Charles Colson - 1931-2012

CHARLES COLSON 

I wish I could say Chuck and I sat down for a few drinks and conversation, but, alas, all I did was say "hi".  Charles Colson, of the Watergate scandal Colson, was at one time a public personage splattered all over the news and described by Haldeman as "Nixon's hit man."    He also was a convicted felon and spent time in prison for his covert and illegal activities while one of Nixon's goons.




Excerpt from Obituary:




                  Colson once famously said he'd walk over his grandmother to get the president elected to a second term. In 1972 The Washington Post called him "one of the most powerful presidential aides, variously described as a troubleshooter and as a 'master of dirty tricks.'"

"I shudder to think of what I'd been if I had not gone to prison," Colson said in 1993. "Lying on the rotten floor of a cell, you know it's not prosperity or pleasure that's important, but the maturing of the soul."

I was at an IPCSA (Illinois Probation and Court Services Association) conference in Springfield on May 6, 1992 where Chuck was the keynote speaker.  He had reclaimed his mojo by starting a prison ministries foundation and was booked to speak to the Association.  Like most speeches, it was quickly forgotten but I do remember it being pretty funny.  He had some good jokes in there and of course, his Watergate cache made him a fairly large political 20th century figure.

Like a groupie I bought his book and we could have it autographed and so I stood in line to see the historical bad guy of Watergate.  He signed my book, we may have exchanged hellos, I'm not sure, but I remember his face being extremely wrinkled.   Of all the Watergate felons I always liked Chuck because he did something positive with his incarceration.  None of the others did anything particularly righteous.  Oh, yes, they wrote books and became talking heads...for money.  But Chuck Colson, bless his heart, brought a richer experience to those behind bars.  And yes, we all know the jokes about turning to God once you are locked up, but regardless your views on organized theology, for many it be a healing salve on wounds and a way to acquire a certain inner peace.  He won the Templeton prize a few years ago and wrote many books, all the proceeds going to his Prison Ministry Foundation.  That endeavor has grown to be an international affair in prisons all over the world.  In the US it boasts some 1367 chapters and caters to over 200,000 men and women.  By all accounts it was an interesting life, one can ask for no more, I reckon.  

I did take some notes as I pulled he book out of one of the 10 boxes underneath my bed (no room for monsters).  I penned these notes:

"Be Imaginative, be creative, be thorough, be honest."

"Crime is learned by individuals making a wrong moral decision."

"Violent crime stats used to be heaviest in Russia, now its the USA."

"This is the only country where there is no meaningful work for prisoners."

"You fix a broken world by fixing a broken man."


Aside from missing out on an Evening With Cary Grant (he died), and looking at Jimmy Carter's riverboat go down the Mississippi from Keithsburg, and maybe shaking hands with Mo Udall, Chuck Colson is about the only big wig I have seen.  Naturally that excludes James Earl Jones' buck naked ass, which I have also seen.  But that's another story.