Thomas F. Schaller
Thomas F. Schaller is a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and author of "Whistling Past Dixie." His column appears Wednesdays in The Sun.
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What I didn't know as a child — most adults I meet are similarly oblivious — is that L. Frank Baum's book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," upon which the movie is based, was a political allegory for American politics at the dawn of the 20th century.
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The sad truth is that there are no perfect solutions to the lone wolf terrorist. Even if we ramp up public campaigns to increase public tolerance; even if law enforcement infiltrates and monitors hate groups of every stripe; and even if we place special emphasis on dissuading disgruntled young men who fit some set of profile from giving into their darker instincts — the fact is that it only takes a few individuals to carry out grandeur-deluded acts of vigilante terrorism.