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Stories: Growing up Taylor Street
Taylor Street Archives
Alistaire Cooke: “…a date which will live in infamy.”
Italian Cultural Center, Stone Park Illinois
December 7, 2007 anniversary of Pearl Harbor
The following was submitted to a group of Italian Americans who
saw fit to hold a round table discussion on the experience of Chicago
Italians in WWII. .
“Let me tell you, sir. I’ve seen boys younger than these with their arms
ripped off and their legs torn out. But there is no sight like that of an
amputated spirit…they have no prosthetic for that, you know.”
John Basilone was the only enlisted man in WWII to win both the
Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross…the two highest awards given
by this country for valor under fire? His extraordinary exploits
throughout the South Pacific campaign are documented in the
chronicles of America’s war heroes. The son of immigrant parents,
who found their way here from the shores of southern Italy, Sgt.
Basilone was killed during the invasion of Iwo Jima. He was only one
of the thousands upon thousands of first generation Italian
American warriors who sacrificed life, limb and beyond for their
country.
It is not the words of our enemies that will be remembered…
it is the silence of our friends.
Fast forward to Alistaire Cooke’s nationally televised, America: The
Immigrant, less than 3 decades later. Alistaire Cooke is depicted
drawing names from the files of various immigrant groups at the
Department of Immigration in Washington D.C. From various files
he randomly draws the names of renowned individuals as being
representative of the contributions made by each of their ethnic
groups. For various ethnic groups, Russian Jew, German Jew, Greek,
etc., he choses a Supreme Court Justice, a musical composer, a Vice
President, etc. When he arrived at the file listing the Italian
immigrants, the card he pulled out, as being representative of the
contributions made by Italian Americans, was none other than
Alfonse Capone. Not one voice cried, “Shame!” It is not the words
of our enemies that will be remembered; it is the silence of our
friends. I repeat, “Not one voice cried shame!”
The half- million Italian Americans who served in WWII, from the
beaches of the South Pacific to the skies over Europe, earned their
share of the nation’s highest awards. The Congressional Medal of
Honor was won by no less than two dozen Italian Americans. We
had no airports or bridges named after those Italian American
heroes. Those who made the ultimate sacrifice were simply
memorialized by family and neighbors.
They have no prosthetic for that, you know!
Thousands upon thousands of gold stars hung from the windows in
all of the Little Italies scattered throughout America. One must
wonder what thoughts ran through the minds of those Italian
American mothers who had lost their sons in the struggle to defeat
America’s enemies or had their sons returned to them with their
arms torn out and their legs blown off, when Alistaire Cooke
announced to the world that Alphonse Capone was representative of
the contributions made to America by Italian immigrant. They have
no prosthetic for that, you know!
No other emigrant group, no other ethnic group, had been so
maligned, so vilified by the media as the Italian American emigrant.
The power of the media rivals that of any force created by man. It
played the dominant role in putting to death two men (Sacco and
Venzetti)…executed even after others had confessed to the crime of
which they had been accused. The media also played a dominant
role in the New Orleans lynching of Italian-Americans who were
dragged from their jail cells. For some, the lynching took place
despite their having been found innocent in a court of law. Accounts
of that event depict Negroes, only two decades removed from the
emancipation proclamation, participating in the dreaded lynching.
The power of the media…
On a final note. I have been approached by producers who are intent
on doing a TV documentary on the concepts espoused in the Taylor
Street Archives. They are intent on producing a documentary that
transcends the demographics of the who, when, where, and how of
the Italian immigrant. A documentary that goes beyond the oft
espoused Italian American boasts of family values and family
traditions. I agree with the producers that there is a bigger story
with more historical value that must be told. If Italian Americans
were at the bottom of the educational ladder, then surely there are
greater issues to uncover which have a higher priority than
reminiscing about how we were taught to “save for college.” If
Italian Americans had been excluded from the executive suites, then
there is a larger issue to be explored than the “work ethic” we so
often boast in our writings about the Italian American experience.
The psychological genocide of a people, that media induced plague,
is the unexplored and untold story of the Italian American
immigrant.
And on this memorable day, December 7, 2007, what is of relevance
is why John Basilone
was not mentioned by Alistaire Cooke as being representative of
the contributions made by Italian Americans?.
The producers are in the process of editing their four hour interview
in anticipation of producing a one hour documentary. They plan to
open with back-to-back-to-back/side-by-side-by-side archive footage
to depict:
. 1. Sgt John Basilone, the only enlisted man to have won both the
Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross, our nation’s two highest
awards, being placed in a body bag on the beaches of Iwo Jima. Just
months before the end of that war. A war that produced our
‘greatest generation.”
2. Alistaire Cooke’s comment from America: The Immigrant; and
3. An Italian American neighborhood with its share of gold stars
hanging in the windows of the homes of those Italian American
emigrants that he, Alistaire Cooke, maligned when he deduced, in a
nationally televised program, that Alphonse Capone was
representative of their contributions to America.
Per our shared vision, the narrator will merge the scenes into an
opening statement…an opening salvo, if you will. How ironic that
the ethnic heritage of the producers is other than Italian American.
Go figure!
Conclusion: Our writers have done a magnificent job in
documenting the journey of the Italian American emigrants. Our
writers have memorialized the demographics of our people in
various chronicles. Evidence of our “family values” and “work
ethics” have been well documented by our writers. Our writers have
done a great job on the demographics of: who, where, when, why,
and how. What is now of relevance is the media induced
psychological genocide. A holocaust which, in part, was responsible
for a Federal study (1975) identifying that Italian Americans, as
measured by enrollment in college, were at the lowest rung of the
educational ladder of all European ethnic groups. A people who
spring from the loins of the Caesars, Michaelangelos, Medicis, Da
Vincis, etc. And on this memorable day, December 7, 2007, what is of
greater relevance is, what part did that same media induced
holocaust play in ignoring the likes of a John Basilone when Alistaire
Cooke decided who to depict as being representative of the
contributions made by Italian Americans?. Queste e cosa nostra!
Vincent Romano
Taylor Street Archives. com
Vromano2005@yahoo.com
312-443-6240