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Sacco & Vanzetti: who were they?

Novem

bre 20

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www.Oreg

onTusca

ns.com

Next Mtg:Sun., Nov. 15, 3:30pm

Carvlin HallUpcoming meeting:

Dec. 20

……....…………….…… 2Jimmie, part 2 ……….……………………………………..…....………..…..…… 3Italian news on the Internet …..………………….....………..….…… 4

Dal PresidenteA history lesson Nov. 15by Jimmie MogliaPresident

(see REMEMBERING, page 2)

At our meeting this Sunday, Nov. 15, I willgive a presentation on Sacco and Vanzetti, thetwo Italian anarchists executed in the electricchair in Massachusetts in 1927, for a crimethey did not commit. Their names aregradually fading into forgotten history. Yet,Sacco and Vanzetti are historically importantfor reasons only in part related to anarchism.

Their story enables us to examine thephenomenon of immigration (and particularlyof Italian immigration), from a somewhatdifferent point of view – different from thestandard clichés, which concentrate almostexclusively on economic factors. In fact,economic and ideological perceptions andconsiderations were inextricably intertwined –

by Ken Kane

On Nov. 15 at 3:30pm in Carvlin Hall, 2408 SE 16th Av.in Portland, Jimmie Moglia will delve into the case ofSacco and Vanzetti. This might have been the mostnotorious trial of the early 20th Century … at least until thetime of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.

For many, the trial of the two radical Italian immigrantswas as infamous as the deed of which they were accused:murdering two men during an armed robbery in SouthBraintree, Mass., in 1920. Seven years of legal wranglingand appeals occurred before the pair was finally executedfor their alleged deeds.

The conduct of the original trial was called into questionalmost as soon as Judge Webster Thayer’s final gavelsounded. A Sacco and Vanzetti defense fund kept theappeal process going while original testimony was recantedand new evidence pointing to other perpetrators came forth.

No less distinguished a legal expert than future SupremeCourt Justice Felix Frankfurter thought the verdict a wassham … though Frankfurter used more legal, and slightlyless emphatic, language. His thoughts were published in alengthy article in the March 1927 issue of The Atlantic, amonth before the defendants were executed. Here is oneexample of Frankfurter’s analysis of the original 1921 trial.It reflects his overall feelings about its quality of justice:

(see TRIAL, page 4)

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di Carlo Ilio MannocciNon si registrano scossoni, solo malumori (cosaall’ordine del giorno nella vita italiana)specialmente riguardanti il futuro del riacquistodella cittadinanza italiana per coloro che sonoemigrati all’estero e che per varie ragioni hannoperduto la cittadinanza italiana.

Il Parlamento ha volutamente evitato di valutareproposte di legge che avrebbero consentito laRIAPERTURA del riacquisto della cittadinanzaper coloro che per motivi varii NON avevanousufruito della apposita legge in vigore dal 1992al 1997.

La nuova legge approvata beneficia solo i nuoviemigrati in Italia, sia concedendo la cittadinanzaper nascita (Icon qualche limite) sia per residenza(specialmente rivolta ai piu’ giovani). Grandedisappunto per migliaia di italiani che speravanonel rinnovo della legge e che adesso credono di essere solo un peso per la terra di origine.

Remembering the trial and travails of Sacco, Vanzetti and Italian immigrants on Nov. 15

neglected to thank the kind ladies who providedrefreshments, snacks and cookies. Which I do now –thank you!

See you Sunday, Nov. 15, at 3.30pm, at Carvlin Hall,

(continued from page 1)that may also apply to families of the members of ourAssociation, when they emigrated to America.

At our meeting last month, Prof. Silvia Boero describedthe Italian political-social situation in Italy during the1970s – a time of turmoil and terrorism. There wereterrorist attacks from the Left and from the Right, onmasses and individuals – culminating in theassassination of Aldo Moro, leader of the majorityChristian Democracy Party.

Massive research on the murder, its executors andinstigators, has not removed the overall perception –that it was a pre-emptive strike to prevent the inclusionof the then still-active Communist Party in government.In some way, the event parallels the assassination ofPresident Kennedy.

Prof. Boero also showed some scenes from an Italianmovie of the period, by the long and intriguing title ofLa Mazurka del Barone, della Santa e del Fico Fiorone(The Mazurka of the Baron, of the Saint and of theFlowering Fig-tree). Mazurka, perhaps, is (was), morepopular in Italy than elsewhere – it was originally aPolish dance, a kind of waltz, but faster.

Located in the region of Romagna, the movie could bedescribed as an allegory and satire of a mode of thoughtprevailing in Italy at the time, and notably in Romagna.The movie is available online athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8cKMRuDoPYThere are no English subtitles, but Italian gestures,expressions and body language are a reasonablesubstitute.

Ever prone to forget the essential, at our last meeting I

, a mural by Ben Shahn, at Syracuse University in N.Y., a mural by Ben Shahn, at Syracuse University in N.Y.

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by Ken Kane(Author’s note: This is the finalinstallment of the article I wrotefor L’Italo Americano over thesummer about our clubpresident, Jimmie Moglia.)

William Shakespeare didn’t say it,but he could have: Insipidationinstills inspiration. Well, he mighthave said it if…

1) insipidation was actually aword, and

2) he’d had the chance to meet Jimmie Moglia.

When we left Jimmie, the Rhinestone Renaissance Boy,last time, he was hopscotching the Atlantic, to attend one

interminably insipid work meeting afteranother … after another. At first

the workplacestate of affairs– perhaps itshould becalled aworkplace staleof affairs –frustrated him.

But eventually itinspired him to write his 1,400-page reference book YourDaily Shakespeare. The weighty tome which, at three-and-a-half pounds, Jimmie wryly concedes “doubles asan elegant paperweight,” cites hundreds of quotationsfrom the Bard. They are presented as rejoinders for10,000 everyday situations – including ways to extricateoneself from boring work meetings.

It took 15 years for Jimmie to distill Shakespeare’s 37plays into snippets of elucidation and observation, thenfigure out how to index and cross-reference thequotes and situations. “Muchof the work wasn’t writing,but it was compiling to makethe book useful and easy forpeople to use,” Jimmieexplained.

Soon after starting work on thebook, in the late 1980s, Jimmieleft his employer to strike out on

Inventor, author, lecturer, cat lover … that’s our Jimmie!his own. While learning thethen-vital computinglanguage BASIC, he had arevelation.

“I had never been very goodat teaching myselfsomething,” Jimmierecalled. “But in this case,my lack of success turnedout to be a good thing.”

However, a pricey thing,too, since his coding

mistakes had to be printed out and proofread to bedetected. That meant he was running through a lot ofdot-matrix ribbon cartridges – expensive cartridges.Jimmie figured there had to be a way around theexpense, but there wasn’t, so he and a partner inventedone: the MacInker.

“The art of our necessities is strange, that can makevile things precious,” is how Jimmie (and King Lear)explained it. Jimmie took the vile used-up ribboncartridges and, using some of his engineeringbackground, created a mechanical device that wouldre-ink the ribbon. It turned out to be a precious thing –and prescient, too, since this was 1984 and the conceptof re-inking computer cartridges is still in use today.Jimmie and the MacInker were featured in a late 1980snews story from which the photos you see on this pagewere taken.

The MacInker led Jimmie to start a technologyaccessories company in Portland, Computer Friends,which he headed until his retirement in 2009. But hehasn’t exactly been sitting around since then. In fact,his insatiable appetite for knowledge and itsdissemination has led to several projects.

To his original book he addeda companion blog (left),YourDailyShakespeare.com,as a means not only to sellthe book but to demonstratehow to illustrate withShakespeare the points onewishes to make. The site isupdated with Jimmie’sunique takes on life,

(see BLOG, page 4)

Jimmie,circa 1988

MacInker

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(continued from page 3)always seen through Bard-colored glasses. A recent postabout French fries had four Shakespearian citations.

Jimmie took the concept of his first book and applied itto Dante’s Divine Comedy. Employing a revisedmethodology, Jimmie proudly said it took “only” threeyears to write. Il Nostro Dante Quotidiano (Your DailyDante), written in Italian, was a project done incollaboration with the Tuscan government. ContactJimmie at jimmie.moglia@gmail.com to purchase acopy.

He’s produced another book, written in Italian andpublished online, which gives Jimmie’s perspective onthe history of the United States. USA e Getta (Use andThrow Away) is available at http://sakeritalia.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/USA-e-Getta.pdf.

He’s got another book in the works which will detailwhat he calls “active reading” and the approach tomemory training called “philosophic painting” which hefirst encountered as a high school student in Genoa.

For the past couple of years, Jimmie has been focusedon a continuing online project called HistoricalSketches, available at https://youtu.be/_8gyol-q87A.After thorough research, he’s produced a series of28-minute lectures on topics ranging from Napoleon toSt. Joseph, and from histories of Gypsies, the Ukraineand slavery in the United States to an event Jimmie calls“a kind of Woodstock of the 15th Century.”

No stranger to Italian readers, nor Italian interviewersfor that matter, Jimmie’s unusual path – including histeenage stint as a shipboard Country & Westerntroubadour on the Mediterranean – begs the question,How famous is he in Italy? “I am remarkablyunknown!” he said, turning to Portia in The Merchant of

Venice to continuethe thought:

“The lottery of mydestiny bars me theright of voluntarychoosing.”

“You cannot say, ‘I’ll do this and I’ll succeed, and I’lldo that and I’ll succeed.’ Because there are so manycomponents and things you cannot control.

“If my ambition were to become famous, then I wouldbe suffering,” he concluded with a wry smile. “But Icouldn’t care less. That’s why I live with a cat!”

Blog offers more of Jimmie, beyond his newsletter columns

(continued from page 1)“The temper of the times made it the special duty of aprosecutor and a court engaged in trying two Italianradicals before a jury of native New Englanders to keepthe instruments of justice free from the infection ofpassion or prejudice. In the case of Sacco and Vanzettino such restraints were respected. By systematicexploitation of the defendants' alien blood, theirimperfect knowledge of English, their unpopular socialviews, and their opposition to the war, the DistrictAttorney invoked against them a riot of politicalpassion and patriotic sentiment; and the trial judgeconnived at—one had almost written, cooperated in—the process.”

Jimmie will remind us of the temper of those times andthe way many Americans looked upon Italianimmigrants during the Roaring Twenties … and howthe conviction and eventual execution of Sacco andVanzetti, and the worldwide attention it garnered, stillinforms us, even 90 years later.

Trial of errors doomed Sacco and Vanzetti

The cruise shiptroubadourtoday

Scanning the Internet newsstand…There are a lot of interesting Italy-related stories and Websites worth a look. For example… For non-subscribers,L’Italo Americano.com provides a briefly posted sampling of the articles that appear in the print and digitalversions of the paper, for example, this current feature on our own Bill Marinelli. Recipes can also be found, likethis one for ribollita. Italian-language stories appear, too, including one on street performers in Naples. If youneed your Italian news in English, check out TheLocal.it, including an article on salami and cancer.

The items on the WeTheItalians.com site tend to have a longer shelf-life. The magazine section has features onFlorence’s Boboli Gardens, a look at Sardinian archaeology, and – most appropriate for our club this month, abrief profile of Sacco & Vanzetti. There’s even a scrumptious-looking recipe for stuffed, skewered sardines.