The Pessimism Deficit -- NYT OpEd/Sarah Vowell

Vowell is a guest editorializer, Frank Rich is on vakay.

Piece is on things to be optimistic about in America.... and Vowell's pessimistic leanings.

<snip to the end>

And what about the glory that is Glacier National Park? Or the good news that bald eagles are no longer an endangered species?

I got the feeling, though, that the man asking for optimism at that bookstore wasn't looking for raves about paintings or ice age deposits (especially since global warming is likely to make Glacier National Park glacier-free by 2030). I got the feeling that he was asking for reasons to be optimistic about the government.

Alas, I see my initial worries about the current administration as the greatest betrayal in my whole life by my old pal pessimism. I attended the president's inauguration in 2001. When he took the presidential oath, I cried. What was I so afraid of? I was weeping because I was terrified that the new president would wreck the economy and muck up my drinking water. Isn't that adorable? I lacked the pessimistic imagination to dread that tens of thousands of human beings would be spied on or maimed or tortured or killed or stranded or drowned, thanks to his incompetence.

I feel like a fool. All those years of Sunday school, and still the apocalypse catches me off guard.

Sorry, NYT pay site: http://select.nytimes.com/2006/02/19/opinion/19vowell.html