For the last couple of years, I have been writing a book about the economic determination of human civilizations and how the people in the past have lived and fought their wars. The idea was to reveal how a societys economy affects every aspect of its culture, including its type of government, social structure, religion, and military establishment. Unfortunately, writing has never been an easy task for me. While growing up in Texas, I could have cared less about getting an education. My early years had been spent playing sports, chasing skirts, and raising all kinds of hell within a twenty-mile square area. At the time, I couldn't understand why anyone would want to sit around in an old school building and listen to a bunch of boring teachers. I was more interested in hitting a baseball or tackling a ball carrier, than I was in learning how to read and write. Needless to say, my days as a student in the public school system weren't my brightest moments. Ironically though, after repeating the ninth grade and then quitting school altogether in order to join the Marine Corps, I would eventually end up in college, thus becoming a history teacher. Of course, I believe it's all Kurt Vonneguts fault. Sometime during the early 1980s, I had an opportunity to hear him speak at a local university. It was an occasion I would never forget. While sitting just behind the front row, I became completely enthralled by his presentation. It was not only what he said that affected me, but also how he said it. In spite of the fact that the majority of the people in the audience didn't seem to appreciate his humor or his bleak predictions of the future, I understood and related to his every word. Consciously or not, he would inspire the writer in me. That evening, as Mr. Vonnegut stood in the glow of the bright stage lights with his curly light-brown hair and a bushy mustache, he reminded me of a twentieth-century version of Mark Twain. Tall, lean, and slightly stoo
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