My Family immigrated to this country from Italy in the early 1900's fleeing a country where along with the seeds of fascism that were being sown, success or failure was a result of class distinction. Upon reaching these shores they learned that the promise of America was not so easily realized by hyphenated Americans, especially Italian-Americans. In the late 19^th and early 20^th century Italian-Americans were considered nonwhite and in some parts of the country were just as likely to be lynched as Black-Americans. In fact the largest mass lynching in American history occurred in 1891 New Orleans, where eleven Italians were hung to the chants of "hang the dagos."

   During WWII Italian-Americans were kept under the governments watchful eye, A few were even interned along with the Japanese. During that time my great-grandfather, a shoemaker, was forced to walk a serpentine route to work for fear of being assaulted in certain neighborhoods. Still my family would not be denied their slice of the American pie, They would eventually buy a home, open a business and sent all of their children to college. My great-uncle Jack would join the Army where he attained the rank of Major. He eventually was offered a mayor’s position in a small German town during the reconstruction.

   My ancestors prospered and despite the tremendous cultural barriers, economic depression and the uncertainty of WWII, they were determined to weave themselves into the fabric of American society and not just exist on the frayed edges. They did not look to the government to justify or acknowledge their place in society through special laws or handouts. When time were tough they turned to each other, they shared both success and failure, not because of government mandates but because family was at the core of their values and they had a determined ambition for the benefits of liberty. They passed those values onto subsequent generations and we have prospered thanks to their heavy lifting.

   This is just a microcosm of the Italian-American experience and one that may not be possible in the racist environment advanced by the progressive liberal establishment that infests the politics and government of America today. Sonya Sotomayor is the embodiment of racism in its purest form. In 2001 Sotomayor said "Our experience as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration of impartiality is just that an aspiration, because it denies the fact that we are by our experience making different choices than others." This is fundamentally racist, it presumes that race dictates identity and character, That values and judgements are a result not of intellectual assessment of a situation, but how it relates to or affects ones genitalia.

  The Idea that certain ethnic groups deserve empathy or special consideration by the court or government is not only absurd but dangerous. Who is it that determines the recipients of this empathy, and wouldn’t the focus of such empathy arbitrarily change according to whoever is applying it? This makes for an extremely unstable system of law and a society that is not subject to that law but changing whims of whomever holds the reigns of power at the time.

  This mentality is most damaging to the children in our public schools, who are bludgeoned by a curriculum of multicuturalism and diversity which instils the insidious fraudulent equation: skin color = identity. This waters down if not destroys their ability to grasp the concept of the individual’s natural rights, by presenting and portraying people as part of genetic groups. This also destroys self esteem because their identity becomes chained to a collective, at the same time fostering a belief that ones success or failure is the direct result of someone or something other than you.

  Sonya Sotomayor is the crystallization of the progressive liberal view and mission, which is not to unite or advance American civil society, but to shred it into a pile of balkanized tattered rags.

Anthony D Dolpies