Monday, November 13, 2006

"Fuggedaboudit" Gives Fermi a Splitting Headache

The ANNOTICO Report

 

The "Guts" of this well written article is:

 

"Middle school is where kids are supposed to learn what's great about America, about the contributions and achievements of every race and ethnic group. They can watch "The Sopranos" at home (If their parents think it's appropriate).

"I am an American, but when people put that label on us -- the fuggedaboudit label -- they turn us into cartoon characters," Bill Dal Cerro states. "They are taking away my American identity. It's a way of saying, 'You're not our equal as Americans. You're still the village idiot."

Could the guy be more right?             Stereotypes are over the top

BUT There is More Great Irony: Batavia is known around the world for one thing: the atom-splitting Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. When you think of Batavia, you think of Enrico Fermi,  Why doesn't the school do a play about Fermi?

Because that would require a thoughtful decision by the adults at the Rotolo School.  .........Fuggedaboudit.

 

Enrico Fermi Has a Splitting Headache

School play about mobsters don't know from atom

Chicago Sun Times

By TOM McNAMEE

Sun Times Columnist

November 13, 2006

Ben the Pizza Man lived across the street from me when I was growing up. Before noon six days a week, he would step outside looking clean and fresh, walk down the block to 79th Street, unlock the door on his little storefront pizza joint and proceed to toil like a Roman slave for the next 13 hours.

He would make the sauce, mix the dough, shred the cheese. He would shove pizzas in and out of a scorching oven. He would strip to his T-shirt and drip with sweat.

The word around the neighborhood was that Ben the Pizza Man was connected -- his silent partner was the mob. This had to be, I suppose, because he was Sicilian.

Then Ben the Pizza Man moved to a bigger space on 95th Street, with a full restaurant menu, and now everybody just knew -- he had to be connected. Which is what I told my dad.

"The other kids say Ben gets money from mobsters," I said, "and that's why he's doing so well."

My old man gave me a look.

"The other kids are wrong," he said. "Ben's doing well because he works like a machine. Don't listen to other kids. What do kids know?"

I got to thinking about this while reading the news last week of a really stupid little flap, once again involving Italian-American stereotypes, playing out at a middle school in Batavia.

It seems the Rotolo Middle School plans to put on a play this weekend called "Fuggedaboudit: A Little Mobster Comedy," and a lot of Italian Americans -- surprise, surprise -- are offended.

How about a play, they ask, about drunken Irishmen? Or dumb Poles? Or lazy Mexicans?

The play was written by a teacher at the school, Matthew Myers, and is to be performed by a student cast, "The Bada Bing Players."

Ho ho.

It will tell the story of "Mama Mia Caprese, the mudda of Joey and Gino, who works in the kitchen and likes to whack things."

Ho ho ha.

And it will include a couple of grouchy but lovable mobsters who stir things up. One mobster plays with knives and can cook only prison food.

Ho ho ha ha ha.

For this, good Italian Americans like Ben the Pizza Man worked their lives away?

Listen to me, young children of Rotolo Middle School. The adults in your school are wrong. Don't listen to the adults. What do the adults know?

Apparently not much.

The mob is real

Before I begin sounding all politically correct, let me be clear about something: The Italian-American mob is real, and thank God for it. Otherwise Martin Scorsese never would have made my second-favorite movie, "GoodFellas."

The mob isn't what it used to be, but it's still kicking (and thieving and conniving) and that's just something Italian Americans have to deal with, the way the Irish have to deal with drunks on St. Patrick's Day.

I say this because every time I write about somebody like Al Capone or John Gotti, I get letters from irate Italian Americans accusing me of dredging up old stereotypes. They wonder why I don't write about, say, Guy Lombardo.

As if a movie about Guy Lombardo could be half as good as "GoodFellas." .....

But it's one thing to admit the ugly truth of the old Italian mob or to be a fan of "GoodFellas."

It's another to put on a play in a public school for a bunch of kids called "Fuggedaboudit: A Little Mobster Comedy."

Middle school is where kids are supposed to learn what's great about America, about the contributions and achievements of every race and ethnic group. They can watch "The Sopranos" at home.

"I am an American, but when people put that label on us -- the fuggedaboudit label -- they turn us into cartoon characters," Bill Dal Cerro told me Friday. "They are taking away my American identity. It's a way of saying, 'You're not our equal as Americans. You're still the village idiot.' "

Could the guy be more right?

Stereotypes are over the top

I called the Rotolo School twice, but nobody called me back, which is too bad. Because I'd like to hear their side of the story for myself.

From what I've read, though, they think their critics are overly excitable.

All the Bada Bing stereotypes are so completely silly and over the top, they say, that nobody could take them seriously. And by the end of the play, the two gangsters are nice guys.

So where's the harm?

"Um, well, they're making fun of Italian Americans for three-quarters of the play," says Anthony Baratta, president of the Illinois branch of the Sons of Italy in America. "The two mobsters give back to the community, but they were stealing from the community all along."

Baratta's group has started an e-mail campaign to protest and boycott the play, and he said they may file a civil rights suit.

I hope they don't file the suit, and if they do I hope it goes nowhere. The way to solve this problem is not to suppress free speech.

[Tom! Tom! Tom!  Hmmm sounds like the beat of a War Drum, But I diverge. 

If someone portrays YOU as a Child Molesting Pervert, you don't DEBATE THEM!!!  You either Hit them upside the head with a base ball bat, or You SUE!!!!!!!!

The Right of Free Speech DOES NOT include the Right to DEFAME people, or to Portray them in an Scurrilous Manner!!!!] 

The way to solve this problem is to debate and ridicule -- and I'm doing my best.

The irony, Dal Cerro says, is that Batavia is known around the world for one thing: the atom-splitting Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

"When you think of Batavia, you think of Enrico Fermi," he says. "Why doesn't the school do a play about Fermi?"

Because that would require a thoughtful decision by the adults at the Rotolo School.

Fuggedaboudit.

Tom McNamee's "The Chicago Way" column runs Mondays in the Sun-Times.

 

School Principal Donald McKinney: don.mckinney@bps101.net 

School District Superintendent Jack Barshinger:  jack.barshinger@bps101.net

 

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