
Lonn Rosenthal
An existential battle for the ages now consumes all arenas of civilization—political, cultural, and economic—but none with more urgency and consequence than that of education, the epicenter of an international struggle for the continuity of humanity. As presaged by Karl Marx: “The education of the children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother’s care, shall be in state institutions.” Mx. Arin Frumm, a first-year gender-fluid nonbinary Vision Civics teacher (they/them/their), pursues the noble mission to celebrate the tenets of the Holy Trinity of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion by battling those who doubt the merits of DEI and its alleged struggle to overcome the toxicity inflicted on marginalized and oppressed communities. Wokeland—an enchanted domain that initially appears to celebrate the attributes of DEI (what could be bad about a journey over the Rainbow Brick Road toward Equity City)—ultimately reveals an extremist DEI run amok. The Wonderful Wizard of Wokeland, a work of political and social satire, is a tale in which The Wizard of Oz meets Orwell's 1984 as it explores the meaning of truth and the perils of discordant ideologies that pit education against indoctrination, with the minds and souls of our children targeted in the crosshairs. One need not look any further than the disturbing pall that has settled over the nation’s college campuses and within our K-12 classrooms. As a former teacher in the nation’s largest school system, I have witnessed firsthand the transformation of education, which functions as a microcosm of our society. This work serves to illuminate that condition as most of the narrative and dialogue were inspired by actual news headlines and stories, academic journals and studies, and government policies and programs. To quote Voltaire: “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”