The dumb, mean politics of angry Republicans/rightwing Christians/the Bush administration/the Supreme Court/most white people except enlightened ones like me are destroying the kind, tolerant society that once tried to help the downtrodden and cared about trying to find the wisdom to solve our most serious problems and make the world the kind of place it should be.
That reminds me of my youth, when I visited a public library/enjoyed a simple ballgame/listened to public radio/took a quiet walk on the river/shared my insights with the priests and nuns at a weekend retreat, and we all marveled at how communitarian values and intellectucal rigor in the pursuit of honest truths would wrest society from the greedy clutches of people who think the accumulation of power is the noblest human endeavor.
I will now recede into my gloom and lament the fact that all the pretty libraries have been replaced with ugly ones, the ballplayers are on steroids produced by giant pharmaceutical companies, Rush Limbaugh is lying about public radio, the river is polluted, and the priests and nuns are almost all white.
Damn George Bush!
There you have it. You never have to read a Garrison Keillor column again, ever.
