DonÕt Get Mad, Get Even . . .
from Charlie WilsonÕs War by George Crile, Grove Press, 2001.
Click here to read reviews and buy book:
( http://www.amazon.com/Charlie-Wilsons-War-Extraordinary-Congress/dp/B00192H56K/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315773238&sr=1-2
)
Also recommended is the film version starring
Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.
It's not uncommon for a single childhood
experience — particularly if it is a traumatic one — to end up
shaping an entire life. Sometimes it offers the only key to understanding what
leads a person to make choices that would otherwise seem irrational. That
certainly was the case with Charlie Wilson and his decision to embrace the
Òlost causeÓ of the Afghan Taliban and their fight against the occupation of
their country by the Russians. [Note: Charley Wilson got the legislation passed
in the US Congress that paid for the surface to air missiles (and other heavy
munitions) that allowed the Taliban to defeat the Russian helicopters in the
guerilla war against that occupation of Afghanistan.]
The Charlie Wilson
Anecdote
ÒAs is true with many boys, Charlie's dog
was his best friend, his constant companion. Everyone in Trinity knew that
Teddy was Charlie's dog. Whenever the two would burst into Cochran's corner
drugstore they would get equal billing: "Hello, Charlie. Hello, Teddy." And that's where Teddy died
-- a hideous, agonizing end on the floor of Cochran's store with Charlie and a
crowd of neighbors and friends watching in horror. Charlie's mother, Wilmuth,
held the boy back, fearing the dog might have rabies. For ten minutes, he watched,
completely helpless. He was thirteen.
Later, when the pharmacist discovered
that Teddy had been fed finely ground glass, Charlie knew immediately who had
done it. It was the work of his twisted neighbor, Charles Hazard, an old man
who was forever threatening to do in any stray dog who soiled his
well-manicured garden. It
was the spring of 1946, and that night Charlie poured gasoline over Hazard's
precious plants and set his lawn on fire. But in the cold light of dawn, he
realized that this wasn't sufficient revenge. That's when he had one of those
brilliant flashes that never failed in later years to spring fully grown into
his mind whenever he found himself in similar situations, facing bullies who
needed to be reigned in.
Hazard was a city official, and Charlie suddenly realized that an election was
about to be held.
On this occasion, he found himself
recalling his mother's fury at the way the liquor interests had managed to
bribe Trinity's black citizens
with beer and cash to accept a ride to the polls to vote down the referendum to
outlaw alcohol. Looking out over Charles Hazard's blackened lawn, Charlie
concluded that if he could only get a car, he could mobilize his own secret
army of voters to defeat Hazard. In those days, farm boys could get special
driving permits at thirteen. He got his permit and then persuaded his parents
to let him use the family's new car, the first they'd ever had, a two-door
Chevrolet. When the polls opened, Charlie was waiting with his first carload of
voters. He said only one thing before letting them out: "I don't want to
influence your vote, but I'd like you to know that Charles Hazard poisoned my
dog." By the time Hazard
arrived at the polling place that afternoon, his fate was sealed. About four
hundred people had voted, and Charlie had bused in ninety-six of them. By a
margin of sixteen votes,
the reign of Charles Hazard had come to an abrupt and unexpected end.
That evening, thirteen- year-old Charlie
Wilson strode down the street to Hazard's house and announced that he was
pleased to report that his black constituents had just ended Hazard's career.
"You shouldn't poison any more dogs," he said before leaving.Ó