Gaetano, one of our readers, while enjoying the compliments of Jeffrey, the Brit, and his statements about Italy's rich Cultural Heritage, in Beppe Severgnini's column in Corriere Della Sera, like myself disagrees vehemently about Jeffrey's admonition to Italians and Italian Americans to be Passive.

One might as well say: Accept whatever treatment you receive at the hands of others that seek to diminish you, and/or strengthen themselves!!!

NO! WE must ACCENTUATE the POSITIVE, AND ELIMINATE THE NEGATIVE!!!
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Now to Gaetano's Remarks:

I agree wholeheartedly about opposing the "Ostrich in the Sand" mentality, and Jeffrey misses the point too.

No endless recalling of our glorious heritage will outdo the negatives that daily pour into our living rooms and those of everyone else.

We see a reflection that eventually worms its way into not only our minds, so that we suffer a loss of self esteem and sense of security and equality after a while, but it worms its way into the consciousness of innocent children whose minds are so malleable.

The people who perpetrate this bigotry and defamation against us may be ignorant of Ovid, Dante, and even Fermi, but telling them about it would achieve nothing. The Sopranos, Sharks Tale, The Medicis: Godfathers of the Renaissance, et al are more powerful, direct, immediate, and subliminal images than all the history we might instruct them in.

What knowing about our heritage does is give us the inner strength to pursue our just cause in not wanting to be defamed and misrepresented.

Passive knowing is not enough. Activism is imperative.

In our neighborhood here there will be a celebration of all cultures on Long Island in the form of a theatrical event in which dancers of all cultures will appear. I noted that while every conceivable culture was included, Italian was not.

I put in a call to protest and was told that no Italian group had come to them to be included. I saw the lie in that. No one puts out a production just sitting back and waiting for groups to come and offer to be part of that production.

I put in a call to the Order Sons of Italy, who had a group to contact, and within a half hour it was done. There will now be an Italian dance group appearing.

No amount of awareness or educating the producers in Italian achievement would have done it. The backing of an activist organization called in by an activist did it.

Let's not fall back in a state of false security just because we are aware of our achievements.

I think Il Corriere Della Sera MADE A MISTAKE IN PUBLISHING THAT PATRONIZING ARTICLE.  We don't need the member of a different ethnic group, giving us advice, and instructing us to sit back and lighten up.

If he is so convinced that is an effective strategy, then perhaps Jeffrey Bairstow should first be preaching to his own ethnic/national group, about being passive, rather than trying to lull the Italian community into complacency, rendering us an "easy" target for bigots.

Britain is as anti Italian biased as this country is, as anyone who has spent some time there will tell you.
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ACCENTUATE the Positive, ELIMINATE the Negative!!!!

Speaking out with One Voice against Negative Stereotyping

Italian-American One Voice Coalition is a national network of activists enabling the Italian American community to act as one united voice when dealing with defamation, discrimination and negative stereotyping.

Member organizations provide a liaison with the IA One Voice Coalition to disseminate information to the Italian American community and protest with one voice against each outrage against our heritage, culture and character.

Italian American One Voice - Who We Are

Web Site:

Italian American One Voice Coalition
http://www.italianamericanonevoice.org/iaindex.html