Saturn v. Uranus: The People Have the Final Say
Last night, for the second time in Nashville's history, people shut down a city council meeting. As usual, I turn to astrology to understand the energy of this moment.
Retro Mercury and retro Saturn in this chart bring to mind the old adage, "Those who don't learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it." History is repeating itself and if we failed to learn from the last time we were in this situation, we're getting another opportunity to make it right.
2/21/17: Metro Council attempts to conduct business as usual after police murder Jocques Clemmons. The community was traumatized and grieving and Council ignored that. The community took over the council meeting.
1/2/18: The bill to establish a Community Oversight Board was quickly and quietly killed on second reading. No fireworks, no disruption, business as usual. But that put in motion a process which led to the people creating an oversight board completely against the wishes of anyone who held a position of power in Metro.
An ordinance amending Chapter 2.44 of the Metropolitan Code of Laws to establish a Community Oversight Board responsible for providing citizen oversight over officers of the Metro Nashville Police Department in certain instances. The Budget and Finance Committee recommended deferment; the Personnel, Public Information, Human Relations, and Housing and Public Safety, Beer, and Regulated Beverages Committees recommended indefinite deferment. The bill was deferred indefinitely Pursuant to Rule No. 24.
6/15/21: Metro Council easily passes its budget. This is after a year in which community members have made clear that they don't want police to get any more funding. They want their money to be used for housing, education, transportation, mental health and other public services. Council's budget increases funding for those things but not by nearly the amount which is needed to make a difference and continues to prioritize huge increases in the police budget. Council is proud of their little measly increases and congratulates themselves. The community isn't at all pleased but was accepting it until Council overstepped and attempted to police the silent and peaceful expression of their discontent. And that's how things escalated. The community took over the council meeting.
We may be poised for history to repeat itself. We continue to not learn the lessons that policing creates more problems than it solves. We aren't learning to listen to the people who are directly impacted by policies. We continue to value maintenance of a status quo which is clearly not working for the majority of people.
Retro Saturn is giving us the opportunity to recognize our mistakes and learn from them. The Saturn/Uranus square which characterizes the energy of this year is about the clash between old and new paradigms. This is an "evolve or die" energy. Institutions which do not consciously adapt to current conditions will be forced to.
The people always have the final say. Institutions which resist innovation and change demanded by the people will change whether they like it or not.
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