City Hall Redux -"These People Are Crazy",

Ojai City Council Series Part II

said The Councilwoman F under her breath as I stepped away from the podium after having given a comment at our city council meeting. This is someone who just a few years ago asked me when it was I’d be running for office as she seemed to be enjoying what I was putting out into the world.

(You can read the first part of this story here )

I thought I heard the word “crazy” as I was stepping away, but I had no idea who said it or where it was coming from. It’s all captured in perpetuity on video and was pointed out to me two days after the meeting when local concerned citizen Joel MaHarry created this video where he enhanced the dialogue, and added some printed narrative of his own. That’s my voice you’ll hear speaking at the beginning.

Decades ago during her first tenure on the council, The Councilwoman F used to be referred to in a derogatory manner as “Mayor Moonbeam” due to her work as a yoga teacher in our community and her spiritual belief system. During COVID her Facebook timeline was filled with denialism, conspiracy theories, and other disinformation. It’s all recently been scrubbed clean, wiped away.

The Councilwoman R who sits on her left had a smallish mirror with her on a stand which she placed in front of her and then used throughout to direct, magnify, or try to manipulate the energy in the space, (I mean, I think this is what she was using it for, as she just set it there and used it throughout the meeting without comment). As I turned to head to my seat, she put her hands in front of her heart chakra and performed an energy separation technique (again, I think this is what she was doing), and then made some adjustments with her mirror. From what I understand this was the first time she’d ever brought the mirror to a meeting.

Someone on our local Facebook Group wondered aloud, “Did she cast a spell at Nora?” I giggle every time I read it as the conversation has continued for days as these things seem to.

Yet, it is Councilwoman Rachel Lang who has been publicly disparaged due to her work as a psychic medium and astrologer, work she does not share in her formal capacity there on the dais. She does give each city-related decision she makes the weight it deserves while publicly sharing her process and thoughts. She is modeling a new way of governing, which I wholeheartedly support. I observed what appeared to be The Councilwoman R trying to sway her that night, but Rachel knew her own mind. They are mistaking her heart-centered method of communication for weakness.

Meanwhile, The Councilwoman F makes an ableist comment (the use of the word “Crazy” as a pejorative) and also threatens to write a book about how much the community hates her based on screenshots she is taking off of a Facebook group, a group she participates in regularly where she often deletes her own comments hours after posting them, and The Councilwoman R does actual magic right in front of us all. We have a councilwoman literally doing spellwork from the dais throughout our city hall meetings, and those who are screaming “separation of church and state” about Councilwoman Lang are silent.

It’s tribalism that’s come to Ojai, among other things, this idea that once a team is chosen one must nod along with every single thing, or risk…………….what exactly? Losing friends? Okay, I have certainly had this experience as members of my work tribe went in directions politically or where public health was concerned that I disagreed with. I mean, I guess I could have just smiled and nodded at the “new age information” that told people not to wear a mask, not to social distance, and not, under any circumstances, to get the vaccine if they wanted to “ascend to the fifth dimension”.

Yeah, but, see, no.

"Why can't we all just get along" is about as effective a conflict resolution tool as a week-long social media argument is.

We are in a fight. We just are. The monied interests vs. the rest of us. Pretending like it's not happening or wishing it would just all go away so everyone can be nice is not the fix.

The fight is the fix.

Or at least one of the fixes.

I am pissed. We have real issues in this community, county, state, country, world. The wealth hoarders are doing everything they can to amass their wealth and the rest of us are being left behind.

If you're fighting me, who are you fighting for? Are you fighting for the wealth hoarders? If you are supporting the wealth hoarders and you are not a member of their country club, they won't take care of you just because you became their mouthpiece.

This fight is really with the multinational corporations and the stranglehold they have over our government. This is the fight that has come to Ojai. This is the fight that has come to us all.

The obsessive and abusive behavior of the wealth-hoarders is the real mental illness/crazy we should be talking about.

Read Part III Here