We were hoping that as Butler County passed from red to the yellow brick road on our way to Oz it would find the world remaining calm and maybe a slightly better place than before Gov. Tom Wolf put us in time-out.

But as quick as the governor can veto a bill, our illusions about a better world started to crumble. Locally, a repeat offender collected his alleged seventh DUI charge. He tried to justify his outstanding driving skills as he was upset with his daughter.

Congratulations you proved the virus doesn’t kill stupidity.

A mental genius from Chicora stands accused of challenging state police with an assault rifle all because of a dispute over a shared driveway with a neighbor.

Next, two people old enough to purchase and own firearms managed to allegedly shoot themselves using just one bullet while unloading the gun.

Might I ask again where did they get their safety training?

Not the smooth transfer we hoped for. Another man, for unexplained reasons, somehow fell off of his ATV and it proceeded down the railway tracks on its own — apparently like Lassie going for help. His injuries were apparently not life-threatening.

And so far none of these antics are related to our new “hey, here’s a glass of booze for the road” law.

Not to be outdone, we had a case of a man allegedly dousing a woman and child with moonshine and trying to set them and the house on fire, while another allegedly dragged his ex down the road with his car while they argued over child custody for the day. This should score points with the judge. Nope, this wasn’t the plan.

Of course we have reason to hope the new world would change the political climate, but now we have governments suing governments and lawyers suing governments for suing governments — all one week before a primary election.

But if that doesn’t show how screwed up our priorities are, one of our U.S. senators pushed Little League Baseball to the top of his agenda ahead of unemployment, business bankruptcies and pandemics.

As if all of this isn’t enough, we have a couple that used our local hospital as a savings and loan — and loan, and loan — changing their pleas this week in separate deals with federal prosecutors.

Rumor has it this is the best time ever to plead guilty to a white-collar crime because the courts aren’t putting people in jail because of the virus.

No, the world didn’t see a change for the better locally or across the country.

Earlier this week, four policeman in Minnesota were fired for their roles in the brutal death of a man they were arresting for fraud. While the case is further complicated because of the victim’s race, we should all be outraged at the actions of the police involved, regardless of whether it was racially motivated.

Somehow this world has to change. We thought maybe the Pandemic of 2020 was going to be the magic moment. No such luck.

What is it going to take to get people to use their heads for something besides a hat-rack?

World peace is the long-standing joke as to what beauty contestants want in the world. We aren’t even asking for that much.

We want foolish and selfish acts such as all we mentioned here to stop.

Until then, no one is safe and nothing is improving.

Three months of stay-at-home wasn’t enough?

Better clean up our communities, our government, our legal system and minds or this world is doomed.