So What’s The Point?

Last fall, the organizers of the Columbus Day Parade, in New York City, took great umbrage because the Mayor invited two cast members from the T.V. show, “The Sopranos” to march with him in the parade. This great indignation felt by the organizers was because the show stereotypes Italians in a negative way. Hmmm. Let’s think about this for a minute. The show basically illustrates life in the mob. Well, we all know that “ The Mob’’ really exists. Perhaps not as affluently or influentially as years ago, what with the crime-busting efforts of the government, and the many details exposed by a number of former mobsters, but it still exists. They say the show depicts most of the mobsters to be of Italian descent. What’s the issue? Most of the so-called Mafia WAS of Italian descent. We DID learn in high school that Sicily is considered to be part of Italy. By the way, I should mention here that my wife of 35 years is Italian, lest readers get the wrong idea. In fact, we celebrate Christmas ( in a laic way ) because I like Italian food better than the Jewish food at Chanukah.
Anyway---enough about that.
Now the story gets better. The parade organizers want to be factual. (They maintain that the parade should honor all the honest, hard-working, creative, inventive, and so forth and so on. ) But here’s the rub:
Columbus acknowledges nailing a ducat ( gold coin ) to the mast as a prize to the first crew member to discover land.Guess what? It was Rodrigo de Triana.
AND HE WAS PORTUGUESE!!!
( Credit to Larry Cale of Woodbury for this information. )

So maybe the Portuguese should organize a Triana Day Parade; I’m guessing they won’t care who gets invited. Back to the T.V. show.
I think the parade organizers missed the most important point: it’s JUST A SHOW. And a T.V. show has absolutely no reflection on real live Italians.
And, the actors are just trying to make a living, much as you and I try to do every day. And, they were invited by the mayor as friends, and supporters of New York City. Any of you watch The Shield? Personally, I don’t care for the show,
but that’s not the point. One show about a rogue cop is not an indictment against all of the good cops.
And then---to really drive home how ridiculous the whole situation was, the mayor was asked to UNINVITE the actors. Now really! It wasn’t even worth all the print in the newspapers. Personally, I applaud hizzoner for uninviting himself. He took his friends to lunch instead---at an Italian restaurant. Now that’s funny.
So what’s the point? The point is---in my opinion---get a life.
I truly have no patience for small minded people, and in my opinion, this is a very small-minded issue.

Pithy comments? Questions? Need me to say it for you?

E-Mail: Inmyopinion@sbcglobal.net

Rock