Presumption of Guilt

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

The Midwest is under heat alert, sweltering beneath a late summer sun. The temps have been steadily climbing for several days, with humidity stifling and little relief in sight. I suspect our collective sense of weariness with news emergencies, at home and around the world, feels similarly oppressive. I’m quite sure that residents of Ferguson, Missouri have had their fill of intimidation and night terrors, that all but the most determined are pleading for a return to normalcy. So much for the “lazy, hazy days of summer,” especially when the haze comes from smoke bombs and tear gas.

Political Blog, News, Information, Astrological Perspective.I’m not focused primarily on racial issues this week; we’ve covered that pretty well, with Eric speaking to more of that dynamic in Friday’s subscription issue, but there are a few tidbits to add that make the question of “Why Ferguson?” clearer. I’m more interested in following those cookie crumbs to the broader issue of class today, of the economic disparity that is becoming more apparent by the day, and another sliver of the “us/them” dialogues that are part of our spiritual separation issue.

No matter how many economists agree that tightening our belts and paying down debt do nothing to grow our economy, the Pubs continue to dig in their heels, refusing to sacrifice the ‘givers’ in order to satisfy the ‘takers.’ (That’s a Paul Randism, although it turns out the givers don’t actually give, just as trickle-down economics doesn’t actually trickle, so these characteristics might more truthfully be labeled the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots.’)

To prove the point, House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seems eager to hold the budget hostage again, should he win re-election. Rumors are flying that he intends to make Obama open a vein to pay in exchange for funds to run the country. For Mitch, it’s party over public good every time, and those pesky ‘takers’ can just eat cake.

I’ve previously complained about the ‘shrinking middle class’ sound bite that is bandied about by politicians, including our president, suggesting that good citizens who ‘play by the rules’ no longer have access to a ‘level playing field.’ It seems to me that the meme itself is classist, and I wouldn’t have looked so closely at it if I hadn’t heard it so damned many times that I’m chaffed. It supposes that:

1] playing by the rules is a prerequisite for deservedness, easy to accomplish in 21st century America, and even in our best interests, incentivized and rewarded:

2] a level playing field is actually possible, given the lobbying and legislative coup on rule of law over the last thirty or so years and the Supreme Court’s most recent excess, giving corporate entities more rights than the average citizen;

3] the assumption that the middle class is where most of us were, prior to Dubby’s Big Recession, and want to be again, even though that status in the middle requires us to earn between $40,000 and $95,000 per household and pit ourselves against continually shifting matters of job insecurity, taxation and inflation. These days, given the decline of unions and well-paying manufacturing jobs, the middle class is now singularly defined by skilled technicians and those in white collar and management positions. Are being a member of the middle class and obedience to the establishment synonymous?

What’s missing from this equation? The poor, the disenfranchised, the chronically ill, elders and handicapped. Now add those who have limited educational opportunities, those who face domestic and community violence, those who are unable to find full-time work or any at all. Factor in those who are used up like tissue working at places like Wal-Mart, who bleeds their employees as much as they bleed the social services their workforce is required to depend upon. Count in single mothers working a job or two, underpaid and undervalued.

Very few of these can even show up on the rolls of the lower-middle or lower class. These are the people we seldom hear about, either bordering on poverty, or locked within it.

The list of reasons for this is seemingly endless, pulling at our shirt-tails, threatening to drag us down into hopelessness. Perhaps that’s why we seldom talk about it, even though examples of the kinds of socio-economic struggle that has long been ignored by those in a position to assist pop up on a daily basis in whack-a-mole fashion, calling our attention to their need and then fading from view as another critter turns our head. Who are these poor people, citizens of a shaky underclass, we wonder? Are they in the ghetto? Are they hiding in the dark of night?

Know what’s also missing from this equation, dearhearts? Reality. The 2010 census showed that 50 percent — 1 out of 2 — in this nation either lives at low income or poverty level ($11,344 for a single person, $22,113 for a family of four). Statistics show that the largest share of SNAP (food stamps) go to white families, or at least they did before sequestration — we may now find them lining up at food banks on distribution day — and many of the people we see around us every day are either receiving some kind of assistance or are in dire need of it. Of course, rumors that the recession is over and has been for quite a while may not reflect on our own pay stub, but rest assured Wall Street and the 1% — including their betters, the .01% — have just uncorked another bottle of bubbly. It’s dog eat dog out there in the streets, and sharks eat both!

Let’s go back to Ferguson for a moment, as an example of all of the above, and issues of race to boot. This is a little town where fundraising is done by issuing police citations for minor city infractions payable to the municipal court. Some 12,108 cases and 24,532 warrants — an average of 1.5 cases and three warrants per household — fattened the city coffers by $2,635,400.00 last year. Ferguson, you may recall, is a city of just 21,000 low-income people, inappropriately targeted for pricey citations and without the means to fight a highly corrupt and deliberately opaque judicial system. After years of that kind of treatment, is it any wonder they’re in the streets today?

Now, before you say that’s mostly about race — some of which I’ll grant you — you have to tell me that you’ve never been intimidated by a cop. I’ll leave much of my past behind and just stick to Missouri: once stopped by a Missouri Highway Patrolman, I asked a general question about out-of-state licensing and you’d have thought I’d called him out for six-guns at dusk. These people are accustomed to Yes-Sirs and No-Sirs, and that’s all they want to hear. They’re like Cartman on his Big Wheel, wearing his mirrored shades, yelling “Respect my author-a-tay!” Intimidation is the name of the game, and in Ferguson, intimation includes the occasional dead black kid lying in the street.

And while, again, the majority of police personnel have more respect for the law than to bend it too far, there are many young souls out there who not only crave rules but take an inordinate amount of glee in enforcing them. According to Victor Kappeler, an associate dean at the Center for Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University, this is systemic to the culture of violence within law enforcement.

“Policing has been a hypermasculine, conservative profession. And to a large extent, police culturally embrace violence as a form of problem solving,” he said. “And when you equip them in [such] a way and you have a lack of leadership in the police agencies, this is the kind of behavior you’re going to see as a result. A lot of these guys live for these kinds of situations — the opportunity to use force and to work a riot.”

We’ve talked about the courage lent us by Jupiter moving into Leo, but think about the kind of courage that witnesses to Brown’s shooting have shown. They’ll be staying when the reporters take their leave. So will Ferguson’s 53 cops, including, quite probably, the man who thought killing the big black kid easier than dealing with him. Target much? The Klan and their supporters have raised well over $135,000 for Officer Wilson, who continues to keep a low profile, although he must know that the incidence of cops actually being held accountable for these events is minimal. According to Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who is now a law professor at Loyola University in Los Angeles, “It is really hard to convict a police officer, they get a super presumption of innocence.”

As to the economic/racial mix of issues that have exploded in this case, let’s pick just one today. The picture we most often see of Mike Brown shows him looming large and unsmiling, his face unreadable. Occasionally we see the picture of him in cap and gown, graduating from high school. In an early interview, Mike Brown’s mother asked a reporter, “Do you know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school and graduate? You know how many black men graduate? Not many.” Sadly, this is not just the cry of one anguished mother, but hundreds of thousands, and it’s not just black children at risk.

In Ferguson, where the local high school is one of only a handful no longer accredited by the state, only 53 percent of kids graduate. It would be fair to blame much of that problem on the local poverty and social instability that qualify 90 percent of students for free or subsidized lunches, leaving many of these kids hungry during the summer months. The state considers this school district ‘failed,’ and greater St. Louis named it the worst school in the area.

To make matters worse, because of zero-tolerance policies, “infractions such as insubordination, uniform violation, horseplay, truancy, and tardiness” are subject to 10-day suspensions — or worse, criminalization into the juvenile justice system — which typically drive students to quit rather than stay in school. In a state that does not prop up its needy schools, too often reflecting the struggling socio-economic areas in which they reside, Ferguson finds itself at the end of the line in a geographical and sociopolitical location where “only 14 other states had school funding distribution systems that were more unfair than Missouri’s.”

From a national policy point of view there’s a bit of good news on that front. The administration is taking a closer look at “teaching to the test,” a policy that has failed to educate except in the narrowest of terms. Education itself has become a political football in the last decade, creating havoc within school systems, which many argue has contributed to America’s competitive decline. Zero-tolerance policy — the student equivalent of the “tough on crime” policies popularized in the mid-90s — is being scrutinized as well, considering its abject failure to correct behavior problems. And while race is highly visible in the “school to prison” pipeline that unfairly targets children of color, it creates a high-wire balancing act for the maturity level of anyone’s young child.

In the good old days, if your kid had a problem in pre-school or kindergarten, a parent was made aware that their child was not mature enough for a classroom situation. You kept them home a year. Now, little kids are being bounced out, judged troublemakers early on, and especially when they are children of color. Bob Herbert outlined this disturbing trend in his essay on roots of racism in Ferguson:

I will never forget traveling to Avon Park, Florida, a few years ago to cover the case of an African-American girl in kindergarten who was arrested by the police, handcuffed and taken to the police station in the back seat of a patrol car because she had thrown a tantrum in the classroom. When I interviewed the police chief, I expressed amazement that this had happened to a six-year-old. His reply came in an instant: “Do you think this is the first six-year-old we’ve arrested?”

Handcuffing the child had proved difficult. “You can’t handcuff them on their wrists because their wrists are too small,” the chief explained, “so you have to handcuff them up by their biceps.”

What will life be like, I wonder, if you discover that you are under siege by a hostile and authoritarian presence at the tender age of six? How could any child, of any ethnicity, trust authority after that? And how level can we consider this child’s playing field as she enters into adulthood?

In January, Obama urged an end to harsh zero-tolerance policies and recently, Los Angeles School District– 1,100 schools, 640,000 students — abandoned its zero-tolerance policy, which had criminalized approximately 9,000 students in the 2011-12 school year with tickets and arrests. Ninety-three percent of them were African American or Latino students from low income areas. Errant students will now be sent to counselors or mandated interventions rather than delivered into the arms of the juvenile justice system.

Piece by piece, we’re making progress on these kinds of domestic problems — not in big bites, but little nibbles — and I’m continually surprised at all that the Obama administration influences behind the scenes. I think when all is said and done, we’ll be amazed that his people could accomplish so much walking while trying to chew the more explosive and controversial gum of foreign affairs, security and environmental issues, and just plain politicking.

BUT — there’s always a but — there is a worrisome level of danger now that I didn’t feel twenty years ago, or even forty. The cracks in the Liberty Bell have grown deeper with each leap in technology, pitting us against ourselves. Even with those that we support, among those that have our cooperation, since 9-11, very few of us enjoy the “presumption of innocence.” We are all presumed guilty, thanks to the fear that infects the human collective.

Presumption of guilt is the natural extension of humanity’s misunderstanding of itself. The ‘other’ must be the one that’s making the boat rock, it SURELY can’t be me, tap dancing here in the bow. In order to look at ourselves, we need not just a heavy shot of courage but an understanding of human nature that allows us to put what we find in proper perspective. Our Judeo/Christian underpinnings solidifies the concept of guilt by declaring us a creature of original sin, requiring us to bury our authentic feelings or face the condemnation of our repressive culture. We’re programmed for guilt.

I read a recent study that suggested that conservatives see things in black and white, either/or, because it is the least threatening way to perceive a stimulus. Falling back on tradition, complete with an established laundry list of moral platitudes, creates a comfort zone from which we do not have to do much thinking, or threaten our ego by taking too close a look at who we are and why. Liberals are typically less anxious and have an easier go of it, less fearful of choices and new ideas but they, too, suffer a mix of impulses.

We know that fears can be neatly wrapped up by projecting our own trespasses outside of ourselves and onto those guilty ‘others’ who so often represent our shadow-self, that undiscovered self we occasionally glimpse before we quickly turn away. Like matters of racism, we may not even be aware that we’re doing it, nor conscious that the whole of our lives reverberate with that darker energy. And, seriously, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that fear is what runs this game we play with one another.

But there is another game we could play if we choose it, a loving one. What would the world look like if we gave ourselves a pass, stopped self-criticizing, stopped projecting? What if we presumed ourselves innocent, and everyone around us as well? That’s the larger template, isn’t it? Or is that just too airy-fairy? Our innate innocence is a tenet of A Course In Miracles, the condition of our indwelling Higher Self, and as I was thinking about how dark this separation game of finger-pointing and demonizing has become, I thought of a passage I appreciate from the Workbook.

This week, as much of the world simmered in chaos, I was wondering how we might come back around to forgiveness, how we could remember our own innocence and relieve ourselves of this deadly presumption of guilt that drives us to attack another. It’s only by remembering that we are part of one another, all the same human family, that we can cast off this useless bias and judgment, like slipping off a too-tight shoe that has hobbled us for so long. And once we do, finally free of the toxic guilt that hides our face from the Light, then?

“He does not have to fight to save himself. He does not have to kill the dragons which he thought pursued him. Nor need he erect the heavy walls of stone and iron doors he thought would make him safe. He can remove the ponderous and useless armor made to chain his mind to fear and misery. His step is light, and as he lifts his foot to stride ahead a star is left behind, to point the way to those who follow him.”

12 thoughts on “Presumption of Guilt”

  1. Indeed, thank you Judith. I’m especially grateful for your explanation of “holding the light” and that there is a reason for being the only one in your neck of the woods who thinks/feels along these lines. Like Bette, you and cowboyiam, I (for years now) have been unable to freely speak (gush) out to family and friends about my true interests and beliefs. Instead, I opted to keep one foot on the new world grid and one in the old world, just in case. . . .

    Oh me of little faith, but one doesn’t get to be my age by throwing caution to the wind. So, I held space and listened to folks talk about their problems and disappointments, and was sympathetic. Then – probably just before the winter solstice in 2012 – channelers began to suggest we should begin to speak out more about the changes that were coming, the woo-woo stuff, to prepare and assuage any upcoming fears I figured. Gradually, my weight shifted more to the foot in the new world, giving less and less of myself to the old world. Now, except for a few dear friends, I’m a stranger living in a strange world. Yet, I find that my tentative and very brief forays into discussing “what could be” are met with less fear and need for escape. It reminds me of the way a pooch who has been abused acts. Wanting to believe you won’t hurt him but not quite trusting enough to cozy up beside you. I sense a gradual acceptance, especially here in the blog world.

    Your explanation of these changes is perfect Jude. Nobody feels the need to call in the white coats to come and haul you away! I suppose it has taken this degradation of all that has supported our nest (the Dream), to accept the possibility of something better taking its place when, finally, enough of us want it. I understand too the guilt one feels when a relationship goes sour, and yet years later, when you realize how much you learned from it, you are grateful for the experience. That doesn’t come quickly and the healing takes a lot of time and forgiveness. Life in the 3rd dimension ain’t easy, but it does have it’s rewards.
    be

  2. Judith, thank-you, from the bottom of my heart. You have re-minded me, en-couraged me, & added the most kindly of kicks-in-the-butt, all much needed at this time. I KNOW there are others – it’s sometimes hard to remember when slogging through what is indeed often a dark night of the soul.

    This Sagg also once married a Gemini (old friend) for a short time; it didn’t last, but it was a learning, no doubt for both of us. We parted amicably, though have lost touch now. The charismatic Tough Assignment was an Aquarius, Sagg rising.

    Yes. As soon as the current spell of nasty weather ends, I’ll be off to the valley to visit the trees & whomever else is around. A lot of trees near my house in town fell to chainsaws last week, including some magnificent spruce, & every crash hurt. Can’t explain that to the locals!
    Bette

  3. By golly, it’s easy to get bummed by all that’s gone wrong in Ferguson, but to everything there is an opposite response, especially these days. We just have to look for it. Here are a couple of links to all that’s gone right:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/ferguson-the-untold-story_b_5697928.html

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/20/ferguson-teachers-volunteer_n_5695479.html

    Hat tip to Huffy for keeping on it …

    Now, sorry I’m tardy returning, my antiquated and crankier-by-the-day PC locked up and ate my response, so I had to start over after dinner and chores. Since neither of you are spiritual ‘newbie’s,’ Cowboy and Bette Loreen, let’s go to the heart of this sense of isolation we all seem to be experiencing. It’s part of the program, here in a newly birthed Era.

    Those of us who have become self-aware, observant of our lives, open to creativity and willing to wrestle with necessary change are buzzing along at a vibratory rate different than that of those who are still lost in maya, sleep-walking through their days or, even worse, fearful and flirting with nihilism and old mythologies about Armageddon and holy wars.

    Before we can lift ourselves up to glimpse that Light’ed space where we discover that we are all joined, part of a larger whole and ready to experience life without the ego-drama of “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” we must make our way through a level of separation from those around us that appear toxic and combative. And while it feels like that leaves us alone in a crowd, there are millions just like us feeling the very same thing.

    Give yourself a HUGE pat on the back — or better yet, find someone who is going through similar and exchange pats — for being aware and awake and uncomfortable! Adversity is a stepping stone to empowerment, if that is our Souls choice. What we’re feeling is akin to the infamous ‘dark night of the soul,’ when our push out of the nest of what is traditional and familiar untethers us from our comfort zone, and seems to leave us comfortless.

    Those we used to call ‘seekers’ all report feeling this disconnect on their journey away from all they have counted on to keep them safe, a renewed sense of abandonment and isolation each time they pull farther away from the downward spiral of group thought, so this is not really new for those of us on The Path. But this latest version is unusually intense, adding to a sense of helplessness to do anything to assist the political, ecological and material problems that challenge us daily and leave us all exhausted. But there are things we can do — as be sez, awaiting further instruction — that are more powerful than we know.

    First off, realize that where you are and what you feel has purpose, we just aren’t entirely sure what it is and where that will take us. Be assured we will find what we need as we consciously do our lives. We need to feel all our feelings, “good and bad,” focusing especially on those that resonate our heart-chakra and add compassion and kindness to the world. Don’t let the news get you down, it’s just a small percentage of what’s going on in this bubbling Petri dish of a grand experiment in consciousness. There is so much good going on that, if we could recognize it, we’d be astounded. We must learn to recognize it, which means seeing through the Illusion (ACIM calls it The Dream.)

    Trust your intuition to tell you if something is TRULY wrong or dangerous. There is a difference between emotions that come and go and true feelings that inform us. In the East, they call those random emotions “the tiger pacing the jungle.” Learn to recognize the difference between those two (water) energies. Only one is trustworthy to act upon.

    Practice trusting yourself. It was when you were more ego-bound and drama-inspired than you are now that you were untrustworthy, not now. Now you’re listening for your Higher Angels and learning to recognize their voice. They always speak for love and forgiveness, for tenderness and compassion. If your internal dialogue is speaking for a different dynamic, you might want to take a time out … meditate, listen to soothing music, create something that holds your attention and folds time … until the chatter fades. Practice, practice, practice to get to Carnegie Hall.

    Understand that forgiving yourself is the only sane option. Holding yourself responsible for the slips and slides of an earthly incarnation is ridiculous. If you were all that and a bag of chips, you wouldn’t BE here. This plane is about feeling, experimenting, failing, succeeding, creating and yes, even destroying. If that isn’t what we’re doing, then we’re wasting a good incarnation.

    And please do be advised, being born at this time on this planet isn’t about winning the lottery, entities stood in line for an opportunity to be here at the beginning of this new Era — only the most powerful and brightest were allowed the privilege. If you’re here, that would be you! Do not “hide your Light under a bushel,” because that is NOT in your contract. You were given the opportunity to provide your gifts to a waiting world, and you will do so when the time is right.

    We have to trust that what we intuit so strongly about God or I AM or whatever we wish to call that organizing energy that not only created us but infused us with the capacity to give and receive love, is real. We have to trust those flashes of love we’ve experienced, because once truly felt, all else pales … and nothing so Divine could possibly be random. And, again, trust that just because we can’t see the purpose for everything that challenges us today, doesn’t mean there isn’t one. If love isn’t random, neither is life.

    Regarding anything ‘woo woo,’ Bette — just think of me, here in the Pea Patch, surrounded by Fundy’s and holding the energy all by myself (at least that I know of.) Holding energy IS something we are required to do, especially when there are no representatives for enlightenment and tolerance around. I once complained bitterly to my Aunt (and mentor) that the Lightworkers were scattered hither and yon, nobody close enough to support one another. She told me there weren’t enough of us to go around, somebody had to anchor the grid. (Your idea to get out in the countryside, by the way, is PERFECT. Ask for what you need from the trees and grass, the sky and breeze — expect an answer and allow your heart to accept what comes to you.)

    As well, Bette, I want to speak to your last relationship, because that seems to be where you’re blocked — and that is surely familiar to me. I used to be a relationship junky. I understood early on that in order to reflect me back to myself, I needed relationships, and as my chart made clear, they had to be intense. And so, they were.

    The three major relationships of my life have been with my Solar opposite, Gemini. Each of them have been a learning experience, discovering what DOESN’T come naturally to a Sagittarius, but what I could develop within myself if I chose to. I joke that I now have a Masters Degree in Gemini and a very thorough understanding of myself — but it’s not really a joke. I consider my emotional bumps and bruises — what I used to call baggage — stars in my crown. I no longer need someone else to show me who I am. Now I choose differently.

    My last relationship sounds very much like your experience. I knew from the get-go that it was going to be life-changing, and so difficult that I simply hoped to live through it. I even moved to another state to take myself away from family and friends, compelled to see it through without muddying up the lives of dear ones. Those years challenged just about everything I knew about loving someone and about loving myself.

    On the other side, he and I are still in love but lead very different lives, far from one another. I couldn’t have forgiven him if I hadn’t first forgiven myself for taking the option … the opportunity … for that higher education that has made me comfortable and content with myself today.

    All of this took time to filter down, of course — so please, take your time; but do realize that you never made a mistake, there is NOTHING that happened you need to forgive yourself for but if you feel you must, then find those wounds and lick them until they begin to dissolve into self-knowing. You did not come here to make yourself miserable over “failed” relationship.

    No relationship fails, it simply expresses itself for the illumination of all parties involved. And once that understanding opens your heart, you ‘get’ that you still love not just those you once loved, but EVERYONE that spins into your orbit. That’s why the Sages tell us there is no “special one” — there is just every one of us, together.

    And finally, my dears, until we get our marching orders — stumble on to that thing that makes the Light come on and a path open before us — there are simple yet profound things that we can do. Here’s homework. Read this, and do it for ten days, without fail. It’s a no brainer, couldn’t hurt and I think you may find it changes your base energy more than you realize. Remember, when we change our self, new opportunities rush in!

    When everything seems heavy, yes, cowboy — DO breathe, deeply. Keep it simple. And stay in the moment because fear and gratitude cannot both exist together. The Light energy prevails, and that is the ‘takeaway’ we must remember. The highest vibration wins the contest and changes the energy in a process of Divine alchemy, from moment to moment, if necessary, until the tigers pass.

    I hope that helps. This is only one way to look at it, of course, there are myriad others. If this one doesn’t serve, keep asking: the Universe always provides!

    Keep on keeping on, dearhearts. You’re adding Light to the world! Love to both, to all of you — and thanks for visiting with me this weekend. Blessed be.

  4. The hard part of holding the Light of awareness in isolation is that one is surrounded by others who have no idea there is such a thing, & one knows one would just be marginalized further if one spoke of it. The boundary at which things become thought of as “woo-woo” here is a pretty tight circumference.
    I need to spend more time in the countryside!

  5. Thank-you so much, be; I am still in the process of reflecting upon your comments.
    I guess I’ve been on this path (& wandered off, occasionally getting lost, & then returned to it) – since about 1971, when astrology, then environmental awareness & exploring spirituality arrived in my life (Neptune approaching my sun). Books arrived, & people from/with whom I could learn. That was during my 35 years of city living.

    Why I feel so stuck & arid at present is probably multi-layered. Still recovering from too-long, diminshing & hurtful relationship, the isolation of which continues; living in the small village where I grew up (safe, low cost of living), I “know” everyone, but have no one close; this summer I lost my long-time dear friend & kindred spirit, whose last phone call was just a couple of weeks before her death.

    Periodically, I consider trying to relocate, but I’ve no idea where, & there aren’t a lot of centres, especially the larger ones, where I could afford to live.

    I suspect a big obstacle is that I have not forgiven my self for getting into that last relationship (as Pluto transited my sun – he was so charismatic!), which cost me so dearly, in so many ways. So maybe that’s where I need to focus. Just haven’t been able to let that go.
    Bette

  6. Police brutality has finally taken center stage, has our full attention. That’s the good news: we’re not turning our heads away any more, and we can’t fix it until we acknowledge it’s broke. Still, it’s tough to watch (but God/dess bless camera phones!)

    Last night Huffy had SIX gif.’s on its splash [header] of cops beating someone — one showed the cop sitting on the black woman driver, punching her in the face; one showed a cop tipping a guy in a wheel chair out on the floor in a police station. It was something, in motion, side by side. Wish I could have captured it before they changed it out. The article that went with (and I’d suspect original videos) is here.

    It’s no wonder Egypt and Russia are taking pleasure in chiding America on it’s inability to provide “liberty and justice for all” in St. Louis county, while those who did a spit-take when they heard about those civil-liberty-offenders wagging a finger in our face need to take a long look in the mirror. I’ve gotta say, even as this ratchets down, it’s difficult to swallow reports coming out of the area. I read a piece yesterday about how cops continually hassled a church that allowed protesters a place to rest (they have to keep moving or be arrested,) get medical attention and supplies, etc. And if that wasn’t bad enough, they’ve lied about what they found there (which isn’t much of a surprise, given all they’ve already lied about.)

    There are a number of options for activism re: Ferguson at http://www.CODEPINK.org, including tweeting in support on Monday — Mike Browns funeral — and a petition to sign. http://www.HandsUpUnited.org is a Ferguson-specific site they recommend if you wish to donate. And the Daily Beast has an interesting article about how the city dynamics may change over the course of this crisis, as did a similar incident in Ohio, using the judicial system as well as focused bottom-up activism.

    Over at FOX News they’re pointing to Ferguson as an attack on American values: not what the cops are doing, what the ‘natives’ are doing! Goofy old Pat Robertson sez the kid was prob’ly on PCP anyhow (when it was leaked that he was on … gasp! … mj, I just laughed — the Pubs don’t get that context at all. What? Mike Brown was just one more black kid targeted while going after Skittles to cure his case of the munchies? Ridiculous!)

    That kind of crap attitude doesn’t reflect mainsteam American values, it’s right out of Dixie’s past: “I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten …” Back in those days the South is so fond of eulogizing, a boy didn’t achieve his manhood unless he’d bullied and beaten a slave, taking his ‘rightful place over his inferiors.’ And even if some of that remains a subconscious response, that’s the root of Obama-hatred, count on it!

    That notions like that haven’t been swept into history’s dustpan astounds me! When I pop off at the TV reports (several time a day) my son teases me by saying, “Well, they’ve got tails, Mom.” THAT’s what people in this neighborhood believed about African-American’s until well into the middle of last century … and, here in the heart of this mess, I’m not all that sure they still don’t!

    Ferguson is smack in one of the most segregated regions in this nation, and the majority of those cops are whistling Dixie. There’s a rally in MO today in support of Wilson; no doubt it will be well attended.

    Holly, it’s so good to hear how successfully you’ve dealt with your challenge to find a workaround to the limitations of our system in making accommodation for those who are not considered ‘mainstream.’ I worked in education for a long while, from elementary school to college, and we’ve really stumbled in converting skills into work options, especially as those options seems to change out daily. Education continues to be our hope for the future — go figure, it’s the thing that has become increasingly difficult to secure. Until we makes public schools ‘free’ again, or at least within reach, we have little chance of creating that level playing field we’re so fond of.

    And while the technology you speak of has every possibility of helping us enormously, kiddo, its a double-edged sword. We are going to have to reconfigure the entire issue of “work” soon, since so much of what we used to do will have been replaced by tech. It won’t be long before we’ll be required to find a means of sustaining ourselves without work as we know it and consequently, change our judgment about who and what is a worthy human being (instead of human, doing.) Sounds daunting, but we’ll figure it out.

    Pluto at the point where adjustment should take place, but do you see that as a likelihood due to Mitch’s Chiron-Jupiter? Transiting Pluto making adjustments?

    Sounds more like an explosion, be — I don’t want to see the Old Turtle done in — just removed from power over so many of us — so I hope he’s done SOME inside work to make his landing softer. But karma’s, karma and considering all the lives he’s effected, whatever his soul has to learn, he’s got it Writ Large this time around.

    The poor will be with you always …” is from the Bible, Matthew 26:11. The Fundies use this passage to prove that it’s useless to take care of the downtrodden and that Liberal “stealing” from the common purse to take care of them doesn’t change anything. Metaphysicists look at it differently: the attitude of poverty perpetuates its continuance. Those who get over their feelings of victimization and get a string of success’s under their belt have an opportunity to change that resonance, and magnetize a different outcome. Perhaps Eric would call that an issue of self-esteem, I think of it as a ‘worthiness’ … they are, likely, synonymous. This attitude will be with us always because there are always people “in process,” and sleepy generational attitudes to overcome, learned at a parent’s knee.

    LOVE that Sabian Symbol, kiddo! “It seeks to go through and beyond the obstacles on its path, and this usually implies the destruction of the obstacle. At a higher level – as in the Zen practice of archery – the obstacle is the ego.” Which brings me to cowboy, Bette too … a bit later today (and thanks, be, for beginning that conversation.)

  7. Thank you Bette Loreen. I’m glad that you mentioned the federal election in Canada likely to take place next year. When you have a date for that event, we could look for astrological aspects that suggest any coming reforms. In the meantime, as to the feelings of being separate and alone which you and cowboyiam mention, you aren’t alone in that as I’m sure you both realize.

    You are probably familiar with the ascension viewpoint (associated with the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012). If not, it holds that we are in the process of detaching from those people and practices that no longer serve our goal; that is, if they don’t support our growing awareness/consciousness, then we must part ways with them. In my life I’ve seen that if (being a clutchy Cancerian) I can’t let go (even though I know I must), Life (or the Universe) “helps” me by making it happen anyway. Perhaps that has been happening to you too. The reason for this “letting go” is that it will free you – emotionally, financially, psychologically and time-wise – to develop and be who you are beyond those constraining layers of a lifetime of expectations (family, society, tradition, etc.).

    There is a path to follow (you wouldn’t be here reading Judith’s post if you weren’t on it) that will strengthen and support the (often) latent skills which best serve your core values. However, we often need to trust our intuition, our feelings, our “other senses” as well as our mind to see the directional signposts. If this hasn’t been your normal practice, you will be helped (in unexplainable ways, I promise that) until you more fully trust your own instincts.

    There are great changes taking place which we see little hints of, but are for the most part hidden for now. The astrology is very encouraging that more and more understanding of what could be and what is to come arrives in the near future. Judith reminds us to forgive – first ourselves. Then we must try and forgive our loved ones, then our perceived enemies and finally the rest of the world.

    Tomorrow is a New Moon in Virgo, the sign of criticism (negative) and the sign of healing (positive). In that chart there are suggestions of a period involving a loving (Venus in Leo) self review (Uranus retrograde in Aries) going on at the same time as a period of disciplined (Saturn) activity (Mars) toward the pursuit of creating something of value (Venus in Leo). It could include trying to find balance between the practical (Mercury in Virgo) and the sentimental (Chiron in Pisces).

    This Full Moon also supports a plan involving partnership (Pallas in Libra) that will benefit from a creative expansion of thinking (Jupiter in Leo) toward a goal of releasing concepts which confine and don’t support emotional well-being (Neptune in Pisces). Virgo marks a transition in preparation for a new start arriving in Libra. Take advantage of this time to separate the wheat from the chaff.
    be

  8. cowboyiam, I too have been struggling with feeling “separate and alone surrounded by a crazy world.” For me, part of that is trying to find the balance between watching events “out there” enough to have a sense of what’s happening (so much of it overwhelmingly awful) – & trying to maintain some inner peace, unsupported by others who share my perceptions. That balancing used to be easier than it is now, & I’m not sure why the change. Maybe I’ve lived too long among the unaware, disinterested, or indifferent?

    be, in response to your earlier interest in Canada’s missing or murdered Aboriginal women: CTV new reported tonight that at least 1300 have gone missing or been murdered in this country in the past 30 years. Many of us find this shameful & appalling, but our present government refuses to hold an inquiry, insisting that the police will investigate. Alas, not nearly enough of these cases are ever solved for us to be confident that this is the best route to change. We are expecting a federal election in 2015, & a change of government could see the kind of efforts which might make a real difference.
    Bette

  9. Your piece hit home on two points. You talk about the difficulty about certain people have a hard time finding a job. As someone with autism, I agree. I work to the best of my ability but I was perceived as “slow”. And my station was always done first. I tried to get a job in retailing, working in the back room readying the new clothes for display. I felt like I got along with people, but always at the last minute I was turned away. I was so lost that I just shut myself away in my room. Luckly I discovered astrology and through it I am now going to college to get an associates degree in medical billing and coding. Uranus helped too with that much needed epiphany.

    Regarding the zero tolerance in schools, I came across a story about a 16 year old suspended and arrested for…. writing in a creative assignment about killing a pet dinosaur. I wonder about the hiring process at some of these schools. I consider myself lucky I never ran into these types when I was in K-12. He was a white boy in the state of South Carolina. You wonder why American kids have such low regard for school, because of the chance they will run into these characters.

    In terms of the economy and how it will adjust there is one word that jumps into my head: technology. One of the main reasons some are in such rough shape is that jobs that required a human before is now done by automation. I believe places like Silicon Valley illustrate where the future is headed. Also, how do the cities adjust to the changing landscape will be crucial to how they recover. San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Pittsburgh. These are cities that took a hard look at what the recession dealt them and innovated themselves to places where people want to move into. If people are willing to completely transform (Pluto) their lives and retrain to adjust to the new(Aries) economy, then, slowly but surely, life will improve for them. Life finds a way.

  10. So, speaking of be-heading, Mitch McConnell, like any Pisces worth his salt-water, WOULD see the advantages of Party loyalty, especially now in his dotage years (no matter how extreme its illogical views have become), as his safest choice. The natives are pretty restless here in Kentucky, and his head is in peril due to his blind loyalty to party. If it weren’t for his greed, McConnell might have wisely decided to retire at the end of this term. His natal Jupiter at 11+ Gemini is trine his Mercury at 11+ Aquarius (too much talk), and that Mercury opposes his Chiron at 10+ Leo. When natal Chiron (learn through pain) is joined by transiting Jupiter at the end of this month, the sextile between natal Jupiter and natal Chiron (+ trans. Jupiter) will form a temporary yod with transiting Pluto at 11+ Capricorn retrograde. In theory, that would put trans. Pluto at the point where adjustment should take place, but do you see that as a likelihood due to Mitch’s Chiron-Jupiter? Transiting Pluto making adjustments? Maybe so, but I can’t believe it would be because Mitch wants it to.

    Instead, it may be that on Election day (when trans Sun at 11+ Scorpio sextiles trans. Pluto, by then direct at 11+ Capricorn), it will be McConnell’s natal Jupiter (11 Gemini) at the point that completes a yod and is forced to squirm into adjustment. The trans. Sun will T-square his natal opposition between Mercury and Chiron, as it does most election days in November, but that Sun isn’t always sextile transiting Pluto. Watch for a decided shift in consciousness after his debate with Alison Lundergan Grimes on October 13th.

    My Aquarian mom used to say “the poor will always be with us”, implying that we-the-people could never wipe out poverty, but that was before the idea that humanity could actually evolve had become prevalent in this country. Let me note one thing about little Ferguson’s birth chart.

    Back in August, 1891, Pluto conjoined Neptune at 8+ Gemini, thus starting a gigantic new cycle. Then in 1989 Neptune conjoined Saturn (Reality) to start their new, much shorter cycle. In the chart for that Saturn-Neptune conjunction, tiny little Pholus (small cause, big effect) the Centaur was at 8+ Gemini. Before all that, the U.S. was “born” in 1776 and Uranus was at 8+ Gemini.

    More than a century after that, Ferguson, Missouri was born in November, 1894, just a little over 3 years after the Pluto-Neptune conjunction at 8+ Gemini, and it’s birth chart holds a natal Pluto at 11+ Gemini, still conjunct natal Neptune at 14+ Gemini. That natal Pluto quincunxes it’s own natal Mercury/Pallas conjunction at 11+ Scorpio, which is presently being sextiled by transiting Pluto at 11+ Capricorn, for 4 long months. Altogether these planets form a yod which puts Ferguson’s natal Pluto (transform) at the apex, the point in the configuration where adjustments must take place due to those quincunx aspects natal Pluto gets from trans. Pluto and the natal conjunction of Mercury (communication) and Pallas (strategy).

    Not so subtle either is the connection of Ferguson’s natal Neptune at 14 Gemini 52 retrograde, to the historically rare 2012 Venus-occult-Sun event at 15 Gemini 44. Some of that magic is bound to have rubbed off on little Ferguson, just as fate put the natal U.S. Uranus (breakthroughs) at 8 Gemini 55, in order to fulfill the Pluto-Neptune 8+ Gemini conjunction legacy, reiterated in 1989’s Neptune-Saturn new cycle by a centaur named Pholus. Ever notice how close centaur sounds and looks like center?

    You have done a magnificent job of portraying life in Ferguson, Judith. I’ve learned more from you in this essay than from all (as much as I could stand) of the televised programming in the last week on the subject. It is because of writers like you who take the time to dig into a story that I believe a small town in the center/centaur of America can change the world.

    I’ve just recently come to have a new-found respect for Aries and the purpose it serves in the wholeness of any entity. So often we astrology-types can wind up looking at Aries, the sign, as selfishly self-absorbed (guilty), when the fact is, if it (Aries) weren’t that way, the wholeness of any entity would be toast. It is the fiery energy of Aries, the Newborn, that seeks to learn all about itself as separate from the rest, and it is Uranus in Aries that will make Humanity aware of how important Humanity is within the whole of life on earth and beyond. Aries the Explorer, now being fueled by the Uranian speed of enlightenment, will shock us into a new awakening, and it is the U.S. Uranus in Gemini, fueled by the Neptune-Pluto conjunction’s intent/purpose as depicted by it’s Sabian Symbol, that will lead this country away from the ancient past. Here is that symbol:

    A QUIVER FILLED WITH ARROWS. Dane Rudhyar says “The mind of man is essentially a trans-piercing power; it goes THROUGH the object toward which it is aimed. It seeks to go through and beyond the obstacles on its path, and this usually implies the destruction of the obstacle. At a higher level – as in the Zen practice of archery – the obstacle is the ego.”
    be

  11. Judith those last six paragraphs are the beautiful – frightening point of this journey. But as we come to embrace this truth in our selves we are confronted with the conundrum of appearances which trigger every fear and pattern we have learned. How do we practice this self-forgiveness into the real world? I find this week that I feel separate and alone surrounded by a crazy world. If this world is a projection of my internal drama – how can I heal? It seems the widespread problems are maniacally “built in” so deeply that the hopelessness of a horror-less resolution hangs thickly in the air we breathe. Facing my inner self in all my dysfunction seems to be a more and more ridiculous concept as time roles by. Once I felt so light and evolved, above the drama, but now the drama overtakes and I feel the pointlessness of trying to escape.
    I expect this too shall pass. I guess I really can’t perceive the answer from this emotional state. I remember how it feels when I’ve seen that the answers are actually there in some miraculous state of connection to all that is. I put my trust in universal guidance. I take another step. I breathe in and out, and i take another step. There must be a way.

Leave a Comment