Would you rather that the illegal immigrant who prepares your restaurant food be immunized or not? Because they ARE preparing your food. And caring for your child, and cleaning your house, and handing you your change at the store.

They are here, integrated into every aspect of American life. So are we going to protect everyone we can, or not?

** Sure...in New York, LA, Chicago, Miami etc. but there's still plenty of places in America where actual Americans--black, white, brown and yellow--still do these things, either for themselves or by paying other American citizens--or legal residents--to do them. Sorry to burst your lily-white, spoiled, self-centered ivory bubble.**

I'll happily cop to the 'lily white' and 'liberal.' Spoiled and self centered? Maybe. But dude, you CANNOT GET more Midwestern and rural than where I live. Ever wonder who slaughters your meat and harvests your grain? Who produces the processed corn products we hoover down like there's no tomorrow? News flash - for the most part, it ain't American citizens or legal immigrants.

We're not likely to agree on this subject, and that's OK. To me the bottom line is, to paraphrase Dirty Harry, how lucky do you feel? Are you willing to risk the life of your spouse or child? If millions die, will this decision be worth it?

Because not immunizing everyone we can puts us all at risk.

...who feel it's more important that they feel comfortable drinking a beer with their president than to choose one with a moral compass and critical thinking skills?

A college degree is table stakes for many jobs you might want to pursue in the future. You're in school now. It will never be easier than it is right now to focus in and finish this work. You might think that you can easily go back and catch those credits later on, but... life has a funny way of getting in the way.

Second, re-read the letters from cd27701 and Josalon. They are wise. cd27701's point about brilliance - that academic brilliance is only one kind of smarts - is absolutely true, and what a gift it is to be introduced to this concept at this juncture of your life. Please don't build too much of your self-esteem around this idea of academic brilliance. You have thrived in the small-pond academic system in which you've been immersed, in which grades are the measure of competence, but it is far from the only system out there, and even if it was, reality is that there are hundreds of thousands of similarly 'brilliant' college students out there. Consider an employment scenario where a company prides itself on only hiring the curvebreakers. Within that distribution, you might find yourself merely middle-of-the-pack, and in crisis. My point is, you're a smart guy. Don't invest in that 'brilliant' label. Don't hobble yourself like that.

As others have mentioned, please do not consider the military without being absolutely positive you have a passion for it. In my opinion, this is the one course of action you're considering that has life or death ramifications. Smart guys like you die in the Middle East every week - IED's don't pick and choose whose brains get splattered on the side of the road. Don't enlist because you're lost.

A question for you: if you weren't "brilliant", how would you spend your time? If you didn't have to work for money (though of course most of us do), what would you do with your days? Food for thought.

Best wishes, LW. This too shall pass.

** Finally, remember that your career choice, even though it has a significant impact on your enjoyment of life & feels so damned important, can always be changed. It may not be easy (it may be bloody miserable) but you can always change it. **

ms.thalia is right. Very few decisions we make are irreversible.

LW, did you by chance grow up with abuse or alcoholism or drug use in your childhood home? Children who grow up in these unstable environments sometimes develop very acute abilities to notice what other people might consider minutiae - as a survival mechanism.

Just a thought.

He has health insurance that can't be taken away from him. Ready to give it up and compete for it out on the open market, Joe?

She can remove herself from this supposedly toxic situation. That she chooses not to speaks volumes.

Did she get teabagged? And did someone take pictures?

Their eyes look dead. No joy.

I mourn for news. Fact-checked news. Information that is not simply content recycled from some other source, or pulled off a live sister station video feed somewhere, presented with zero context by a white-oothed model emoting like a community theatre actor over the picture. Or a random right-winger and left-winger hollering at each other, a grinning 'anchor' sitting between them, and calling it a debate.

Is that what we accept as news these days? Jesus.

Seriously now. When the actor/model introducing a so-called news story starts with the words, "Get this!" they have lost all claims to credibility or gravitas - especially when the story introduced so breathlessly is about Lindsay Fucking Lohan, and is swiped word for word off TMZ.

CNN should call itself infotainment and be done with it already.

...is for the CGI effects. Okay, and maybe Cusack. Maybe.

....regardless of his analinguistic prowess.

Bravo is burning me out on chef shows.

One of the gifts of serious illness is that it forces you to make absolutely ruthless decisions about how to spend your time and energy. It helps you decide what is important very, very quickly.

Most of what we worry about today is not very important.

Peace and healing to you, Cary. You're in my thoughts.

"Okay, I evolved. You didn't."