Bruni nails it again

This isn't the first time I'm directing readers to a column by Frank Bruni in the NY Times. There's a reason for this -- the man is prescient and clear. Today's offering is called "America the Shrunken". Here's an excerpt:

More and more I get the sense that we’ve lost it, and by “it” I mean the optimism that was always the lifeblood of this luminous experiment, the ambition that has been its foundation, the swagger that made us so envied and emulated and reviled.

We’re walking small. And that shift in our gait and our gumption has been palpable for many years, during an unusually sustained period of frustration that has the feel of something more than a temporary dive: a turned corner, the downward arc of a diminished enterprise.

It's not good news, but it's real and true and we'd best pay attention. We're on a slide and we're going down fast. Maybe we should do something about it before it's too late. 

Nah, let's just go shopping. Maybe pick up some donuts, or something.