My mom retired on Friday after 16 years of working at District Council 37, the largest municipal trade union in New York City. They had a big semi surprise party for her to wish her farewell and celebrate her time there. I say it was a semi surprise party because she knew something was going on and they wanted to plan something so she had to know what. The big surprise apparently was that I drove down to NYC from Boston to be there with Sophia. She knew family would be there but not me. That was a shock to here when we finally walked in the room, despite making ridiculously good time, two traffic things stalled us for a combined 45 minutes. At the first one by the time we got moving again, there was no evidence of what happened to cause that delay. Now the second accident was on the turnoff from the George Washington Bridge to the West Side Highway causing another clog of about 15 minutes. This one bothered me becauase I was late, but at least I could see the tow truck moving the damaged car in the middle of four turnoffs. The thing that pissed me off is that first delay happened and killed a record time but I never saw why. If I’m going to be stuck on I-95 for close to half an hour getting late to my mother’s retirement party, I think I deserve to see why! If I’m stuck there for a half hour, I want to see blood strewn upon the asphalt. I want to see a caved in car on fire, I want to see a nine car pile up and wall-to-wall ambulances. I can empathize if you give me a reason to empathize about. Otherwise I wasted my time for nothing!
Anyway Sophia and I were hungry when we got there so I’m glad they had food, and many of the other people there were giving testimonies to my mom so I got a chance to hear those no problem. However my mom spoke last and warned people there that this would be a sermon– she got her master’s from Union Theological Seminary and James Forbes was her instructor at preaching class, so she was going to use it. She of course made an amazing speech talking about the how working at a union is very personal to her– both her parents were unionists and immigrants– and what she plans to do with her time now– working to get universal, single-payer health care passed in this country. But of course Sophia had a lot to say to me at the table about the decorations, what kind of food she wants to eat, asking what certain stuff was, etc. However I wanted to hear my mom talk. However there’s no way to get a four year old to stop talking or asking questions when that’s what she wants to do. It’s also hard to shush your daughter so you can hear you mom talk. The one clear thought I remember was wanting to tell her that she should be quiet because a great woman is speaking but I knew that would go over her head.
Really it was a great speech and I’m not saying this as her son. She really spoke about prominent topics to a captive audience. When you tell an entire room full of union workers that the only rights workers have is the right to die on the job, you’re hitting all the good points. And again she educates people in her speeches. The one point I took away was when she said “Government does not cede any rights that aren’t taken from them.” I know she meant it in the non-violent way of MLK Jr. But I also know she’s a fan of Malcolm X’s and can be very radical in her thoughts. She even went as far to say that even Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama are NOT saying “Single-Payer” when they talk about universal health care, and that the unions have to force them to start saying it. Granted I know nothing about single payer universal health care but I do need to look into it. And I also realized I’m more like her than I thought when she talked about standing on the shoulders of ancestors talking about union history, and that we need to examine again how they did it then when there was NOTHING and apply it to the struggle now. Very moving speech.