9/11, Italian-American Heritage, and National Unity

0:00 Speaker 1 9-11 weekend. Well, with us today is Angelo Vivalo, and he is a chairman and president of the Columbus Heritage Coalition. And you were with us on Friday night when we had the big 9-11 event. And tell us how you feel and how a lot of your Italian friends feel.

0:23 Speaker 2 Well, first and foremost, John, I must thank you and Margot for putting on the most incredible event. I think people will be talking about it for years. As far as 9-11 is concerned, it’s been a tough couple of days just thinking about it. 25 years ago, but for me, it was like yesterday. I can’t get that tragedy out

0:44 of my mind. And I hope that the young people who weren’t alive at that time and even those who were too young will always remember what happened in our country at that time. And my heart, of course, goes out to those families that lost their precious loved ones on that incredible tragedy. With them, it’s every day for

1:12 25 years. It’s not just 9-11 as it is for so many. But I just hope that the young people in our country realize what happened here. Italian Americans, well, you know, we love this country, we love God, and we love family. And we feel very much about those poor people who, not only who perished, but the people

1:36 who survived. And we hope that the feelings on 9-12, when our country came together, the people in our city, I remember so well what happened here in Manhattan during that time, how people were out in the streets and just being so loving to one another and supporting one another.

1:58 I really hope and pray that our country can come back to those feelings without having a tragedy, without having something so crazy and so incredible happening. I hope that people can have common sense and come together in support of our great country and make it even better going forward.

2:18 And that’s myself personally, and I’m sure on behalf of my great Italian-American family.

2:29 Speaker 1 Angelo, we’ve been close friends for years now, and I was involved with Bill Fugazi at the Ellis Island Foundation and Lee Iacocca, two other fine Italian Americans, and I think Bill Fugazi was a little bit part Irish too.

2:49 And we all work together, and we believe in immigration, and we want more immigration. But I separated the fact, the difference between immigration and migration. We don’t want people that want to come to America to change our way of life. When you come through Ellis Island, when you came to America... You saluted the flag of the United States.

3:13 You saluted the Constitution of the United States. And now we’re getting people that are migrants that are just invading us and want to change our way of life. Any personal feelings on that?

3:27 Speaker 2 Well, of course, I can speak on behalf of myself personally.

3:31 Speaker 1 Yeah, your personal feelings.

3:33 Speaker 2 I believe that, and I’m going to talk about Italian-Americans, how they believe so much in this country and are so proud. to be here although they of course respect their heritage but as my dad said may he rest in peace that he was a proud Italian but he was proud to be here and do the things that

3:51 he was able to do in this country and raise a family so you know I totally agree with you John that we need people who are going to be in this country and be happy and to participate and to be good citizens and to support the values that we have in this country And so, you know, it’s

4:13 people like you, John, who continuously bring that message home that are going to make the difference.

4:19 Speaker 1 Well, Angelo Vivalo, thank you so much for coming in this Sunday morning. And God bless you and God bless America. And may America be great for our kids and grandkids and grandkids to come.

4:33 Speaker 2 Absolutely. Thank you. And God bless you, John.