The Wizards behind the Curtain

If you are over 40 you probably grew up watching the annual showing of the Wizard of Oz on TV. Under 45? The Broadway hit “Wicked”.  A Reader? One who thinks about things, looks at nuance and considers ideas that are not simply black or white, then maybe you read the book “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Mcguire.

So take a trip back through memory lane courtesy of YouTube, after the initial capitalist ad that is. Maybe we should enjoy the ads more now as our government seeks to destroy the last vestiges of “Free Markets”. http://youtu.be/NZR64EF3OpA 

This clip speaks volumes about the current state of affairs in Washington Oz. The failures of government in responding to the events, be they human or natural, fall not with one political party. Think of 9/11 or Katrina or any number of events over the last 15 years as the tornado. We hear the mea culpa from both parties in Congress. Most members of Congress are more than willing to share the blame with the other party.

Back to the wizard. Much like Dorothy, the cowardly lion, the tin man, the scarecrow… Americans look to the Wizard for qualities to compensate for our personal inadequacies, compassion, intelligence, education etc. Think about it. Where we, as individuals, are incapable… we look to the government, to the Wizard, to provide our life’s shortcomings. This dependency could not be further from the times of our founders. In comparison we are in the dark ages today and our forefathers were the zenith of the renaissance.

 What the Wizards fear ... whether it be media Pundits, the President, the House Speaker, or Senate Leader, is that the curtain has been pulled back, and their illusion revealed. They know the structure of government built on a firm Constitutional foundation is teetering.

My original thought today centered on The Wizard Speaker of the House. You see we all know he is going to cave. Why? The Wizard is being pressured from not just the Tea Party, but also the U.S business titans who want Americans to believe that all will be OK, if we just believe in the Wizard.

The struggle going on in the House is between the forces of big business and the middle class. Big business, which has benefited from ACA exemptions, which continue to enjoy cozy ties to a government willing to prop them up, subsidize them, and even bail them out. That is the pressure Wizard Boehner answers to. So he will cave.

Toto is the unlikely hero, he has pulled back the curtain that ultimately sends the Wizards home. Art reflects life, the journey to Wizard’s chamber required all the elements each character was seeking. You see they already had the qualities they were seeking from the Wizard. They just needed to believe.

For America it is time we realize who we are, to stop living in fear of tomorrow. We are compassionate… we are intelligent… we are courageous…we are family despite of our disagreements.