Week 24/25: Oz

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One of my favorite parts of The Wizard of Oz is when the ragtag group of travelers arrive in the Emerald City. The Wizard himself lives there so the place is well fortified and seems like a sort of utopia. The weary travelers get all cleaned up and treated like royalty.
    
Dorothy, enjoying some pampering from the good people of The Emerald City. Source

However, it doesn’t take long for Dorothy and company to figure out that the whole place is a sham. They follow the “wizard’s” command and get the witch’s broom, but he can’t fulfill his end of the bargain.

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”
That’s how I felt last week as the G20 summit was transpiring. This is a yearly meeting when the 19 wealthiest countries and the European Union get together to discuss “important” matters. There were protests. There are always protests. There were photo opts. There are always photo opts.

This year the big hype was around the new American president. There would have been hype no matter who the new president was, but the larger-than-life character of Trump added to the fanfare. What also added to the fanfare was the first face-to-face meeting of Trump and Putin.
Trump and Putin meeting for the first time. Source
On the surface it seems like it went well; a lot of handshakes, photo opts and positive statements.

There were a lot of smoke, mirrors, and flames, but I felt like the whole world was standing there looking at the Trump, “the man behind the curtain” and saying “Hey! We see you!”

  
 The moment the Man Behind the Curtain was discovered  Source
I never thought of this before, but how stupid is the “wizard?” You are going to go through all this trouble to construct this giant room with all the bells and whistles, and the only thing you are going to put between you and anyone visiting the “wizard” is a curtain that a tiny little dog could open? It’s either stupidity or arrogance. Maybe he thought that he was so “great and powerful” that he didn’t think anyone would even dare look behind the curtain. Without Toto, maybe he would have gotten away with it, but I like to think that it would have caught up with him eventually anyway.

The big difference between the “wizard” of Oz and our president is that the “wizard” owns up to his charade and ends up helping out Dorothy and her friends. This week, the NY Times broke a story that our president’s son and several other top campaign advisors met with Russians during the campaign to discuss some dirt on Hillary Clinton.

On Jun 3, 2016, at 10:36 AM, Rob Goldstone wrote:
Good morning
Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.
The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.
On Jun 3, 2016, at 10:53, Donald Trump Jr. wrote:
Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer.
The president claims that he didn’t know about the meeting and that his son is “open, transparent and innocent.”

Mr. President, the curtain has been pulled away and we can all see you. You don’t have to keep pulling and spinning the levers.

How stupid does the president have to be to be “unaware” that his son set up a meeting with Russians over email? You are going to go through all this trouble to construct this campaign with all the bells and whistles, and then you are going to be “unaware” that your closest campaign advisors are colluding with a hostile foreign power using email on their iPhone’s that any tiny little reporter could get a hold of? It’s either stupidity or arrogance. Maybe he thought that he was so “great and powerful” that he didn’t think anyone would even dare look at his campaign advisors’ emails. Without the media, maybe he would have got away with it, but I like to think that it would have caught up with him eventually anyway.

So, what do we do? I think we need to take a lesson from Glinda the Good Witch.
Just like Dorothy and her friends did, we need to hold the “wizard” accountable and take control of our own futures. Let’s not get distracted by the smoke, mirrors, flames and shouting. We’ve seen the “man behind the curtain”. He is not “great and powerful”, but we are, and it’s time we start using our brains, hearts and courage to take back our country.

There’s no place like home…   

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