Friday, July 19, 2013

The Civilian Conservation Corps Opened Worlds

"To me, the experience in the CCC was the opening of my world, which, until that time had been limited and poor in so many ways. My parents died when I was six and (my) grandparents raised me and died not too many months before I went into the CCC. The camp life not only helped me physically but also psychologically. What a wonderful opportunity and blessing it was for young men in those lean years."

--Walter L. Mallory, CCC Alumni, in the book "Roosevelt's Forest Army: A History of the Civilian Conservation Corps," by Perry H. Merrill, 1981.

Today, unfortunately, we don't have a Civilian Conservation Corps. We do, however, have the largest prison-industrial complex in the world--endless rows of prison cells waiting for our disadvantaged youth.

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