Our society is a complex network of voices. Some carry power and authority, while some are miniscule and trivial. While the popularity of influential voices vary, the influence is unmistakable and undeniable. Charles Wendell “Chuck” Colson was a vocal leader with a tale of redemption and hope. Born on October 16, 1931, Chuck was the only child of Wendell and Inez Colson, a working-class family. Wendell worked hard as a book keeper at a local meat packing factory in Chuck’s hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. His mother was “an effervescent and unpredictable women” who spent money her husband didn’t have. Because of their lack of resources, the Colsons moved 15 different times within the Boston area. As a result, Charles had attended eight schools by the time he was …show more content…
Between universities, he served three years in the Marine Corps and became its youngest captain at the time. Chuck longed for politics and worked his way up the ladder to the spot of “special counsel” for President Nixon, more commonly known as “Nixon’s ‘Mr. Fixit.’” Charles Colson was married to Nancy Billings in 1953 and later to Patty Hughes in 1964 (“Charles Colson”). Chuck Colson entered a time of scandalous activity when he became President Nixon’s advisor. He became involved in Watergate, “the country’s worst political scandal” (“Christian Worldview at the Chuck Colson Center”). On June 17, 1972, five men broke into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) offices to obtain information on Daniel Ellsberg, whose trial was taking place at the time (“Watergate Scandal”). Daniel Ellsberg had shared the Pentagon Papers, a top secret document, with New York Times and the Washington Post. The Pentagon Papers are a collection of information, 7,000 pages long in a series of 47 volumes, on US relations with Vietnam, 1945-1968. Only 15 copies were made, and Daniel Ellsberg had access to one of them. He felt that, if published, the Pentagon Papers would push the US involvement