Goats
The lights came on.
One day I received a letter from Radar* requesting that I obtain information for him about goats. Inmates in Texas prisons are not allowed internet access. When they are paroled, they receive $100 from the State of Texas no matter how long they have been incarcerated. Consequently, they spend a lot of time thinking about how to make a living when they are discharged.
Radar’s idea was to purchase goats in Pennsylvania, transport them to Texas, feed and sell them in Texas for a profit. He wanted information on state quarantine laws, a subscription to a livestock newsletter based in San Angelo, Texas, the number of nannies per billy, an estimate of annual lease cost for 2,000 acres in the Texas Hill Country. He had other requests, including my assessment of his financial projections.
When it comes to commenting on a man in white’s** life plans, I consider myself walking on thin ice. I always want to be truthful. I also always want to offer hope. And, I don’t have to suffer the consequences of the decision he makes.
As I was contemplating a reply to Radar, I received another letter from him, this one asking for a copy of the Internal Revenue Code as he had not factored income taxes into his financial projections.
That was when the lights came on for me. From years of working as a business attorney, I could see that Radar thinks like an accountant. He has an accountant’s personality. He wants everything to balance. He is patient, detail, number and result oriented.
All of that was just a few months ago. Radar has already earned nine hours of college credit from taking three college accounting correspondence courses (including Federal Taxation) and is presently completing two courses. His goal is to earn thirty hours credit by June 2022. He said in a letter to me that if he had known he could handle college courses, he would have gone to college after high school. He is proud of himself but no more proud than I am of him.
Radar is paying for the correspondence courses he takes with the stimulus check he received from the Federal government. When that money runs out, he will take it one day at a time.
*Radar is identified in the immediately preceding post.
**All inmates in Texas wear white.
Tony’s goats, submitted by reader, Patty.