Word: hoffa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...also disturbing, because it is fundamentally unclear whether Hoffa's approach grapples with some of the real problems confronting prisoners and ex-cons. This does not mean that Hoffa is insincere about what he says, but more that Hoffa has not shared, or allowed himself to share, the problems with which most prisoners, and therefore prison reformers, must deal...
Talking to Hoffa, it becomes clear that he regards his five years in stir as simply an unpleasant interlude, a necessary evil in the normal course of his life. His ability to do this, and the assurance he had that his family, money, and reputation with the Teamster rank-and-file would be waiting for him when he got out meant that he was able to avoid embarassing questions about society and probably about himself...
This security has allowed Hoffa to minimize the personal impact of prison on himself, to deny that the indignity of being in prison actually affected him deeply. "I don't get harassed by nobody in or out of prison. I'm not the kind of a fellow who people want to harass, because I can get along with anybody. But I can disagree with anybody and if it comes to a disagreement I won't be second...
...Hoffa is quick to jump to the defense of the system in which he was, after all, a conspicuous success. "I believe in free enterprise 100 per cent. Nothing better in the whole world. You couldn't change me in a hundred years upon that belief...
...personal level as well, Hoffa insists, and it is not hard to believe, that prison had remarkably little effect on him. Did he ever lose confidence in himself? Did he ever get pushed around? Hoffa answers unequivocably "no." "I wasn't pushed around," he says. "I don't allow nobody to push me around. I had my arguments in prison with the officials for that very reason. When they found out my position, found out what I was willing to do, I wasn't pushed around by nobody." But he denies that this was special treatment. "I'm willing...