The mariner is tired, so, so tired of the squabbles over social issues. Gays (He misses that word; it had a unique meaning that has not been replaced), abortion, medical care, tax imbalance. The mariner is very tired. He is driven from any news except, sometimes, PBS Evening News.

People are full of vitriol and destructive poison that erodes our society as acid erodes metal. It certainly isn’t a gay old time…

Prejudice, elitism, exclusivity, racism, liberalism, conservatism, libertarianism – it just doesn’t matter anymore. People are mean. Like street philosopher Rodney King said, “Why can’t we all just get along?” This reference adds another to the mean list: police brutality. Rodney’s four attackers, by the way, were acquitted except for one minor charge against one officer. Finally, the brutal disregard both by Congress and the National Rifle Association to incessant, sensational murder sprees and the deaths of 30,000 each year by hand guns is irresponsible. Where are the religious influences? Where is moral authority? The Tea Party has laid claim to Christianity and the high moral ground. Yet they espouse the list at the top of this paragraph. What would Jesus do? They are false prophets.

The issues of political philosophy have become so tightly wrapped around conservative and liberal fiscal policy that they may as well wear Civil War uniforms. Taxes are horrendously out of balance but this issue is held hostage to government spending in the last decade. The deficit, attested by many sources, is reduced more and more rapidly as the government climbs out of the recession.

I feel sorry for poor people – most who work for starvation wages. They don’t deserve to be the victims in all this vitriol.

As for the rest of us, we are victims, too. We have lost our good-time American culture. We have lost the belief that every American is equal under democracy. We have lost the ability to bind together to reach the moon. Norman Rockwell rolls in his grave.

There is no gaiety today.

Ancient mariner