"Grew up" like the corn and soybeans in the State of Illinois, suburban Chicago area. Attended good public schools, but what did I know, until I met my high school guidance counselor, a bonehead with a crewcut, and my high school principal, who took away my Illinois State Scholar designation and gave it to a female classmate. Unlike me, she did not plan to attend the State's flagship University of Illinois, where that scholarship for some reason did not apply. I joined a fraternity called Phi Kappa Psi, was admitted to Engineering but not Liberal Arts until ten years too late and, looking back, I even think the business courses I took at that God forsaken UIUC were a waste of my precious time and able intelligence. On the bright side, I did not join any branch of military service, nor was my youth squandered in the Vietnam War. Call it justice, but when I offered my view of the Vietnam War in response to a question years later, I was fired from my job working at the U.S. Veterans Administration. Tant pis. As it happens, I was looking at pictures of my would-have-been Uncle's grave marker in France just an hour ago. He made the rank of sargeant, just before he died fighting in World War Two. That war followed "The Great War," which was otherwise known as "The War to End All Wars" at the time it was fought. As an American, it has occured to me more than once, that maybe we should stop squandering our resources in such profligate manner. Just a thought.