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The Italian of the Year Award
Rudolph William Giuliani
Born May 28, 1944
Sometimes called "a priest in pinstripes" because he was always a tough lawyer, prosecuter, but always on the side of rightiousness. But in the wake of the tragedy that occurred on September 11, 2001 emerged a true hero. New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as David Letterman stated "is the personification of what courage is". Know for his hard edged politics and "love it or leave it" attitude for those who complained about New York, Mayor Giuliani suddenly seems very composed, very mellow, but very focused. Without once even flinching it seems, he swung into action to get New York back on his feet.
Almost 2 months to the date, another jet American Airlines passenger jet goes down over a heavily-populated area of Queens carrying 252 people, crew included. A CNN reporter notes that Rudolph Giuliani is on the scene "Cool, calm, and collective, as usual". For those in other parts of the country who don't know of Mayor Giulianani (at least not the way we know him here in NYC), he would appear to be a man without emotion, almost cold, but we know its simply not the case. He is a man with great caring, sincerity, emotion, even if he often comes off with a hard edge, he is a humanitarian, not a militant leader who acts or reacts without emotion. God how I would hate to be his shrink. While I am not sure this man even sees a shrink, he is obviously a man of higher caliber than we often see in this day and age. When we see our own President Bush shed a tear, but yet Giuliani, visibly is not 'himself' and appears as if he has no sleep in days (as is the consensus), this is a man not just worthy of Mayor of the world's largest and most prominent city, but a man who is worthy of much more. It would even seem that he is over-qualified to be President of the United States someday. Many may laugh (some would even scoff, but even those who opposed him like Former Mayor Ed Koch) have revised their feelings/comments and admire a man of who appears to have super-human composure in the most dire, most extreme, most tragic of situations and circumstances. Again, many will question this, but those who live in NYC and the areas surrounding who commute into NYC, will note that the city has changed, for the better, regardless of those who even have called him "Rudy Mussolini", this man, even if he retires today, is no Mussolini, not a Garibaldi, but a Caesar (as in Julius). A man who has enemies, but a man whom even his enemies admire. This is a man who does not come about every 100 years, but perhaps only once ever 1000 years. To think we over-glorify such a man is to underestimate who he really is.
Perfect? Hardly, and no, Giuliani is not the only hero here, we know there are over 10,000 which would include the victims, those who helped others get out of the Twin Towers before they fell before themselves, and of course the firefighters and police officers and countless others who perished and those who went on to help when the destruction was mostly over. Police from New Jersey and Long Island; Firefighters from Sacramento; the list goes on forever.
But "Rudy Mussolini" as many have called him, never made any angry threats. He always leaves us guessing. When the last NY Governor elections took place, he crossed party lines and endorsed democrat Mario Cuomo over his own republican party candidate George Pataki. Cuomo lost but Giuliani still approached him with a smile and a big hug, almost gleefully at his concession speech, while most would have been no where to be found or at the very least shaking in their shoes.
Today, you find no evidence of that episode between Giuliani and Pataki. They operate like old college buddies. But they had broken that ice a long time ago when they both appeared on Saturday Night Live to host the show with a humorous angle.
But this is not about politics, and regardless of what happened before, those who really know Giuliani love him and know he has guts. He has taken on the mafia, the drug dealers, crime and anyone who has gotten in the way of him doing things in the "old school" fashion. Not always politically correct, but then again, its refreshing in this day of waffling overly-politically correct politicians who speak out of both sides of their mouths to get elected.
But finally we will spare you the bio you can find at nyc.gov and just simply say that of all people that could have been mayor of any major city, here in New York we thank God it was Giuliani.
Who do you think should be the SicilianCulture.com 2002 Italian of the Year?
Other Links to Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph Giuliani Biograpy From SicilianCulture.com
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- February 19,
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