Plus Letters to Good Times...
Thanks, Friend
More Gore
Best of the Online Comments
It’s the hot issue at the moment—the proposed Desalination Plant in Santa Cruz. Here’s the lowdown: The city of Santa Cruz has plans to create a desalination plant, which would offset water deficits. Those deficits are created in drought-ridden summer months, but if the city continues to grow—hello UC Santa Cruz—some believe water supplies will be further taxed. The desalination plant will remove millions of gallons of seawater each day but, some note, only about half that amount will be converted into drinkable water. The rest of the brine will be transported to a water plant and then blended with treated wastewater, and then put back in the bay. The issue has both sides debating the significance of the plant. This week, writer Amy Coombs presented the issue—and a number of questions—to community activists and water district representatives. You may find what they each share rather illuminating. It all unfolds in this week’s cover story. Dive in. Continue to send us your thoughts on the Desalination Plant issue to [email protected] Let’s keep the dialogue flowing.

I think the pros are more jobs in Santa Cruz, people working on the plant, etc. The cons would be if the plant itself creates a lot of pollution or makes a lot of noise in a residential neighborhood, or if it requires an increase in taxes.

Evin Murphy
Bonny Doon | Land Surveyor

A few months ago, I wrote a column about the written word, and wondered whether sentiments like “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” have forever transformed into texts like “U R gr8.”

The basic “harrumph!” quality of that column drastically missed the mark, somehow suggesting that the beauty of the written word was being replaced by something short and horrid, that the future of writing depended on the literary value of a teen’s text or a mini-blogger’s 140 words.

Last Thursday, Mars (the tester) entered Virgo (extreme detail, purification) and this Thursday, Mercury (star of conflict) enters Gemini (duality). In order for all thoughts, actions, meeting and planning events to succeed this week and for the next month, it’s best to work within the following guidelines—purposely have focus and awareness, gather and organize information, be detailed and discerning, communicate with intentions for goodness and goodwill, allow no criticisms, and thus separations, to occur. Be aware of conflicts and crisis. Be prepared for tests, trials, and obstacles and remember always that “tension creates attention.” The Tester (Mars) and Star of Conflict (Mercury) will be influencing all of humanity’s endeavors.
Saturday (4:15 a.m., West Coast) is the new moon, 21 degrees Gemini. The personality-building seed thought for Gemini new Moon is “Let instability do its work.” This means let ordinary day to day experiences, disharmony, inconsistency, unpredictable changes, instability in relationships, lack of unity—all life’s vicissitudes—have the task of providing our personality and Soul experiences of/in form and matter. After many experiences and at a certain point (often in despair), we then seek out and focus upon creating harmony, a Soul quality. Thus all personality experiences of and in form and matter lead us to the goal: the Soul directing the strong and focused personality.
Join the NGWS at the new moon by reciting the Great Invocation. Monday is Flag Day. Flags, an unrecognized art form, represent the spirit of the people within each nation, country and state. Monday, Venus enters Leo. Everyone falls in love. Or wants to. Love is the only thing that heals the Chiron wound. Chiron is retrograde. Old wounds return.

Plus Letters to Good Times...
Aftermath of May Day Riots Linger
What About The Other Side?

What are you proud of? Maybe it’s time to take stock, look within and find out. Face it—our lives can get hectic. Sometimes we need to schedule time to just sit and reflect. (Trust me, it won’t hurt—much.) This week we get a “pride” reminder in the form of, fittingly, all of the Gay Pride events set to unfold, thanks, in big part, to the Diversity Center.

Higher quality locks and more bicycle lockers.
Andrew Marine
Santa Cruz | Student

As I sit writing this, somewhere in the space between Memorial Day weekend and Santa Cruz Pride, I’m reflecting on what a strange trip the last few weeks has been in the fight to repeal the law known as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). We’ve made a significant leap forward but still have much to do. Here’s a bit about what’s happened, and what to watch for over the next weeks and months.

Uranus (revolution, new culture and civilization) entered Aries last Thursday, just after the Gemini/Sag full moon Festival of Humanity. The last time Uranus was in Aries (1927-1936) we had the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, the Depression, the Roaring Twenties, Roosevelt’s New Deal and the discovery of Pluto. What will happen this time? Sunday morning Jupiter (great expansions) enters Aries (all things new). Tuesday, June 8th, Jupiter and Uranus conjunct (join) in Aries. From now on humanity will be on a journey to a new and unusual place. It could be rebellious and filled with uprisings (Aries, Uranus). The world we begin to live in will make us pioneers, embarking upon a new world, one we must create ourselves. It’s called the “new culture and civilization” and humanity, along with the New Group of World Servers, is being called to create and build this new world. In the times to come not many will be comfortable, some will be called to adventure, others will seek wide open spaces, a better life that goes beyond the bounds of what we’ve known before. We’ll see wild (Uranus) expansion (Jupiter), unpredictable behaviors, entrepreneurial expansions, political and financial unrest, natural disasters, and an action-oriented (Aries) spirit come alive in humanity. Quietly last week Saturn turned direct in Virgo. Saturn enters Libra July 21st. Libra is the sign of balance and poise. Saturn in Libra may safeguard us by restricting, confining and, limiting the energetic boundlessness of Uranus and Jupiter in Aries. We hope this is so. Otherwise, the sky may fall.

My mom has been gone a couple of months now, but I still feel her presence in my life every day. And not just metaphorically. As we speak, my spare room is full of stuff, random bits and pieces of my mom's 89 years on this planet, souvenirs of a long, full, and exuberant life.

Back in March, when the wildflowers were popping out to dazzling effect all over Highway 46, Art Boy and I drove down to Hermosa Beach to help my brothers excavate the house Mom lived in for over 50 years. I've always joked that my mom was a packrat who never threw anything away, but even I never realized how literally true that was.

Plus Letters to Good Times...
Meaty Matters
Overstepping It
Hate Speech?
Holiday Deadlines
This Memorial Day it’s all about the red, white and blue. But it seems the color green is just as patriotic. Sure, green building practices become more commonplace, but if we’ve learned anything over the last decade, when the push to become more environmentally aware reached a wildly high plateau, it’s that, individually, we have to take matters into our own hands. The locals spotlighted in our annual Green Issue have done just that—they took creative eco-tinged ideas and concepts and boldly ventured forth, hoping those ideas would make a difference in the environment. And they have. Meet this year’s Eco Patriots.