To the editor:

Regarding the cartoon in the March 4 edition, methinks it reversed.

The caption should read, “We’re not in the Land of Oz anymore!” The Land of Oz is where we have been.

And it is not just healthcare. It is all forms of consumption: energy, food, water, housing, transportation, finance and all the consumer “stuff” made in China. We have been living in an unsustainable fantasy bubble and it has burst. We have lived through the most consumer-oriented time in all of known human history and, ding, time’s up. There is no such thing as recovery. We are not, and cannot, go back there. This is a paradigm shift.

An upside of the downturn is a slowing of the pollution causing global warming.

An upside is our coming together as a community. We on Whidbey Island are particularly blessed in that regard. The shift is toward community and our neighbors, local ingenuity and creativity and local food production.

It is supporting each other in all of the ways that we can. It is being grateful for what we have and appreciating our family and friends and community.

Mary Ann Mansfield

Langley