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