I Love Lucy and The Enchanted Forest

I was watching an episode of "I Love Lucy" today, and the episode was "Little Ricky's School Pageant." The plot was that Little Ricky's school pageant is coming up, and it turns out that the play called "The Enchanted Forest" is short on cast members. So, to help out, the Ricardos and Mertzes volunteer to be in the show.

Fred plays Hippity Hoppity the Frog, Ethel is the good witch, Ricky Ricardo is a tree, and Lucy plays the wicked witch. During the play the wicked witch, it turns out, hates little children, and is trying to get Little Ricky and his companion to leave the Enchanted Forest. The children, as advised by Hippity Hoppity, hide behind the big tree, and the wicked witch threatens to zap the frog if they don't come out. At the last moment the good witch appears and banishes the wicked witch from The Enchanted Forest forever.

Then something interesting happens. The kids ask Ethel's character if the wicked witch will ever be able to return to the forest, and Ethel explains that the wicked witch can return only if she promises to be nice, love little children, cast no more evil spells, and abide by the code of the forest. The children urge her to give the wicked witch the opportunity, and of course Lucy's character agrees, and says a whole paragraph about how she's changed. Then, to celebrate the wonderful change of the wicked witch, the good witch announces that the children and animals may dance and sing.

If only dealing with evil was that easy.

I was reminded of the Liberal Left as I watched this episode of I Love Lucy, and the Democrat Party's desire to play nice-nice with dictators. "If only we can talk to them, they'll see the errors of their ways," says the typical liberal.

Sounds wonderful, except that such hopes are empty hopes. As you can see throughout history, and in today's situations, talking has only led to giving the evil ones more time to plan. In the end, they still attack, and they still make war.

Peace does not come from negotiations and cease-fires, for these are only temporary peace. Peace happens when the good guys defeat the bad guys. Only in defeat does evil cease to be.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

By Douglas V. Gibbs