Something is missing in our public debate. Something big. It's the difference between politics and governance. From Washington to Sacramento to Santa Cruz, people are debating the issues, but it's unfortunate that the issues they care about really don't get at the reality of how government runs day to day.

Opinion, as discussed and argued about on television, can be exciting. Olbermann can get in his licks. O'Reilly can be outraged. CNN can invite people in from both sides of the political divide to holler at each other. And we're not much better here in Santa Cruz. Just take a look at the recent State Senate election where neither Democrat John Laird nor Republican Sam Blakeslee bothered with commercials discussing their own records. They just trashed each other.

Sunday, July 4, the United States will be 234 years old, the numbers adding up to a nine. Nine means endings. Esoterically nine signifies Initiation, a shift to a higher state of consciousness. Endings and Initiations work together. The United States is presently having a transit of Pluto (3 Capricorn) opposite Venus (3 Cancer) indicating economic transformation. Pluto has opposed Venus several times. Thus the U.S. has seen the dollar fluctuating (moving toward hyper-inflation), debt mounting and food prices soaring. Humanity will soon begin defining its true values. This occurs only after revolutionary breakdowns. We’re no longer slouching toward that happening.

Plus Letters to Good Times...
Cheap Seats?
Settle Down, Please
2012: Business as Usual
Holiday Deadlines
How much do we really know about Santa Cruz County? Chances are, we probably could know more. That’s where The Community Assessment Project (CAP) comes in. CAP is a bold study published every five years. It’s filled with collected research on a number of local topics—from health to homelessness and more. The entire project is designed to gain a better understanding of what’s really unfolding here in Santa Cruz County. The end result illuminates revealing statistics which then can be later used to better access needs and services for the community, and also to create a vision for life here in 2015. But there’s much more to it than that, which you will discover in this week’s cover story, written by News Editor Elizabeth Limbach.  Take note, too, of our survey online. We’d like to hear from you about what issues you feel are important in the county. Head to goodtimessantacruz.com to log in your thoughts.

The most pressing local issue that I would help solve would be increasing our capacity to conserve more water and prepare us in the face of drought. Reducing our current usage from 69 gallons per day to 40 gallons per capita per day.
Sherry Bryan
Live Oak | Program Specialist

“I don't want Johnny Depp in my lap." These are eight little words that no one who knows me would ever expect me to utter. I was as shocked as anybody when I heard them cross my own lips at a recent Memorial Day party. Art Boy naturally assumed the most logical explanation: my brain had been taken over by aliens.

Thursday, June 24th is Midsummer Day (quarter day) and the Feast of St. John the Baptist, forerunner, cousin and baptizer of Jesus of Nazareth. This feast day, the oldest festival in the Christian church, occurs three months after the Annunciation and six months before Christmas (winter solstice). There is a famous statement St. John made upon seeing Jesus at the River Jordon, “He (Jesus) must increase, as I (John) must decrease.” (John 3:30). The statement reflects the Gemini brothers’ Castor & Pollux seed thought “I see my other self and in the waning of that self, I grow and glow” (referring to the dimming of the personality (John or in the light of the waxing of the Soul).
“The symbolic role for John in Christianity is to act as the sacrifical twin for Jesus: the dark twin of the summer solstice (John) being replaced by the light twin at the winter solstice (Jesus).” Two St. Johns are the patron saints of Freemasonry; St. John the Baptist at midsummer (June 24) and St. John the Evangilist on Dec. 27. The two saints represent Temple columns, one during the greatest time of light (summer) and the other at the greatest darkness (winter). Standing as they do at the solstices, they represent doorways to light and dark, just as the signs Cancer and Capricorn represent the Gates from spirit to matter and back again. On midsummer’s day the ancients honored water and fire, the sun and the plant kingdom. It is the time of the great wedding (Duke Theseus to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons) as written by Shakespeare (lesser avatar, disciple, Master R.) in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (three plots, a wedding, the woodland and Fairyland featuring the King and Queen of the Fairies, Oberon and Tatiana, under the light of the moon).