Honoring Circle, to save the Bears, then include our beloved Chumash Elder Red Bear ... the one who saved the Black Bear a year ago from the Sherriff's and FishyGame murderers ...

but don't break Red Bear, don't waste your/his priceless time with the idiot/mafia Ojai Councils and Ventura Supervisors etc ... just support good honest people coming together in SACRED SERVICE to the Deity, the true Divinity, our Mother Earth.

I am willing to host the Circle Bear, and would invite my infinite-loving sister Suza Francina to join in, and Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, and other local GrandMothers ... plus local reforesters, permaculturists, healers, lightworkers, land stewards, and community volunteers.

mitakuye oyasin, all our sacred relations ...

Dear Mario and Millennium,

Two human beings with opposite sounding perspectives,

Let us find common ground.

We are all on this Earth together and it is going to take the gifts, talents, expertise of everyone working together, including elected officials and law enforcement, to save the Bear and rest of the Planet.

More later...

I agree, Millennium, that it is definitely up to "the people" and lots of "sacred activism." Calling in a hunter (Fish and Game) to save an animal is ridiculous. We all need to have the information, intuition, and desire to know what to do in order to make co-habitation with wildlife succeed here in our valley.

What people need to know and understand is that there were choices, not a few, but many, that could have been made to change the fate of this Bear. During hunting season there are only two ways the bear can make it back to where it came from: on it's own or if tranquilized and held until it can be released. There were plenty of options, even a licensed bear rehabilitator with a way to transport the bear and land to keep it on till it could be returned to the mountains!!! The only question, why it wasn't allowed and a lot sooner! Taxpayers paid a lot of money here (personnel charging time and a half) to watch for far too many hours as critical and uneducated mistakes were made. Why was Ray Takayama, a Santa Barbara Fish and Game person and not our own Ventura County person allowed to come from another county and do what he wanted without the regard of the people of Ojai!? I urge all Ojaian's to please, please call Tony Strickland's Office at (805) 306-8886 and Pedro Nava's @(805)564-1649 and demand that we re-write policy in terms of these situations - the discretionary decision to kill should be represented by the town, the police and the research division of fish and game and not the enforcement side of fish and game. Make that call!!

namaste Sharon, Carol-Enara!

and my dear sister Suza, and brother Mario.

here, on FaceBook, is one of the most blessed stories (and Healer/Shaman wisdom) I have tracked down on our Sister Human, Our Ancestor, Mother Bear ...

Becoming The Ancestor, Becoming Mother Bear

you can find a version of this story in "Giving Voice to Bear", the peerless book by David Rockwell, the book sitting most prominently on Chumash Elder Red Bear's coffee table ...

Suza, Carol, and all others who are working so hard to find a solution so nothing like this ever happens again in the Valley, thank you for your time, your passion, your hearts.

A few lines from Robert Frost's poem, The Bear:

"The bear puts both arms around the tree above her
And draws it down as if it were a lover
And its choke cherries lips to kiss good-bye,
Then lets it snap back upright in the sky.
Her next step rocks a boulder on the wall
(She's making her cross-country in the fall).
Her great weight creaks the barbed-wire in its staples
As she flings over and off down through the maples,
Leaving on one wire moth a lock of hair.
Such is the uncaged progress of the bear.
The world has room to make a bear feel free;
The universe seems cramped to you and me."

I have no words.

I am so sorry this happened and thank everyone who is working to make sure it doesn't again.

Thank you for these Comments and Robert Frost's poem, The Bear...

Good to read this at end of a long day...will read the bear stories on facebook before I rest my weary head...and write some more a little later...

Lots of new updates on our Bear facebook link. We must get these updates right on the OjaiPost too, or post a link...

Concern about bears

according to a neighbor and witness to the murder, Xus (our Bear) had decided to come down, and was 3/4 of the way down the tree, only 10 feet high, when the FishyGame Monsters started firing on him/her.

in pain and fear Xus climbed back HIGH up in the tree, where they continued their volleys ...

sending Xus plummeting fifty feet to a certain death ...

~~

according to another witness, a retired bear hunter and lifetime Ojai resident, they killed Xus Bear for the money ...

there are no end of safe-havens for a Black Bear, even during hunting season, perhaps the best-known close Black Bear Haven being up behind Lion Canyon, in the Condor Sanctuary which is always off limits to hunters.

I grew up on Bear Hams, and Bear Grease ... from a heritage taught to my GrandFather by a Salmon RIver Tribal Elder ... yet I disavowed hunting from the time I was a teenager, and would never now kill a Bear for food or money, nor a Deer, nor any animal. [nor Arab, Jew, Christian or any other so-called 'human' person. there are infinitely better ways to Enlighten our world ... murder takes us the other way!]

for Xus, for All Our Sacred Ancestral Relations ...

Millennium Twain

(Xus is a 'Chumash' name for our Bear Ancestor. I don't know if there were differing names for Black Bear and Grizzly Bear, or from our local 'Chumash' tribe, the Matilija People.)

Millenum,
Why do suck everything good presented on this blog turning into something about you? Just wondering...

To Sad Death,
There's not a darn thing I can do to stop Americans from killing in a far off country. But perhaps I can stop them here in Ojai. And perhaps that will ripple out to the consciousness of the greater whole who will someday learn that killing doesn't resolve our differences, it only exacerbates them.

Takayama misleads us once again in Wednesday's OVN paper! I'm appalled by what I read in the OVN with regard specifically to what Roland Takayama was quoted as saying and what was inferred by what he did say! "Capt Takayama said Tuesday that "tranq and release is not an option.." What was not said was that tranq and hold was an option! (not to mention the option of not tranquilizing the bear at all if hours of mis/uneducated mistakes were not allowed to have happened!)Even the Chief of Police admitted to me after the City Council meeting that it was in fact their intention to keep that bear up that tree during the day! The article goes on to say "Takayam said the State of California doesn't have the facilities to hold the bear for the two weeks it would require..." he goes on to say "it is almost impossible to do" - more falsehoods! It's not impossible for Veterinarians and Bear Rehabilitators to do! Does anyone care about the truth! I don't want to demonize the department, I want to demonize the man's choice! Let's be clear: he's part of Fish and Game Enforcement. The Research and Scientific side of Fish and Game would have saved that bear and if you do even a little bit of research, it's clear they don't like Takayama's M.O. or his choice here. Takayama goes on to say" I've never seen a bear not come out of a tree...once we block everything off and everyone goes away. As soon as they feel the pressures off, they come down" Does Takayama think we're all idiots? Does he really truly not know there was a loud party going on outside all night just behind where the bear was up in a tree or did he just conveniently forget to mention that fact? Does he think were gonna read what he said and say oh yeah, that makes sense! Really? There was never any chance for that bear to come down and certainly not before 10:30 at night when the bear was shot down and killed. Earlier in the article, the writer suggests Takayama was sad to disappoint his veternarian wife but later he says the policy to use Talezol is mandated by a Fish and Game Veternarian Dr. Pam Swift! I guess were suppose to believe his wife didn't know that! It gets worse! Harry Morse, in Sacramento! who handles public info for Fish and Game said that the "officers on the scene made the decision to tranquilize and take the bear to be euthanized because of the "fact that the bear came into town repeatedly and did not want to leave town..." More lies! Are we all reading the same article? Can we call this what it is?! This is right out in the open for all to read on the front page of our Ojai Valley newspaper. This bear DID NOT repeatedly come into town and refuse to leave and was no where near getting accustomed to sources of food and water here!! And why Ojai, was Roland Takayama, a Santa Barbara Fish and Game guy, calling the shots in our town when we have our own Ventura County person? Don't we want to know the answer? What was he doing here? Please Ojai! Do not let this pass for truth. We should be writing and calling Strickland, (805)306-8886 and Nava (805) 564-1649 and our city council not to mention the OVN until this thing is investigated and all our questions are answered and until state policy is changed!(I was told today by Stickland's office that this is "State" policy!!)I thought the worse was over, but apparently the lies have only just begun. If we can't admit when we're wrong, we'll never get it right! Under a woman named Morgan’s watch, who was the senior biologist for Ventura County up until 4 years ago, no bear was ever killed in Ojai. Make those calls, write those letters and tell everyone you know to do the same, Ojai! This is clearly up to each one us to stay involved! What choice are you making? The Dali Lama said: what we don't know, we fear, what we fear, we destroy. Choose Love Ojai, Not Fear. It's worth it!

Millenum,

Count me in!

Candy Pope

What is going to happen to the bear now? At least it could used the as an energy source. The Swedish are leading the way in a innovative ways to deal with deceased animals.

Green energy

Hey folks. I have an idea. Information about the bear is scattered between Facebook, Ojaipost the OVN blog and god knows where else. Private messages about organizing are happening between certain parties and not others. Those others who want to help are not hearing about these opportunities. It's getting very hard to track and be effective.

Can anyone set up and host a simple website with a blog dedicated to this that we can use as an information nexus?

I don't want to take away from all of Tyler's great work, but that's a dynamic blog not meant for a single issue.

If it takes a donation to get it going, I'll throw in $50.

Email me: Chris Nottoli - mrtikigod@gmail.com

Thanks for posting this here. Tyler is an expert on this.

Just wondering, but why are they still opening meetings of the City Council with a prayer?

Ojai needs it's own local public safety apparatus that would include it's own animal control. Why are we relying on the county or the failed state to provide us with public safety? Ojai is one of the most affluent cities of it's size in the entire state. It's time for a change in how our budget operates and who gets paid in this city.

SPK,
I agree!

About the prayer before the meeting:
We used to have leaders from all the local churches, including Buddhist and other spiritual groups, etc. taking turns to say a short prayer/meditation behind podium.

When I was on the council it felt like it had a calming, peace-making effect so I was fine with that.

Last year I recall asking about what happened to that "tradition."

I think they had problems getting people to show up and then later, at some point, the moment of silence before the meeting became Joe's prayer.

But I might not have "all the facts."

Chris -

Robert Peake set up a Ning site - this may meet your needs.

http://rememberthebear.ning.com/

If you look in the Post under RDA it appears they have posted the 11,10,2009 approval. Why 11/10/2009 isn't here yet how can this happen? Or does the city preapprove everything and have it complete before the vote?

Anon #23, can you help me find where you saw this?

"in the Post under RDA"

Not sure what that means.

Thanks!