I CAN"T resist quoting another bit of Charlie Rangel's memoirs.

He was at New York University, trying to get a good enough degree to get himself into law school. He recalls "screwing up badly in an accounting course". But not to worry. The teacher had lost a son in Korea, and he knew Rangel was a Korea veteran.

"He complained that I wasn't responding in class, which was true enough because I didn't know what the hell was going on. 'But damn it,' he concluded, 'you served your country, and that's what counts!' He gave me a B and I stayed away from accounting for the rest of my life." (page 100)