Trivial attempt to compile Python from source fails over and over in that it
can not locate OpenSSL in the "prefix" directory /usr/local .

The configure was entirely trivial : 

 ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-openssl=/usr/local 

Does OpenSSL exist ?

o# 
o# which openssl
/usr/local/bin/openssl
o# openssl version 
OpenSSL 3.3.1 4 Jun 2024 (Library: OpenSSL 3.3.1 4 Jun 2024)
o# 

Yep .. it is right there. Dead easy.

However a compile fails over and over and over with the same message : 

Following modules built successfully but were removed because they could not be imported:
_ssl                                                           

Could not build the ssl module!
Python requires a OpenSSL 1.1.1 or newer

So this has to be a bug in the build system somewhere.