Ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani shames his Italian American heritage by hosting AMC's 'Mob Week'

Published: New York Daily News, August 1, 2011

Have you no sense of decency, Rudy? At long last, sir, have you no shame?

In hosting "Mob Week," AMC's ode to cinematic capos, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani fetishizes organized crime, debases the American political system and vilifies his Italian heritage.

This is offal we must refuse.

Though Peggy Noonan roundly condemned candidate Giuliani for coarsening the 2008 presidential campaign with his lurid don Vito Corleone persona, America's Mayor continues to perpetuate the "Godfather"-"Goodfellas"-"Sopranos" stereotype.

And now he is getting publicity from such intolerance.

Rather than formulating economic solutions to lower our 9.2% unemployment rate, Rudy waxes nostalgic about the thuggish onscreen antics of Tinseltown's primal-scream thespians: Bobby De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino.

Instead of lauding an ancestral homeland that gave the world the Pax Romana, jurisprudence, the Renaissance and modern science, Rudy fixates on the lurid underworld of Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.

Hizzoner appears to be forgetting the millions of patriotic Italian Americans who served valiantly in our nation's wars. This list includes chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sergeants, colonels and air aces: John Basilone, Dominic Gentile, Louis Zamperini, Henry Mucci, Tony Zinni, Peter Pace, Ray Odierno and Salvatore Giunta (a recent Medal of Honor recipient).

Heck, even Captain America - that is, actor Chris Evans - boasts Italian ancestry. His uncle is Rep. Mike Capuano of Massachusetts.

But embracing one's roots requires knowledge, pride and a rejection of ethnic self-loathing.

Fiorello La Guardia remained true to his patrimony throughoutthe dark days of the Great Depression and World War II. As did Securities and Exchange Commission pioneer Ferdinand Pecora. Unlike Giuliani, they understood that our tripartite system of government, America's founding principles and the U.S. Constitutionall derive from the Roman Republic.

And these scions of Italy faithfully adhered to Filippo Mazzei's maxim, which is enshrined in the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal."

Why can't Rudy Giuliani?

Rosario A. Iaconis,
Chairman,
The Italic Institute of America,
Mineola, NY, US