Posted by Introspective on September 13, 2004, 7:02 am, in reply to "Remembering September 11, 2001 and Mr. Christi....... Part 1" He went on to say that in those days growing up in New York was a great place to live. You and your neighbors not only watched the kids we were truly involved with the entire neighborhood. Our doors were open for everyone and we fed our kids and our neighbors children. There were no video games back then you played out in the street and you learned how to get along with others. We never heard of drugs and people respected one another. People sat out on their porches and they talked and were involved. The kids played stick ball everyday on our block. During the school year they walked to school and the police walked and talked to people on our block. There were no gangs and gang wars back then he said. It was a much different time and place. He also got involved with the American labor movement and he became the first Jewish Teamster local President in New York. My friend told me that his grandfather loved being a teamster and he enjoyed telling storys about his experiences in New York during his Teamster years. I also enjoyed listening to him as he told me storys with the utmost exuberance. One night my friend and I watched the history channel with him on cable television. We watched a Documentary on the Kennedys, the Documentary showed a film clip of John Kennedy who was a U.S. Senator in the 1950s and his brother Bobby Kennedy, who was a member of the Senates labor racketeering investigative sub-committee. They were asking Jimmy Hoffa, Sr, the former president of the teamsters union questions at a Senate Hearing, questions like, "did you say I am going to break his back?" and Hoffa kept saying "who's back?" like a little kid being scolded by his parent. In the same film clip Hoffa said to the Kennedy's "I don't know what youre talking about?" The Kennedy's were trying to trip Hoffa up with trick questions. Mr. Christi started laughing, he said to me they asked Hoffa every question but "when did you stop beating your wife?" I have nothing against the teamsters he said, you can't punish the child for the sins of the father." He went on to say, At that time the teamsters were feared. The teamsters will never experience that kind of power again. Today the teamsters are a mere shadow compared to Hoffa Seniors time. The teamsters today he said, is a pretty weak union they are a joke. Mr. Christi told us a story about this woman who used to stop by the teamsters union hall every morning on her way to work. Every morning the women would drop off donuts at the teamsters union hall and make the teamsters a pot of fresh coffee before going to the factory were she was employed. One day the owner of the factory told the women she no longer had a job. She was being replaced by a younger girl. In the 1940's this factory owner treated the girls pretty bad and he forced himself on them. When the women resisted the factory owners advances the factory owner fired her. The women was fired a few weeks before Christmas in December 1947. When Mr. Christi found out what happened to her, he and a bunch of teamsters from other locals waited in the back of a truck. They waited for the factory owner to go to lunch. When the owner was out in front of his factory, Mr. Christi and his merry band of teamsters pulled up in the truck next to him and covered him from head to toe with rotten eggs. The owner stood in front of his factory covered with rotten eggs and all the girls laughed and clapped there hands in total amusement. When the police arrived after the owner called them to the seen. The owner described the assault in detail. The police asked the owner, "Can you describe the eggs that hit you? Were they white eggs? Were some of the eggs brown? Did you notice if any of the eggs had unusual markings? Were the eggs fresh or were they rotten eggs?" After about two weeks of humiliating experiences the factory owner put two and two together. The fired women received a knock on her door on Christmas morning from the factory owner, letting her know she is desperately needed at the factory and that she could report to work the next day. The factory owner treated her with the utmost respect after having two weeks of mischief levied upon him. Whenever the other women had problems in the factory they went to her and the problems were immediately addressed and solved. Mr. Christi said "I guess in some way she was an honorary teamster shop steward in an unofficial capacity." He went on to say, "Getting that woman her job back is truly what the union business is all about." When he told us that story, his eyes lit up and sparkled with every word. You truly saw the joy in his eyes and in his smile as he recollected on his teamster years and I knew he missed those days. He said "there was a time when the word teamster meant something there was power behind that word. Today everyone concentrates on the bad side of the teamsters organization. Today the word teamster is a joke and the teamsters are no longer powerful." There is a lot of truth in those words. However, the history behind the teamsters movement can teach us a valuable lesson. The lesson to be learned, we are powerful when we stand together. We have the power to change and to make right the wrongs in the world. We can make our life and our neighbors life worth living by helping each other and unifying or efforts towards change for the better, isn't that what America is all about? Isnt that what our solders fought and died for in our country and abroad? That is truly what Mr. Christi fought for in WW II and that is what we are fighting for after the events of September 11, 2001. In December of 2003 I received a telephone call from my friend he said that his grandfather, Mr. Christi is not going to make it through the night he was 103 years old and dieing of stomach cancer. Mr. Christi asked his son my friends father to bring a small jewelry box to the hospital. When I was there Mr. Christi opened it and took out a pocket watch. He said the watch was given to him by his father and he would like my friend his grandson to have the watch. The watch has an engraving inside which says, Make time for the ones you love for there is always time for humanity. Mr. Christi died that night and the short time I knew him his presence had a profound affect on me but most of all his family and the community where he grew up and lived is eternally changed for having known him. I know deep down in my heart I am blessed for having known Mr. Christi and I know that his spirit will continue to live on. His values will continue to be passed down from his children to his childrens children because he knew how to tell time and make time for the ones he loved. I to will make time for the ones I love because as Mr. Christi has shown us in his 103 years of life on earth there is always time for humanity. Introspective
64.12.116.210
Mr. Christi told us about how his family lived in a Jewish neighborhood after returning home from World War II. He said that after he learned about the Holocaust he knew deep in his heart that America would have done more to help the Jews if we were aware of the Holocaust and that those events could never happen in America.
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