Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Forme: By Billy Cox S.C. Lt. Gov. Brantley Harvey introduced the guest speaker by announcing, "It's a nice day when you can make a new friend, and I feel like I've done that today." Hie "npw fripnri" was fnrmpr chief counsel to the president, Charles Colson, a member of the "Palace Guard" which conducted illegal plumbing operations and led to the collapse of the Nixon administration. Speaking before some 300 people in the Sheraton Inn on Wednesday night, Colson-far from the imposing figure he was during the turmoil of Watergate -claimed "A thousand righteous men in a thousand top positions couldn't n :r cany inc weigm ui mis iitiuun u the people won't turn their hearts to God." Plagued by an "inner emptiness" and a "nagging inside" even before his career began to crumble, Colson said he turned his life to Christ and has since been telling his story of reconversion across the country. As author of Born Again, Colson explained "I thought for 11 years I had affected i:?nn ; 1 >;nnnni? t?? r U1C uvea UI lllllllUIId U1 jpcupic, UUl 1 couldn't think of one person I'd touched." Colson said he became acutely aware of his dilemma on election night in 1972 when he, the President, and Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman were watching the returns. ,4The President was leaning back in his chair with his feet on the table," Solcon recalled, r Nixon "and he said 'C'mon Chuck! Feel good! Celebrate!' But I couldn't. That empty feeling inside persisted." The next milestone in his life, Colson said, was his reunion with an old friend, Tom Phillips, in spring 1973. Phillips, a top-level executive with the Raytheon Corp., "had a smile on his face that 1 hadn't seen before, and 20 minutes intn tho ^nnvprcatinn " Pnlcnn said, "I was realizing that I was dealing with a different man. "I asked him 'What's wrong? You've changed.' And Tom replied, 'I've given my life to Jesus Christ.' I was startled, because I hadn't heard that name except when the janitor tripped over the washbucket." Colson said he retreated. TVion f !in Qonofo in_ i u^ii vain v hi v u?viiuiv 111 vestigations, "horror story" testimonials and court battles which rocked the country. "The summer of '73 was the ugliest, darkest summer I'd ever seen in D.C.," Colson said. "Washington was split up the middle into two hostile, armed camps." Colson began seeing Phillips - ? 1 J _ t J L! _1 a. 1_ _ _ again, wno 101a mm auoui nis personal experience of rededication during a Billy Graham rally in Madison Square Garden. "Everything in Phillips' life changed from that night on," he said. Colson said he began listening, "but I wasn't going to show the umabnncc t i\ Tnm fhol T fr*lf '1 VYLimilV-OC IU 1 Will Ll 1(4 I A I Vl I . However, after leaving Phillips' home one night, Colson said "the counsel fellow the press had called the toughest of Nixon's guard cried so hard I couldn't even drive." He took his family to the coast shortly thereafter, picked up a Bible, and "after three or four days, I saw that the case for Christ hoine who he savs he is. is over o %/ ? ' whelming." Even though Colson had been dismissed from the White House, for nine months afterwards he continued to meet there with old acquaintances for prayer breakfasts-without being carded. "In December '73, though, (newsman) Dan Rather asked (deputy press secretary) Gerald Warren 'What was Colson doing in the White House?' Well, everyone 1 I k I A uegan laugiiing su nuiu uun nicy couldn't control the room. The only story to come out of the White House that day was 'Colson Goes to Prayer Breakfast.' "Someone said the best joke to come out of Washington in 1973," Colson added, "was that it would be remembered as the year Chuck Colson joined the Jesus Movement Ulln ?? ? ? m rl ?-v-> rv m ? > w* ? f f/\M w11ut: my iiiiuiiiuuici pi u^cvi i wi thanks in a hospital bed." The courts soon began dealing out convictions, and Colson admitted "I didn't feel guilty with the charge in Watergate, but I told (prosecutor Leon) Jaworski I would plead guilty anyway. It didn't really matter if I could get a tecnnicai vindication in court, i had been forgiven by Christ." Colson was slapped with a sevenmonth sentence in federal prison, ij ?I T ?I ) )l | f./jjl Csf^V/sIi? E Mil i turns t and the transition was a rough one. "I'd never been with 40 men so close together and so lonely," he offered. "But you can learn to adjust to physical discomfort. My life was even threatened during the first week. But I couldn't adjust to the faces of people whose lives had corroded." Colson soon formed a small prayer group. One member, whose chances of being granted parole were deemed impossible, was freed, and Colson believes faith was largely responsible for it. "A new spirit swept the prison, and I saw the beauty of men coming Rubella considered a simple childhood disease. Australian eye specialist, Dr. Norman M. Gregg, first found that the disease might be threatening to unborn babies. Gregg noticed a sharp increase in the number of babies brought to him with birth defects. He found that almost all the mothers had had rubella early in pregnancy. During the first three months of pregnancy, rubella can infect the growing embryo. A rubella infected baby might appear normal at birth, however, some defects might show up as much as six months later. A 1964 rubella epidemic in the United States resulted in at least 8,000 stillbirths and 20,000 children born with abnormalities, according to anAugust 1974 article in Consumer eTSjI TTVt BaaaWil o God together. I had to go to prison to find freedom. I found it." In conclusion, Colson said, "The heart of America is in the heart of (Vio Arr?orir?nn r?nr?nlf? Thf> fanncilv to change the world is in each one of us." Theodore White in Breach of Faith, quotes a Colson-to-John Dean memo which once outlined "how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies." In Columbia, he made many "new friends." Time and "the capacity of change" have made the profound difference. From Page 1 Reports magazine.Goldie said South Carolina has a school immunization law which requires r'Vii!r]roil pnforino thr? f?ret rtrorlo In . V..VV4 ?'V 6' "U*' < " be immunized. This is the third year the program has been in effect, but Goldie said 13 per cent of the state's population is not immune. "Hopefully," he said, "when current elementary school kids get in high school and college, they will all be immune." The vaccine, avnilablo at Ihp health department, was not developed until the 1960s. Children administered the vaccine have few complications. When adult women receive the vaccine, however, they might experience arthritis-like soreness and stiffness of the joints two to four weeks after vaccination. I i iT-1 m MCTW pf-ETjm