A Rogue Tornado has Dumped America in the Land of Oz

Warning: More extreme weather is on the way. Ignore it at your own peril

“The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is the most-watched movie in history. I didn’t know that. I also didn’t know L. Frank Baum’s book was an allegory for American politics in the early 20th Century.

The movie was first released in theatres in August 1939. It was re-released on television in November 1956. Each of his characters symbolized something quite different from what we might imagine in this children’s tale.

Dorothy represented the nobility of the American middle class. Is the fraudulent Wiz holding that group hostage behind the curtain? It seems long gone to me.

Dorothy stands for innocence and trust that good will prevail. Poor thing. She’s in for a rocky road back home in Kansas.

Tin Man was hoping to find a heart. He personified industry and the building of factories, which took place at a rapid pace during that period. Good luck getting one there dude.

Scarecrow provided a platform for Agriculture. Small farmers were suffering as agribusiness began swooping in, buying massive chunks of formerly family-owned land.

He was on the hunt for a brain. I guess I’m on his team because my own is out of service from disturbances in the field.

The lion was looking for courage, another quality in short supply, then and now. He was so incapacitated by fear and anxiety he became a bully. Hmm, sounds familiar.

This haphazard trio sets out with Dorothy on the yellow brick road to the great and powerful Oz. The only one who can grant Dorothy’s wish.

They must cross Shadowlands governed by the Wicked Witch of the West. She has enslaved Flying Monkeys to do her evil bidding.

Flying Monkeys is now a psychological term used to describe people that do narcissistic bidding. This is not a challenging task as the monkeys lack empathy, desire attention and use bullying tactics to achieve their aims.

The Wicked Witch does everything she can to stymie Dorothy’s mission to return home. At the end of the film, she catches fire. Dorothy attempts to save her, even after all the pain she caused, by dousing her with a bucket of water.

The audience believes the witch's demise is water-related. But it was Dorothy’s act of kindness which summoned the Witch’s last words: “You cursed brat! Look what you’ve done! I’m melting! Melting!”

The moral being: shadow is no match for light. Kindness wins over evil. I wish that were true in our present time.

Our Unsupreme Court Is Going Rogue.

I’m not oriented toward politics on a regular basis. When it comes to the eradication of human rights, however, I’m onboard and steadily reading, listening and absorbing perspectives.

The Supreme Court’s function is to decide whether Congress in the legislative branch is making laws adhering to our Constitution. Inalienable laws are woven into this document. These laws are there to prevent interference from any authority, including the Supreme Court.

Those supposedly untouchable laws are being violated rapidly. The First Amendment and Bill of Rights protect the separation of church and state for instance. That is now gone.

The years-long grooming process of Amy Coney Barrett is a graphic example of religion interfering with the function of our highest court.

ACB was raised in a religious community referred to as “People of Praise.” This title perked my ears up right away. It implies they are chosen people, the ones who made the grade. They are superior to others and therefore receive praise from on high for their work.

ACB’s mother and father were members of this mainly Catholic collective. Her father was a ‘head’ and her mother a ‘handmaiden’.

The group removed the title ‘handmaiden’ in 2018 when the term began to be pejoratively linked to Margaret Atwood’s book titled “The Handmaids Tale”.

This minor change didn’t alter the sexism and male domination incorporated in the group’s belief system. They believed in a woman’s role as a homemaker and they were present to support their husbands.

Disclosures from women who fled the group revealed females were instructed not to get the better of males in conversation. They could tell their husbands their opinions but they were expected to let him make all final decisions.

It was also important for women to verbalize their commitment to submission. Female acquiescence was considered a ‘holiness’ in marriage.

When ACB was attending law school she lived in the home of People of Praise co-founder Kevin Ranaghan and his wife Dorothy. Her future husband did the same and also grew up in a People of Praise family.

Both left their family homes for another home deeply embedded in the same religion. A sure-fire guarantee of continual indoctrination in their religious beliefs.

In 2010, a People of Praise directory stated ACB held the title of ‘handmaid.’ A female leader who guided and shepherded other young women, in compliance with their religious dogma.

After this community was determined to be sexist and male-dominated, ACB’s history within it was deleted. Numerous references to Barrett and her family, which had appeared on the People of Praise’s official website just disappeared.

A gallery of links to full issues of the magazine, dating back 14 years, was removed from their site after Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s death.

ACB had been set up to replace her years ago. Her history in People of Praise would be subject to inspection. It was sanitized or eliminated.

Barrett has stated judges are not policymakers and she does not impose her personal convictions on the law. How does she know what her convictions are? Her convictions were developed through the relentlessly applied lens of her religion.

Can anyone say their history has no effect on their decisions? Our early environments have a pronounced influence on many of our adult decisions and preferences. We are subconsciously under their thrall until we gain awareness of our hard-wired habits and patterns.

Once accepted into the court, ACB and Brett Kavanaugh, irreversibly tipped the heavily slanting scales. Rulings became translated through a conservative, religious minority willing to violate our Constitution and impose their values on the American majority.

It was only a matter of time until Roe V Wade was overturned and environmental laws were expunged in favor of corporate greed and influence.

The Wizard in the U.S. is Wealth. You can count on a big wad of it passing through Trump’s hands with ACB’s nomination.

Women of childbearing age are now referred to as “birthing people.” Wow, what creative objectification! Elders will soon be classified as “dying people” and children “becoming people.” Women who are infertile or non-compliant will become “expendables.” Men, of course, remain forever “valuables.”

A collective of snitches is eager to begin monitoring “birthing people’s” movements around all forms of birth control. Their rights in certain states will drop far below the banning of abortion. Privacy violations come to mind.

Next comes the persecution of transgender and gay communities. This is the beginning formation of a totalitarian state and how the government was described in “The Handmaid's Tale.” A rot settling in from the core.

What will happen to the ideal of freedom in America if the current Unsupreme Court continues to sabotage the constitution it’s meant to protect and conserve? Will we become numb and submissive to the erosion of our spirits?

Are you tempted to avoid the evil deeds the Wicked Witch is cooking up with her enslaved group of flying monkeys? Shielding your ears from their screeches and howls as they trample the ground of human freedom.

Wreaking ever more desecration on Earth, our shared home.

Rights I fought for in the late ’60s, and early ’70s are getting zapped out of existence like heat lightning flashing through the heavens on a sultry summer night. In place for a moment, gone now.

America is not a land of the free and home of the brave. We’ve allowed a distinct minority to dictate moral codes and distort our laws into a form of oppression. We are not free.

President Biden can begin a reform on the court if he has the personal courage and backing of a united support group.

The first step is the abolishment of lifetime tenure on the Supreme Court. It’s an invitation to abuse power. Rather obvious at the moment.

Terms should be four years, like Presidents. Crappy job, out you go. Good work, you get another four.

I extend gratitude and respect to the judges on the Supreme Court holding integrity in their work. Talk about paddling your canoe upstream!

I highly appreciate men who stand strong for women. Who is not threatened by us? Who recognize our equality and encourage our endeavours.

We need your backing more than ever. The world needs our united efforts.

As Glinda, the good witch in The Wizard of Oz, states at the very end of the movie: “You had the power all along my dear.” You can believe that one.

Source: Washington Post October 6th, 2020 “Amy Coney Barrett served as a ‘handmaid’ in Christian group People of Praise