From Pandemic to Protests: Is Truth a Virus?

I have been wanting to post about George Floyd and the protests and riots, but keep second-guessing myself. After all, I am not out there protesting in my home city of New York. I have to admit that I am afraid to do so. Under the best of circumstances I do not do well in crowds, and despite so many people behaving as if the pandemic is over, it is still very much with us. There is also no guarantee that even as a peaceful protester, I would make it home without being tear-gassed, pushed around, arrested, or stranded on a bridge for two hours with thousands of other pedestrians.

These fears, however well founded, also make me fear that I am totally missing the point: that this is the time for every person (or at least every seemingly healthy person under the age of 60 or 65), to throw caution to the wind for the opportunity to help change the world, to finally put an end to racism or, as assistant professor Dr. Kihana Miraya Ross terms it in today's op-ed piece in the New York Times: "anti-blackness," meaning "the inability to recognize black humanity." Dr. Ross offers up some real food for thought, writing that "George Floyd was killed because anti-blackness is endemic to, and is central to how all of us make sense of the the social, economic, historical and cultural dimensions of human life."

I can say that I am with the protesters in spirit. In less than an hour, there will be a memorial for George Floyd taking place in Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn. His brother is scheduled to speak. I can watch the memorial live-streamed, maybe even catch a glimpse of a friend or two who are still recognizable in their masks because I can identify their eyes. But I am choosing not to put myself in harm's way, either from Covid-19 (which I could then pass on to others, especially if I am an asymptomatic carrier) or from a cop who decides to take a middle-aged white woman down a notch or two. I can say that there are other ways to protest: write about the need for justice and an entire overhaul of the system; donate to the cause. I can say that I chose not to take part in #blackouttuesday because I decided it would be more helpful to repost information that included various phone numbers and names of organizations, as well as questions to ask yourself if you are not black and truly want to help.

I can say all of these things and also that I predicted riots and looting this summer, with Mars in Aries, possibly resulting in martial law. They came about a month early: Mars is still in Pisces. However, we are also coming up on the Sun-Mars square on Saturday, and just had the Venus-Mars square with Venus retrograde in Gemini. I also did not predict that the catalyst would be police brutality, with its victim, a man in his forties just a few years younger than me, crying out for his deceased mother, his last words that he couldn't breathe. However, I told my astrology students back in April that something had to give in the United States, that months of being locked down in a country that threw $1,200 at each person and could not deal with the millions of people who were suddenly unemployed would result in many people taking to the streets who feel they have nothing left to lose.

I am hoping against hope that the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 0 degrees of Aquarius, exact on December 20, will manifest as laws being changed and true justice being served. Aquarius symbolizes social reform, revolution, sudden changes, and large groups of people. I sincerely hope that all the action we are seeing now will result in Republicans being voted out of office at every level in the United States, and positive change for the human race, so that we can truly say that we are all in this--whatever this is--together.

Peace.