I was walking to Newtonville along Washington Street this past Friday afternoon in full 90 degree sun, when I was greeted by the placards of striking Verizon workers pacing the sidewalk in front of the Verizon building. Ironic this was. The block long brick building that presently stands at the corner of Central Avenue and Washington Street was built many years ago, replacing the humble wooden structure that housed the pool hall that Grandpa Moses ran early in the 20th century, a pool hall that was quickly outmoded once the automobile became the play thing of the rich. The irony was not lost on me, because Grandpa Moses, when he first arrived in this country in the late 19th Century, Grandpa Moses who was handy with a gun from his days roaming the mountains of Marash, Grandpa Moses who knew very little English if any at all, Grandpa Moses was hired as a strike breaker!
This past Saturday, as I walked by, a police detail, hired by Verizon, was stationed at both the front and back doors of this imposing brick building, protecting the building, assumedly, from the small group of folk who, when asked, said they were striking for health insurance benefits and asking that their wages not be lowered. Could it be that Goliath is afraid of David?
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