by Richard A. Cheatham, Press Media Group, LLC

There’s a little dog to whom we all owe a great deal. His name is Toto.

Remember in the “Wizard of Oz” where Dorothy’s little dog Toto pulled back the curtain exposing an ordinary man operating a machine that made him appear to be a wizard with all sorts of magical powers? Dorothy said, “Oh…you’re a very bad man!” The Wizard, revealed for what he really was, humbly said in reply, “Oh, no, my dear __ I’m __ I’m a very good man. I’m just a very bad Wizard.”

Such a revealing scene! It said so much about human nature and history…about the common practice of people attempting to appear more than they really are to acquire some undeserved benefit and about the classic naivete of so many people believing there are wizards who have magical powers greater than the abilities of “ordinary people.”

I was reminded years ago of this scene by a brilliant Virginian named Roger Lea MacBride who himself liked to pull back the curtain on pretended wizards. Roger pulled back a curtain or two of his own during his eventful life. Among other things, he was the first Presidential Elector to cast a vote for a woman, Toni Nathan, a Libertarian from Oregon, in the 1972 Presidential Election. Richard Nixon had won the majority of the popular vote in Virginia, but MacBride in good conscience, couldn’t bring himself to vote for Nixon and cast his votes instead for the Libertarian Party candidates.

This “adopted grandson” of writer and libertarian political theorist Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of writer Laura Ingalls Wilder, MacBride also co-produced with Michael Landon the 1970s television series Little House on the Prairie. Then in the Presidential election of 1976 MacBride ran for President on the Libertarian Party ticket, achieving ballot status in 32 states.

MacBride did a lot to expose fake wizards. In fact, all wizards are fakes. The dominant contemporary wizard cast is politicians and government officials who most believe can do miracles, can change human nature, can alter fundamental laws of economics, can make two and two equal something other than four…and all with only the tiny concession of having a monopoly upon the “right” to do things “ordinary people” are not allowed…the monopoly to force, threaten and confiscate (of course, in the “public’s best interest” since the public on its own somehow doesn’t know its own best interest?).

Gosh, all it takes is a tiny bit of curiosity, a willingness to look behind curtains and the guts to pull those curtains back once in a while. We owe so much to little Toto! Too bad most people don’t have the sense or the courage to look behind the veil, much less pull it back. Well, now you know who’s honored by the naming of this column…and who is not.

©2007 by Richard A. Cheatham. All rights reserved. Mr.Cheatham is a professional speaker/writer and is syndicated through Press Media Group, LLC. Contact him through, Living History Assoc., Ltd., at www.LHALtd.com or DrawBackVeil@aol.com.