Wednesday,
September 12, 2007
Rudy Giuliani's Mafia Jargon and Antics
Deters Italian Voters
The
ANNOTICO Report
As a preface, Rudy Giuliani, shows such
poor judgment toward Italian Americans, it causes me to question his general
qualifications, and it appears that by voting for him, I would be voting
against my Italian Heritage. I might as well vote for David Chase, the
Soprano's creator.
How
are Italian Americans better off with Giuliani in Office.,
when he Not only ENDORSES Negative Italian American Depictions, but
ENGAGES in them!!!!
We
are therefore only telling the rest of
Newsday.com
By Rosario A. Iaconis
September
11, 2007
Rosario
A. Iaconis is vice chairman of The
Italic Institute of America, which promotes Italian culture and is based in
Just as some
firefighters and relatives of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, don't want
Rudolph Giuliani giving a reading at today's Ground Zero ceremony, the man who
would be Churchill is in danger of becoming persona non grata within his own
ethnicity.
Despite a distinguished career as a crime-busting federal prosecutor (in
the great Roman classical tradition of jurisprudential excellence), two terms
as mayor of the country's most heavily Italian-American city and a lifelong
admiration for his predecessor Fiorello LaGuardia, Giuliani has turned his back on his Italian
roots. Giuliani plays the dumbed-down-Italian card
with gusto.
While campaigning on the West Coast earlier this year, "
Is this political theater, ethnic self-loathing or both?
Whatever the reason - his
heart or his handlers - it is self-defeating. In a nation with nearly 25
million Americans of Italian descent - many of whom are swing voters in the battleground states of
In the Northeastern states of
Perhaps Giuliani feels he can take Italian-American voters for granted by
virtue of the tell-tale vowel at the end of his surname. But why trifle
with the country's fourth-largest white ethnic group? On what position
paper is it written that Giuliani must wallow in the muck and mire of Mafia
mythos?
Why can't he identify himself as a proud Italian in the same manner that
Ronald W. Reagan and John F. Kennedy jauntily called themselves Irishmen?
Michael Dukakis invoked the ideals of ancient
Why can't Giuliani speak of his Italian origins, and
of
There was a glimmer of hope when he journeyed to
Instead, we hear this: When asked about his wife Judith's role in a Giuliani
administration, he couldn't resist reverting to form: "I am a candidate. She's
a civilian, to use the old Mafia distinction." When queried about
Hillary Clinton's vile Internet spoof of the "Sopranos" finale, he
responded with a question of his own: "Think she's trying to get the
Mafia vote?"
Peggy Noonan, one of President Ronald Reagan's favorite speechwriters and a
New Yorker to the bone, has a wry take on these tawdry proceedings: "Can't
have enough candidates for president who whimsically employ the language of
mobsters."
Mario Cuomo, a man who surely missed his rendezvous with destiny, knows
full well the dangers posed by anti-Italian intolerance. He witnessed
Geraldine Ferraro's trials as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in
1984. And the
Italo-Americans should not support Giuliani
simply on the basis of ethnic pride. The best advice for both candidate and
voter in 2008 can be found in the words of the ancient Roman statesman, Marcus
Aurelius:
"Treat with utmost respect your power of forming opinions, for this power
alone guards you against making assumptions that are contrary to nature and
judgments that overthrow the rule of reason. It enables you to learn from
experience, to live in harmony with others, and to walk in the way of the gods."
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