Been meaning to post this for a while, but NYT kept it locked up behind that new Times Select crap. Finally let google do the work for me and found a copy:

I love Sarah Vowell, for many, many reasons. Here's just one:

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.

PS - Steve, I'm working on your utopia question, really.