Dal Cerro's "Sempre Avanti" covers:
(1)  LAPIANA FIGHTS THE GOOD FIGHT
(2)  A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE- "That's Life"

Please Note the Editorial: FIRST PERSON “The Sopranos Effect” by Paul Basile
at the end. 
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SEMPRE AVANTI
by Bill Dal Cerro

LAPIANA FIGHTS THE GOOD FIGHT

Who says that one man can’t make a difference? In terms of anti-defamation 
activities, that notion is personified by a “local hero,” Chicago’s own 
Anthony LaPiana. Involved with activism over the past 21 years, mostly 
assisting Italian-American candidates in political campaigns, LaPiana’s 
efforts led to the creation, in 1998, of the National Italian American Council, 
a grass-roots organization whose goal is to act as an effective “lobby” in 
national anti-defamation campaigns across the country.

The kicker, for LaPiana, was a 1999 Chicago Sun-Times essay by retired ace 
journalist Raymond Coffey on “Una Storia Segreta” (The Secret History). The 
article spoke about the persecution and civil rights violations against 
Italian Americans during World War II. As LaPiana told this reporter at the 
time, “I  was just stunned. How come I hadn’t heard about this? How come no 
one, not just Italian Americans, had heard about this? This is something that 
could have happened to my own mother, who was an Italian immigrant from 
Tuscany at the time. Larry Di Stasi, a scholar from California, had put a 
great traveling exhibit together on this issue, using old photos and 
newspaper clippings. It was time to let the American public know about this 
story.”

Spoken like a true marketing executive, which LaPiana is when he’s not 
devoting his time and energies to the NIAC. LaPiana immediately sprung into 
action — not only helping the “Una Storia Exhibit” come to Chicago, but, 
more importantly, sparking local political leaders into holding hearings on 
this issue. Thanks to LaPiana’s frequent meetings with Congressman Henry 
Hyde, disaster was narrowly averted at several turns and the Wartime 
Violation of Italian-American Civil Liberties Act was passed. LaPiana 
testified at hearings held in late 1999, lashing out at the “Hollywood 
bigots” who continue to perpetuate negative images of Italian-American 
culture.

LaPiana’s statement is in keeping with the goal of NIAC, which is to “change 
the social perceptions of the way the American public views Italian 
Americans.” Now boasting some 200 activists around the country, the NIAC has 
shown leadership on issues such as the defending of the Columbus Day parade 
in Denver Chicago  production of a half-hour talk show, “Taking Sides,” on 
Chicago cable access channel 19. The monthly show features interviews and/or 
profile pieces with leaders of the Italian-American community: a pioneering 
effort that “allows us to have a real voice in the media,” says LaPiana.

LaPiana sees progress on the anti-defamation front, but cautions that 80 
years of endless stereotyping has created a formidable enemy.

“I truly believe that as a community we must fight negative stereotyping 
every day if we are going to advance to a level where the Italian-American 
community receives the respect that it deserves,” he notes. “There are so 
many good things in the community that go unnoticed. We shouldn’t be shy 
about promoting our heritage. I have found over the years that many Italian 
Americans, both young and old, are too often denied the opportunity to, or 
not even willing to, express themselves fully. The NIAC offers a progressive, 
alternative approach to fighting defamation. We are dedicated to the 
advancement of Italian Americans at every level of our society — socially, 
economically and politically.”

For more information on the NIAC and its programs, call 630-415-1817.

A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE
Let us now praise a woman who’s making a difference: Diane Ruggiero, the 
creator of the new CBS comedy-drama “That’s Life.” Ms. Ruggiero is a 
fiercely proud Italian-American woman who has used her position of influence 
to combat “stereotypes that would be demeaning to Italian Americans or New 
Jersey,” her home state. She did exactly that in a recent episode, when the 
show’s 30-something protagonist, Lydia DeLuca, a part-time waitress and 
full-time college student, refused to play a bit part in a mob movie, even 
though the $1,000 payment would’ve eased the strain of her financial 
situation. It was clearly a dig at HBO’s “The Sopranos,” and Ms. Ruggiero is 
to be saluted for her quiet, dignified way of confronting the issue. Brava!

CBS has been fiddling around with the time schedule of “That’s Life” — 
first on Fridays, then on Saturdays — but the show is slowly gaining a larger 
audience. In the meantime, activists around the country have begun a massive 
grass-roots e-mail campaign — not only to promote the show but to promote Ms. 
Ruggiero, one of the few Italian Americans on television who’s doing 
something positive. Let her know how you appreciate her efforts.

The Web site is www.cbs.com/primetime/that’s life/. You can also, of course, 
send individual letters in care of CBS Television. The address is listed on 
the Web site.

Andiamo! (Let’s Go!) 

FIRST PERSON

“The Sopranos Effect”

by Paul Basile

A pathogen has been loosed upon the land and its spores have been carried 
into every household in America. It’s a condition that addles the mind, 
deluding its victims into thinking that vulgarity is cool, that racism and 
misogyny are cuddly, that brutality is chic, and that immorality is art. 
Though a cure is readily available, most victims don’t even realize they’ve 
been infected, celebrating the symptoms as if they were signs of good health.

Though the disease has been around for decades, it has mutated into a new and 
far more virulent strain, which is being spread throughout society in the 
most predictable and unlikely ways. Its breeding ground is the HBO hit 
series, “The Sopranos,” and for lack of an official medical term, I’d like 
to dub this malaise of the soul “The Sopranos Effect.”

It says something truly sad about our nation that one of our most popular TV 
series features a bunch of guys who eat, drink and smoke to excess; carry big 
wads of cash around; verbally, physically and sexually abuse their women; and 
steal, extort, pummel and kill for fun and profit. But you have to hand it to 
the folks who infect our homes with “The Sopranos” every week: They have 
come up with an extremely contagious formula.

The show is so well written, produced, directed and acted — and it is so 
shrewdly infused with our community’s great passion for food, family and life 
— that it makes Tony Soprano and his band of merry thugs seem like the 
in-crowd. Thanks to “The Sopranos,” it has never been more hip to be morally 
bankrupt. When you combine that with America’s longstanding love affair with 
outlaws of one sort or another, it’s no wonder that “The Sopranos Effect” 
has spread like an epidemic across the country.

And because the show is by and about Italian Americans, one of the 
unfortunate side effects of “The Sopranos Effect” is that it reinforces our 
country’s assumption that “Italian American” is synonymous with “organized 
crime.” Why else would so many high school and college students so 
consistently associate our community with criminality and depravity, 
according to surveys large and small, conducted in recent months?

In some cases, the carriers of this disease are the actors of “The Sopranos” 
themselves. Whether they are popping up on “Hollywood Squares” or “Sesame 
Street,” hawking wares for Wickes Furniture or the Milk Advisory Board, 
appearing in the pages of Newsweek and the New York Times, handing out honors 
at television awards ceremonies, or fielding questions at toney symposia, 
cast members have served as an army of Typhoid Marys, spreading the contagion 
into every corner of the land.

In one particularly virulent bit of self promotion, cast members performed in 
a commercial on HBO about what a big, happy family they all are: That is, of 
course, when the camera isn’t rolling and they’re swearing a blue streak and 
beating each other’s skulls in with golf clubs.

At his point, however, the cast could be quarantined for the duration of the 
show’s run and the pathogen would still spread. Because now, everybody wants 
to get into the act. Companies as diverse as Wrigley, Lycos.com, Pepsi, AT&T 
and Budweiser have all produced commercials with Sopranos-style actors and 
themes. And just last month, both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times 
wrote, ad nauseum, about a murder allegedly committed 17 years ago by an 
Italian American, giving the story better placement and coverage than 
articles about the mayoral debates, sexual abuse among priests and the 
disposition of nuclear waste in Illinois. “This case reads like a Hollywood 
plot,” one prosecutor enthused outside the courtroom after the arraignment. 

Indeed it does. But I, for one, would feel a little bit better if the media 
and law enforcement communities were to spend as much time and enthusiasm on 
the organized crime that is ravaging our African-American and Hispanic 
communities today, rather than grabbing headlines (and spreading the disease) 
by resurrecting a crime allegedly committed nearly two decades ago by a lone 
Italian American.

I’m happy to say that not everybody has succumbed to this illness. When the 
producers of “The Sopranos” asked the state of New Jersey for permission to 
film a murder sequence on public land, the Garden State just said “No,” 
sending their fictional native sons packing. And Opera Colorado enjoyed a 
speedy recovery after a flurry of letters by Italian-American activists, 
canceling a vocal performance by cast member Dominic Chianese at a recent 
fund raiser.

Like most epidemics, “The Soprano Effect” will eventually run its course. In 
fact there are some promising signs. Demoralized by the show’s relentless 
violence and dismayed by invitations from friends to speak to their 
children’s kindergarten classes, “Sopranos” star James Gandolfini recently 
confessed that he will soon be moving on. That’s all well and good. 
Unfortunately, even when the breeding ground does dry up, the symptoms will 
linger for years to come.