Many ambitions are available to benefit mankind, and hopefully today’s kids have such an ambition in mind. Most people would agree that we need all the help we can get.

Kids know about addictions simply from watching and listening to their parents and friends: cigarettes, alcohol, prescribed medications, illegal drugs.

They see how it affects them and their friends; but they’re just kids, what can they do? Adjust, absorb, accept the attitude around them. Aren’t we adults supposed to make life better for our kids?

I had a new Ford pickup back in 1984 that cost $8,600. Why does it cost more than $20,000 today for the same truck? Property value has escalated

I was in Thomaston around 1976, when they did away with parole. They were forced to hire the first female corrections officer in 1979. She took ’em to court for discrimination. She won and as a result there are many female COs in all the jails today.

The Thomaston prison was locked down in 1980, to replace guards who had lost control of the prison to inmates. One of the results of the lockdown was closer supervision of the prison industries and novelties program.

The inmates were allowed to earn $15,000 a year selling novelties at the prison showroom; only five people made it to $15,000. For their labor, two extra days per month were chopped off the end of their sentence.

Today on WABK, I heard an advertisement for prison guards in Warren. That was not one of the ambitions I spoke of at the beginning of this letter. Does being a prison guard benefit mankind as much as a teacher, doctor, nurse? Everything does cost more today, but how much are the kids forced to pay for their future?

Andre Beaudoin

Richmond