The prisons are full of young men and women who grew up poor and got
mixed up with illegal drugs. They weren't allowed to claim youthful
indiscretions to the judge.

For men of privilege like George W. Bush and Senate candidate Lincoln
Chafee to expect sympathy for using illegal drugs is absurd. Chafee
claims that the 1970s, when he used drugs, was a tumultuous time. How
do you tell a kid growing up in the Newark projects that he is not
living in tumultuous times?

We should stop the double message we send to our children.

Stevie Eugene Williams,
Scotch Plains