John Dabbene, president of Staten Island's Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, speaks up against negative images of Italian-Americans and urges others to do the same. 

Dabbene's father taught him young, to politely object to disparaging remarks about his ancestry, which is far more productive than the passive, be a good sport, that my father taught me, and I later abandoned , and met with greater success. 

John Dabbene's Garibaldi-Meucci Museum tells tales of Italian pride - not myths
New York Daily news.com; Clem Richardson, Thursday, August 27th 2009,

John Dabbene, president of Staten Island?s Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, speaks up against negative images of Italian-Americans and urges others to do the same. 
If you see something, say something." That has long been John Dabbene's motto.

For Dabbene, who heads Staten Island's Garibaldi-Meucci Museum and serves as president emeritus of the National Commission for Social Justice, a branch of The Sons of Italy....

It's a rallying cry against negative images of Italians - wherever found. 

Dabbene, 71, has waged the battle - gratis - for much of his life. 

"I have never gotten paid for anything I have done in the last 30 years working for the Italian-American community," he said. "I do this because of my love for my heritage." 

Dabbene, has seen a lot over the years - and what he's said about what he doesn't like has resonated through our culture. 

•In 1982 he persuaded the United States Military Academy at West Point to include Italian in its language program. 
•With members of the Commission on Social Justice he launched a litany of protests against television programs that linked Italian-Americans with organized crime, beginning with Geraldo Riveras 1987 report on "Sons of Scarface - The New Mafia," to opposing plans in 2007 to bring back the "Sopranos" show to HBO. 
•As one of the founding members of the CSJ in 1980, Dabbene led the group's protest of alleged bias against Italian-American faculty members at Queens College in1989. 
•Dabbene began the group's "Positive Image Program," distributing nationally more than 100,000 pamphlets and other items with facts about Italian-Americans. 
•He created a film about Italian-American winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor that earned him a 2004 Telly Award from the cable television industry. 
•He lead the CSJ fight that put the kibbosh on plans for the U.S. Postal Service to issue a "Godfather" stamp as a tribute to Italian-Americans. 
•As president of the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum since 2001, Dabbene organized a total renovation. He also commissioned the creation of several exhibits on Italian heritage that have visited elementary, middle, high schools and colleges. 
The museum is housed in the landmark 420 Tompkins Ave. home that famed Italian military and political leader Giuseppe Garibaldi shared with Antonio Meucci from 1850 to 1854. Meucci and Alexander Graham Bell both lay claim to inventing the telephone. 

Dabbene has won numerous awards, including a "Heroes of Staten Island" award in 2002. Last month the Order of the Sons of Italy presented Dabbene with the Bene Emeritus Award, their highest award, for service to the Italian-American community. 

Dabbene is a walking history book that puts obscure events in context. 

One such event is "Una Storia Segreta," the saga of Italian-Americans who were forced into internment camps in Missoula, Mont., during World War II - similar to Japanese-Americans - for fear they would spy against their country. 

Dabbene was born in Brooklyn and raised on Court St. in what was then Red Hook, but is now considered Carroll Gardens. 

He attended Public School 142, Brooklyn Technical High School, New York Community College and Polytechnic Institute. A certified lighting designer, he created control and alarm systems for Con Edison power stations for 43 years before retiring in 1999. 

"My kids and grandchildren could never understand how we grew up," he said. "We had a four-family house, all our family lived in the same house. We had a 40-foot table down in one of the basements and we always ate together. Every holiday was spent together. People don't do that anymore. 

"I would never give up growing up the way I did." 

His late mother, Josephine, was a housewife and his father, Michael, was a longshoreman fiercely proud of his heritage. 

"My father was and is my hero," Dabbene said, tears spilling from his eyes. 

It was his father who told him to stay away from "those guys," well-dressed guys hanging on the corner who paid Dabbene 50 cents for his usual 5-cent shoeshine. 

Michael Dabbene also taught his son to confront people who disparaged his heritage. 

"The first week or so in high school my mother made me this potato and egg sandwich, with the oil dripping out of the bag," Dabbene said. "I was sitting at a table with three other guys, and a guy said, 'This guy must be a 'guinea.' Look at the sandwich he got.' 

"I had never heard that," Dabbene said. "Nobody would say that in an Italian neighborhood. I went home and told my father. He looked at me like he didn't know what to say. 

"Then he said, 'Don't let anybody call you that again,'" Dabbene said. "'It's not a nice thing.' 

"The next time I was sitting at the table and the guy called me that. I said, 'You know what? I don't want you to call me that anymore.' 

"To my surprise the three guys sitting there said, 'Okay, we won't call you that anymore.' 

"And I said to myself, 'Sometimes you just have to talk up,'" he said. "Sometimes people don't understand what it is that's upsetting." 

Dabbene and wife of 43 years, Marcy, have three children and four grandchildren. 

To learn more about the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, which is holding its annual fund-raiser tomorrow in Roslyn, L.I., see the Web site, http://pub1.andyswebtools.com/cgi-bin/p/
awtp-home.cgi?d=garibaldi-meucci-museum. 

crichardson@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/08/28/
2009-08-28_john_dabbenes_museum_tells_tales_of_italian_pride__not_myths.html
 

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