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Moore Film Thrusts CWA Retiree Into Spotlight
Barry Reingold says, sure, things got a little heated that day at the gym in the fall of 2001, when he and a group of fellow exercisers were exorcising their feelings about President George W. Bush.
But never could he have imagined that two FBI agents would show up at his front door a week later, questioning him about the conversation. "We heard you were talking about Bush and Bin Laden and oil profits," they told him.
Nor could he have guessed that the brief encounter would bring him global fame - at least his 15-minutes' worth. Reingold, a steward for 15 years in CWA Local 9410, tells his story in a segment of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," now the highest-grossing documentary ever.
He's since met some of his Oakland, Calif., neighbors he'd never talked with before and been cheered - and occasionally verbally stung - by strangers. Mostly people have been nice. "They come up and say, 'You don't know me but I wanted to congratulate you on the movie,'" he said.
Reingold, who retired from his job assigning phone numbers in 1992, has mixed feelings about losing his anonymity. But his wife, Josephine, currently an SBC employee and member of CWA Local 9415, has been "enthralled," he said, putting together a scrapbook of his contacts and clips since the movie's debut.
In the aftermath of September 11, Reingold had heard about authorities taking in people of Middle Eastern heritage for questioning without apparent cause, and he wasn't happy about it. Then all of sudden the government was on his own doorstep.
When one of the FBI agents volunteered that, "You live in the United States and you do have freedom of speech," Reingold took the opportunity to politely send them on their way. "I said, 'With that in mind, that ends the discussion.'"
Reingold told friends at the American Civil Liberties Union what happened. Someone there put a report on the Internet, ultimately leading Moore's production team to him.
He saw the film several weeks after its debut with about 15 friends and enjoyed it, but believes it's too focused on Bush's shortcomings instead of society's larger problems. "I think it's very powerful, worth seeing and discussing, but I think it's much more than the movie," he said.
The problem, he said, "is corporate power and inequity in the workplace. There are a few people on top, and there are the rest of us. We do all the work, and they figure out how to cut more people and cut more benefits."
He has far more faith in workers united than in politicians of any party. Noting the three strikes he took part in as a Pacific Bell employee and another picket line he walked as a retiree, he said it's only through those struggles, when workers band together and fight back, that they truly force the corporate hand.
"I hope that's what people get out of this movie, that there's hope for change if people organize, if they fight together for a better life for working class people," he said.
But never could he have imagined that two FBI agents would show up at his front door a week later, questioning him about the conversation. "We heard you were talking about Bush and Bin Laden and oil profits," they told him.
Nor could he have guessed that the brief encounter would bring him global fame - at least his 15-minutes' worth. Reingold, a steward for 15 years in CWA Local 9410, tells his story in a segment of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," now the highest-grossing documentary ever.
He's since met some of his Oakland, Calif., neighbors he'd never talked with before and been cheered - and occasionally verbally stung - by strangers. Mostly people have been nice. "They come up and say, 'You don't know me but I wanted to congratulate you on the movie,'" he said.
Reingold, who retired from his job assigning phone numbers in 1992, has mixed feelings about losing his anonymity. But his wife, Josephine, currently an SBC employee and member of CWA Local 9415, has been "enthralled," he said, putting together a scrapbook of his contacts and clips since the movie's debut.
In the aftermath of September 11, Reingold had heard about authorities taking in people of Middle Eastern heritage for questioning without apparent cause, and he wasn't happy about it. Then all of sudden the government was on his own doorstep.
When one of the FBI agents volunteered that, "You live in the United States and you do have freedom of speech," Reingold took the opportunity to politely send them on their way. "I said, 'With that in mind, that ends the discussion.'"
Reingold told friends at the American Civil Liberties Union what happened. Someone there put a report on the Internet, ultimately leading Moore's production team to him.
He saw the film several weeks after its debut with about 15 friends and enjoyed it, but believes it's too focused on Bush's shortcomings instead of society's larger problems. "I think it's very powerful, worth seeing and discussing, but I think it's much more than the movie," he said.
The problem, he said, "is corporate power and inequity in the workplace. There are a few people on top, and there are the rest of us. We do all the work, and they figure out how to cut more people and cut more benefits."
He has far more faith in workers united than in politicians of any party. Noting the three strikes he took part in as a Pacific Bell employee and another picket line he walked as a retiree, he said it's only through those struggles, when workers band together and fight back, that they truly force the corporate hand.
"I hope that's what people get out of this movie, that there's hope for change if people organize, if they fight together for a better life for working class people," he said.