By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
Twenty-year-old Hannah Grace Kelley was shot in the head last month at the church her daddy pastored. The bullet came through the wall from a nearby closet, where a parishioner was looking to sell his Ruger 9mm handgun to Hannah’s young fiancé, Dustin, unaware that there was still a round in the chamber. She died a few days later, one more “accidental” sacrifice to the NRA’s ambitious campaign against gun control. Where did sweet little Hannah die, you ask? Why Florida, of course.
The same place where a beautiful young man — one our President said looked much like his own son might look — made a candy run during half-time and found himself stalked, ultimately killed, by another young man who had seemingly become infected with racial paranoia and vigilantism.
Florida, the land of sunshine, citrus and concealed carry permits, is a southern playground of — to paraphrase Jon Stewart — young rednecks and old Jews. This vacation spot is a place where guns are everywhere, while laws to limit their use are scarce as hen’s teeth, and where the controversial Stand Your Ground law has finally made a name for itself. It used to be something of a joke that if you wanted to shoot someone in your yard, you’d better drag the body inside before you call the cops, to prove that there was intent to commit bodily harm. In Florida, you no longer have to bother with that. Just the possibility of a threat to your life gives you the right to defend yourself with deadly force.
Passed in 2005, the Stand Your Ground law was promoted by the NRA lobby as an end to the “bleeding heart criminal coddlers” who “want you to give a criminal an even break.” Since then, almost 350 incidents of justifiable homicide have gone on record in Florida. Read that as 350 people dead, 350 shooters free from criminal culpability. Just in case there’s any question in your mind, it’s justified killing we’re talking about, a proverbial Get Out Of Jail Free card, especially if there are no witnesses to cloud the details of assault. Since 2005, 24 other states have passed similar “shoot first” laws.
Standing legal precedent on its head, these laws declare that in order to find for murder, the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the shooter did NOT act in self defense. With so many of our state legislatures cluttered with newly-minted Tea Party members, it should be no surprise that most of the remaining states are contemplating passage of similar NRA-promoted bills that put law on the side of the shooter. My advice? Check to see what your own state legislature is up to, regarding this (and women’s issues as well;) you may be unpleasantly surprised.
I suppose human nature makes it necessary for us to have a poster-child event before we get on to ourselves. Our current sacrificial lamb is Trayvon Martin, the kind of kid you hope yours will turn out to be: a junior in high school, an A and B student who loved math and wanted to become an engineer. Trayvon sidestepped trouble for all of his 17 years but was ultimately found guilty of walking while black, raising the hood of his sweatshirt and hunching over his Skittles and iced tea to hurry home when it became evident that he was being followed. The harshest possible sentence for this ‘crime’ (sic) was carried out by one George Zimmerman — a self-appointed neighborhood watchman fixated on petty crimes in his gated community who was studying police science at a local community college. Zimmerman carried a weapon and dogged young Trayvon even after a 911 operator instructed him not to. Zimmerman is easily recognizable now because of national coverage of his mug shot for earlier legal issues; enough said.
Trusting the system, we’ve come to expect that the facts will illuminate the case, and that’s something of a cheat. Where are the CSIs we all love so much on television, able to tell us exactly what happened by investigating the crime scene? Let’s get some forensics in this conversation, shall we? Ahhh, well — no budget for that, citizen! And some say no need, either, in Florida where these things are self-evident, especially at the Sanford police department where young Trayvon Martin’s killer was let loose because there was no reason to believe his story of attack was bogus.
Except it was bogus, of course, as corroborated by several witnesses, one of whom was continually pressured — successfully, it seems — to change her story by Sanford police. Zimmerman’s earlier call to 911 also negates the story he tells of Trayvon unexpectedly attacking him as he exited his truck. Indeed, Sanford cops seem to have a history of “getting it wrong.” With fully half a million people signing a petition to arrest Zimmerman and the press following the zeitgeist with intense coverage, local police have finally stepped aside to allow a Florida Special Prosecutor to look into the matter, along with a separate investigation involving the DOJ. Department of Justice action in this case indicates some interest in pursuing it as a hate crime, perhaps based on language in the 911 call.
Frankly, it’s a rarity for the death of a black child — or any child of color — to capture the attention of the American public. And while race is obviously at the heart of this darkness, that’s not all we can find in its depth. We are preoccupied with killing, with death, with “protecting ourselves” using deadly weapons that keep us in a loop of escalating violence, ultimately endangering our continuance as a species. Aggression and violence seem to be woven into our DNA — the legacy of Cain and Abel — and laws that make vengeance a noble cause encourage the very paranoia that allows unbalanced people like Zimmerman to respond with guns blazing.
Woe to us all, it strikes me that there are more Zimmermans in the world than Trayvons. How many Trayvons will it take to finally tip the conversation toward our archaic gun laws, to our burgeoning mental health issues, and more, to our tolerance of — indeed, expectation of — violence in our daily affairs? The news today carries details of the Afghan massacre at the hands of American Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, charged with 17 counts of murder and six of attempted murder, carrying a penalty of death or life without parole. Leaving nine dead children in his wake, along with a complement of adults, Bales had a history of PTSD and an incident of brain damage prior to his latest deployment; it was his fourth. Although ultimately the sergeant will have to take responsibility for himself, our military makes murderers of soldiers, ignores their wounds and then feigns surprise when they go berserk. It begs the age-old question: is it a heroic calling to kill and die for your country or is it the ultimate con used for geopolitical purposes by your government? The harsh clarity of the answer seems beyond us.
This week in rural Minnesota, eight-year old Heather Cooper was walking to church with her parents and six-year old baby sister when something hit her leg. Gushing blood, she was rushed to the hospital where a .22 caliber bullet was removed. Asked about her ordeal, she mentioned that her priest told her how brave she was and a classmate called her a “pop star.” As reward for being a victim of random gun fire, little Heather got a lift in status. I’m not sure when getting shot became so glamorous, but if you Google, “How many times has 50 Cent been shot?” you will find over a million and a half responses. (The rapper insists it was nine, not counting multiple stab wounds, although there is some discrepancy and — obviously — considerable interest.)
Scarring up our bodies with near-fatal wounds has become romantic to the youngsters; the older ones have probably had their fill, especially those lucky enough to come home from the wars — some would say lucky, anyway. Others who didn’t come home whole sometimes just wish to die, their wounds so grievous that in previous days of limited technology, they would have been allowed to pass as a mercy. We have mastered the technology to save lives, Goddess help us, while we continue to improve the technology to take them. And if we follow our newest gadgets, the dreaded drones, we find we can now fight our battles with as little emotional involvement or loss of American life as a kid feels while playing a war game on X-Box. We have an ethical dilemma, I fear, and not a new one.
Keep in mind, our forefathers took this country at gunpoint, and we’ve been blowing people up ever since. I suspect that issues of supposed “neighborhood safety” were at the heart of those earliest killings as well; self-defense is the best justification for murder ever designed. This is very old karma we’re looking at, my dears, built on our history of Native American genocide and African-American slavery. The Nation magazine even sees some implications of old Confederate breeding-rights issues in the Religious Right’s current war on reproductive rights.
With Neptune in the feeling sign of Pisces, we need to guard carefully against wrong perception: vengeance served hot, as with Mr. Zimmerman’s deluded actions, or mayhem served cold, as with the night raid of a dead-eyed military man, flirting with suicide in his every action. Both of these men remind me of the potential extremism of the Great Attractor, dancing with us in this potent season, each man resonating to a dark, personal vision of life and death. The GA, methinks, is a great, dark mirror in which we may lose ourselves if we have not been attentive to our authentic Self.
Our dilemma — unfaced insecurities and unlived ethics — was challenged anew on 9/11, when we decided we could kill an idea we didn’t like, murder an ideology that opposed us rather than deal with it in a constructive manner. In a choice between guns and diplomacy, between international alliance and unilateral hubris, we chose wrongly. Just prior to that was the last time I felt comfortable with the direction of my government, by the way, the last time I drew a peaceful breath, but then I’ve heard it said that peace can only come when there is justice. We shall see if justice prevails for Trayvon Martin and his family, for the grieving families of murdered Afghans. And can there be real justice for those who perpetrated these crimes, sick with internal fears and twisted by external threats their society did nothing to mend?
We shall see if accountability will come to Wall Street, to those who continue to get away with the murder of our financial system and theft of money that is not theirs. We must wait to see if the corporations that victimize whole societies while murdering our environment will be allowed to get away with poisoning our mutual wellbeing. As all this rises in the public eye, like the dark dregs of man’s inhumanity to man, we are each being given a taste of what has driven civilization for thousands of years, and perhaps developing an awareness, even an immunity, to it.
I’ve long resisted the meme that 9/11 changed everything, but I can see that it has twirled us like dervishes to strip us of the lies we tell ourselves, bringing us face to face with our greatest challenge as a species: do we love life best? Or is it death? It seems to me that many of us have gone cynical about the first and romanticized the second. As we seek to heal ourselves from a long past of self-undoing, we need to push past the obvious and keep digging to get to the cause of our violence and despair.
Before we can let go of our self-hatred, we’re going to have to admit our crimes: our collective sins of nationalism that have killed so many, our errors of xenophobia that attempt to throttle the future of those we dislike, and our enduring arrogance in judging others without a hint of the compassion we ourselves would beg for in their stead. Can we forgive ourselves for the lapses of consciousness, big and little, that we try to cover with justification? Can we begin to notice our murderous thoughts about our boss, our neighbor, our mate, the “looks that could kill” we shoot at those who inadvertently annoy us? Will we choose the fullness of love — for ourselves as well as others — over the emptiness of hatred and disdain, paranoia and demonization?
With the equinox, we hit another Zero Point, and Aries is everywhere you look. At its most elemental, then, we’re talking about enthusiasm and action, plants shooting up, restlessness and growing fire energy to warm things up. Aries is also about blood, and rarely does a Zero Point event occur without the shedding of some. Because we’ve been in perpetual war for over a decade, we can illustrate most any transit with a bloody list of victims. That’s not news, but there’s a different feel to all this now, isn’t there?
The signals have all scrambled and something new is going on. This is no longer just about the war we wage against each other — this is about the war we wage against ourselves. If we can just understand that little piece of this great challenge to our consciousness, if we can strip away all the excuses we’ve hidden behind to discover the actual enemy within us, not outside asking to be silenced, we will have taken a vital first step toward life.
There is a mutually assured future within us that is only a loving choice away. If we are, in fact, proving to ourselves that such a future is the one we want — not this dark culmination of a dying era — count me in with the hundreds of millions of us who choose life. And be assured that once we choose — once enough of us make the commitment to peace and justice and lovingness — nothing will stop the light.
Thank you for this amazing, heartwrenching piece, dear Jude. It brought to mind Cronenberg’s film A history of violence – which addresses these issues brilliantly.
Easier not to look at the sharp edges of our reality but thanks, be, for being willing and for seeing how that witness fits into the bigger picture. So much of what we’re seeing now has been codified into law while we slept. Unless we know what we’re facing, we can’t advocate effectively. The astrology of awakening is so clear, isn’t it! Thanks for your clarifying voice.
I’ve been pondering your 60s reference and all I can say is that the 60s shifted the social construct permanently. I was a kid then and now, when I look back at the pictures and news reels, it feels like lifetimes ago. Before the 60s, women and children were still chattel, birth control was hit or miss, civil rights was still a dream — those things were the tyranny of patriarchy, and the 60s felt like the beginning of the end. Perhaps this next aspect IS the end and maybe on the other side if it, it will feel like another lifetime ago.
We each do our part — I so appreciate yours, kiddo. Thanks again.
Sanford and Son; why does that keep scrolling across the bottom of my mental TV screen. Maybe it is to remind me that stupidity was something we could all laugh at at one time. Or maybe it is something else. Maybe that “one time” was in the 60’s. Or even 1960. Ironically, Fe mentioned in her article “America, what time is it?” that there are those of us (ie Americans) who obsess over returning to the days of 1960, and ironically, I looked up where Neptune was in 1960 at found it stationed at 6 Scorpio 22 in July. Ironically, on February 26, 2012, Jupiter (law) was at 6 Taurus 22, just opposite that 1960 Neptune. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that the date when Trayvon Martin was gunned down?
Ironically, these two “fixed” degrees both square the U.S. Sibly natal north (6+ Leo) and south (6+ Aquarius) nodes of the Moon, with the Scorpio ’60 Neptune in the North Bending and transiting Jupiter on 2/26 in the South Bending. Like the South Node, planets at the South Bending degree represents something that needs to be released (the law in this case) and a planet at the North Bending degree (1960 Neptune; “sacrifice”) is able to express itself and receive incoming energy.
If you take a look at the U.S. Sibly Solar Return chart for the last birthday of the U.S., notice that the asteroid Atlantis is at 22 Virgo 39, conjunct the U.S. natal Neptune at 22 Virgo 25, allowing the World, through modern technology, to be aware of this and other tragedies all at the same time. The U.S. natal Atlantis is at 23 Taurus 10 and the U.S. Pluto at 27 Capricorn 33 retro form a grand trine with natal Neptune, and to your point Jude, “This is very old karma we’re looking at. . ”
Another look at the Solar Return for the U.S. shows that Achilles at 4+ Cancer was on the midheaven; the “achievement” point and our reputation for all the world to see. On the nadir, opposite the midheaven and at the root, is the asteroid Child at 4+ Capricorn and retrograde. It needs no explanation; we in the U.S. are living our astrology.
To be sure, it is only a part of the picture of what all the World is experiencing at this time. At last we see an unquestionable expression of Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn. A single individual Act challenging the authority and the reasoning of Power. The Sun was still in Pisces on 2/26 and so was Mercury. But now, at a time of the Vernal Equinox and an Aries New Moon conjunct Uranus, and Mercury on the Aries Point, there is no holding back the manifestation of this powerful evolutionary aspect. Mars at 7 Virgo and retro in the Equinox chart squares the north node and Juno (connectivity, partnership) and the south node and Sisyphus, who reminds us of the futility of doing the same thing the same way, time after time forever and ever. Mars will go over every “detail” while still retrograde, but when he goes direct next month he will express with great certainty the facts and the data to support the vedict in this episode. The same old, same old or the path to higher consciousness?
In the Equinox chart Borasisi (lies and illusion) squares the Great Attractor you mentioned and sensed as a “great, dark mirror in which we may lose ourselves if we have not been attentive to our authentic Self.” This aspect may give us the chance to see our real selves and refute the belief we are too weak to make the world a better place. The asteroid Karma in the Equinox chart is at 0+ Gemini and squares the Moon conjunct Neptune right at the start of her new cycle with him. She represents the “people of the world” in this chart and Neptune might represent not just sacrifice, but a spiritual awakening. The Sabian Symbol for where Karma sits is represented by this image: A Glass-Bottomed Boat Reveals Undersea Wonders (The revelation of unconscious energies and submerged psychic structures) Dane Rudhyar says “this translucency [glass bottom = conscious view] is not direct openness. The window of the mind remains closed, but through it the individual can become aware of the outside” (the psychic depths below the normal level of consciousness). He calls it A NEW DIMENSION OF REALITY.
You express for us all Jude, the pain and futility and anger that must be used to better our future, to bring us out of the dark and dying era. We can’t thank you enough for that. Now if I can only figure out how 1960 fits into all of this!
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