"You'll find something that's enough to keep you
But if the bright lights don't receive you
You should turn yourself around and come back home" MB20

(hugs) Yes, Maureen, I know just how you feel. Well, perhaps not completely, because we have yet to see where I'll end up thirty years from now, but emotionally I understand your signs of despair and concern.

I'm often referred to as the "pleistoscene hippy" or "rainbow phoenix" among my closest friends! I guess ever since I was a little boy I always found a great sense of wonder and awe in cultural icons from the Flower Age. Benjamin Spock. Martin Luther King Jr. William Burroughs. Indeed there was naivety, and chaos, but it seemed enshrouded to me by a great aureole of wonder, fascination, moxie, transcendence. It almost felt like a filiarchy to me. The young really believed in something, there was a great sense of achievement and empowerment in them, they felt they could really change the world and they rose to the occasion all across college campuses and fairgrounds. And now, often when I hear so many say things just like you did that it's inspiring to see young people still doing what they can for the good of society, I feel two senses, one of thanks and gratitude, and one of a sign of despair, because "still" is the word often stressed.

I do emulate the hippy personality, don't I? (giggles) Often I think I must have skipped a generation because few in my bloodstream were ever really active or verbal during that era. I guess it may be because I'm a Scorpio, and Scorpios are known for being, perhaps, the most passionate, empowering sign of all. Scorpios are known to be rebellious against many conventions, and I have been highly opinionated since I was twelve, though didn't really get involved in politics until the war began. That, plus Scorpio being the sign of sex, those two things really were popular in that era, so I guess all that transcendence found its way into me.

They also say about my sign that the phoenix is a major symbol. The phoenix is regenerated from the ashes of its death, then rises again, reborn, rising above the ordinary world with the passion to transcend, where the bird will always have power lines to dodge but passion and awareness always keeps it in flight. I guess I'm kind of like the phoenix too. Abuse as a boy brought me down, but I became stronger out of it. This election disappointed me and broke my heart, but I have not let it pin me down like a rail spike and let my hope and faith for humanity continue to rejuvenate my spirit! As does the serpent, which always sheds its skin and welcomes change, the dove and its natural healing and spreading of compassion, the eagle and its calm but intense, determined nature, the butterfly and its magical metamorphosis, and, of course, the scorpion, which has a hot-blooded fervor and zest for life.

I am optimistic that I may indeed falter a number of times in my life, but I am very confident I won't surrender and become the antipole of myself, become the walking gainsaying. I guess part of the reason I feel this certain is because, though indeed the youth do their part on many college campuses, it just isn't the same as forty years ago, and those 13% who are active tend to have the strongest of will, and all it takes is a little more to get others to come alive again!

Many reports are saying that my own planet, Pluto, will continue on its path through Sagittaurus in 2005, putting laws, education and politics at the forefront of everyone's minds, and my sign in particular, so I will be more involved than ever through January especially (Bush's inauguration) especially when some moons of Capricorn join up with the Moon to make it impossible to remain silent, and will continue on through March at least (the 2nd anniversary of the war in Iraq)

Of course I know there are many who are skeptical or simply don't believe in astrology. Personally, I feel it relates to me so well and it is just open to interpretation is all. After all, it was the famous astrologist herself, Caroll Righter, who said, "The stars guide your path but should not rule your life". I just think it helps to look up every once in a while but all at once know where you're walking, so when there's a fork in the road, your intuition takes part.

(smiles) But yep, I do get that "hippy" label quite a lot. Many of my favorite artists come from that era, like Jefferson Airplane, Simon & Garfunkel and Neil Young. I have actually been performing a cover of Jefferson Airplane's "Volunteers" out in the city a lot, and even got the No Kidding! choir (a choir of kids from second to eighth grade) to sing along in a version once!

They're still out there. They just need more guidance is all. I mean, even when it may feel like a hopeless climate, when Fox News is dominating the public landscape, with those like Oliver North pressing our troops to respond to his repetitive and belittling question, "Does Fox Rock? Does Fox Rock?" under an acceleratingly deregulating media climate that oppresses anti-war guests from news programs and such, and it seems like the recycled content may never end, we must remind ourselves of media ownership in the past.

Democracy can't exist without an informed public. That was true and will always remain true. Even under this most secretive, most lockstep administration, even under this incredible media oligopoly, eventually I am convinced the true democratic voice will be aroused and be heard. In 1971, during the Nixon Administration, they tried to ban the Pentagon papers from being released, but even when the outlook looked bleak at first, and seemed the war was far from ending, Daniel Ellsberg got them published to the mass audience, and that was a major role in ending that war.

I feel a similar effect will eventually emerge for this senseless war in Iraq. I believe it with all my heart.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

"You'll find something that's enough to keep you
But if the bright lights don't receive you
You should turn yourself around and come back home" MB20