It might be just because everything looks poignant to me right about now (or perhaps it is because I am the world's biggest cornball drama queen), but this paragraph from a story in today's New Yorker, about Al Gore's new documentary, almost made me cry when I read it with "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" playing in the background:

"If you are inclined to think that the unjustly awarded election of 2000 led to one of the worst Presidencies of this or any other era, it is not easy to look at Al Gore. He is the living reminder of all that might not have happened in the past six years (and of what might still happen in the coming two). Contrary to Ralph Nader’s credo that there was no real difference between the major parties, it is close to inconceivable that the country and the world would not be in far better shape had Gore been allowed to assume the office that a plurality of voters wished him to have. One can imagine him as an intelligent and decent President, capable of making serious decisions and explaining them in the language of a confident adult. Imagining that alternative history is hard to bear, which is why Gore always has the courtesy, in his many speeches, and at the start of An Inconvenient Truth, to deflect that discomfort with a joke: 'Hello, I’m Al Gore and I used to be the next President of the United States.'"

Yes, it's true that a lot of things make me want to cry right about now, and it's true that I wasn't at all excited about Al Gore in 2000. But you've got to admit it's a damn shame what's been happening to this country.

Tags: out there
Current Mood: uncertain
Current Music: Smashing Pumpkins