Call it the Wizard of Oz complex.

People run for office leaving the impression they will be all powerful and solve all of our problems.

We buy into the charade telling ourselves the red or blue wizards we elect are flawless, benevolent, and walk on water. Those that don’t buy into our take on the wizard we favor are nothing but evil witches.

The mere mention of the word “witch” and we go into a blind rage vowing to work to destroy them at every turn.

When the witch we perceive as evil speaks, we shudder and scurry to tell everyone the horrors that are about to rain down on civilization.

Yet in our rush to condemn all witches we forget — or at least refuse to recognize— the good witches that exist.

We believe the wizard is indeed all powerful. We believe their actions are the source of our happiness, well-being, and prosperity.

In reality, we hold the key to our happiness and our destiny.

We fail to see this for a variety of reasons.

It takes work.

It requires taking ownership of our miscues.

We have to put ourselves out there on the rough sea of societal engagement while resisting the temptation to lash out at every perceived slight.

We need to stop believing there is a magical cure or believing the grass will be greener if we just have what is on the other side of the hill.

We need to understand everyone brings different skills and perspectives to the table and that they all have merit.

It takes time, empathy, and understanding.

It requires grasping real change that requires heart-felt and measured buy-in that by its very nature takes time and patience.

What we do instead are act like a bunch of munchkins.

We mistake spreading rumor or gossip for constructive communication. We get lured the siren song of by catchy campaign or movement slogans. We often have such a shallow grasp of what they represent that we barely dip our toes into what is really behind the chant before we are blinded by our self-righteousness as opposed to basking in the glow of working with others who are different to achieve common ground.

As we stroll through life we lose sight of the fact we have a heart, that we have courage, and that we have a brain.

Hate is what powers evil whether it is mass shootings, violence in general, painting others with broad brushes, or belittling fellow humans using weapons such as words, abuse, harassment, and bullying.

What counters all of those bleeding wounds on humanity is having a heart.

No one enters this world with their tiny fingers gripping an AK-47, hating the ethnicity of the doctor that delivered them, or bullying other babies in the nursery that are different.

It does take courage to step up.

Unfortunately, we often mistakenly believe courage is a communal commodity that can’t exist without cliques, gangs, staying within groupings such as skin tone and orientation, or pledging exclusive allegiance to a political party or cause.

Courage is something we call up from inside of us when faced with fears.

It is invoked through love, compassion, concern, and passion.

Courage requires going through a process to obtain. And as such it often has a far longer lasting impact on society and its fruits can span the ages.

If more of us practiced courage inspired by love, compassion, concern and/or passion the world’s need for true acts of bravery would dwindle substantially.

We mistake having a brain as somehow being the domain of intellect as embodied by ivory towers, tech geniuses, and those who do not soil or callous their hands to earn a living.

In reality we all have a brain whether we are in the so-called “Fly Over Country” or are those who heeded the lemming-like call of our great coastal cities. What we do for a living and our IQ scores are not how to gauge if we have a brain.

The ability to understand, reason, and comprehend what is foreign or uncomfortable to us is the hallmark of having a brain, not a piece of paper issued by an institution.

We don’t need to pay homage to a wizard to either improve our lot in life, help the struggling kid down the street, to try and understand someone who is different, to reach out to an elderly shut in, or to work to make our neighborhoods and community a bit better every day and by extension the nation and the world.

We just need to stop looking for the answer elsewhere than in our own backyard and ultimately use our brains to set the course for a better world even if it is only the tiny piece of the world that is within a stone’s throw of our front porch.

Mix in courage and heart and before you know it the world will become just a little bit better one day at a time.