And in the beginning

The quote under the heading is from a mentor of mine, John A. Andrew III. He was an outstanding human being and American History professor at Franklin & Marshall college. Unfortunately for me -- and the rest of the world -- his life was cut short by a massive heart attack in the late fall of 2000. I have finally gotten around to reading his final book: The Power to Destroy: The Political Uses of the IRS from Kennedy to Nixon. The quote in its entirety is: "We should not be constrained by the past, but we can learn from it. The challenge for historians is to uncover it."