Remarks at the National Italian American Foundation Dinner

(9:59 p.m. EDT)

Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Buona sera. Thank you so very, very much. What a great pleasure to be with you this evening. Frank, I thank you. Tony, I thank you for serving as Master of Ceremonies. I thank you all of you for being here. And, Pat, I especially thank you for that generous and kind introduction. I thank you for the service you have performed on the Executive Committee of this organization and for the great job that you are doing in the State Department in taking America's story to the world.

And I want to thank my good friend and colleague, Franco Frattini, for those eloquent words. It has been an honor and a pleasure for me to work with Franco to deal with some of the most compelling problems facing our world today. I could have no better friend and colleague. I'm so pleased to be here with Secretary of Veterans Affairs -- (applause). Yeah, give it to Franco. Let's have it for Franco. (Applause.)

I'm so pleased to be here with my fellow cabinet colleague, Tony Principi, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, who's doing a magnificent job taking care of the veterans of America's wars. (Applause.) And Tony joins me in extending to you, on behalf of President Bush, congratulations on the National Italian American Foundation's 29 years of outstanding service to our nation.

Thank you for advocating so effectively for Americans of Italian descent, who have done so much to enrich this beloved country of ours in every conceivable manner, in every conceivable field, and who have selflessly served their nation in times of war and in times of peace. NIAF’s many activities not only preserve your proud Italian heritage, but as Frank said, what you do benefits Americans of all ethnic backgrounds. Thank your for providing such tremendous educational opportunities for our young people.

Italians Americans have always had a deep sense of family, a deep sense of community, and NIAF has done so much to extend your warm embrace beyond the Italian American community to the rest of the nation and to the rest of the world. Indeed, you have helped our nation extend its hand of friendship, its hand of hope, to people all across the globe.

And it is not surprising that one of the strongest, steadiest hands of friendship that has been extended right back to us belongs to Italy, our great NATO ally. We are so proud to be standing… (Applause.) We are so proud to be standing alongside Italy on the frontiers, the front lines, of freedom, whether it's the global war on terrorism and all the other places that you've heard about already this evening, where we are standing shoulder to shoulder: in the Balkans; in Iraq; in Afghanistan. Both of our nations have lost precious lives. Both of our nations have seen our citizens held hostage or killed by some of the world's most brutal terrorists. Through it all, we draw strength from one another. We draw strength from the shared conviction that our two countries are part of a noble mission. And in all of these difficult months, never once has Prime Minister Berlusconi or Franco Frattini or anyone in the Italian Government blinked. Not once did they stand back and say maybe we better take another look. Not once. They've always been with us. (Applause.)

And I can assure Frank and I can assure the Minister, the Ambassador, that I am watching with great interest the report that will be forthcoming from the panel studying the reorganization of the UN; and when that report comes forward and we see what it recommends and how large there might be in terms of an expansion of the Security Council, if any at all, you can be absolutely sure, as Frank said, that Italy will get every consideration. We don't forget our friends. (Applause.)

We are all part of this historic effort to help bring the blessings of liberty and prosperity and peace to peoples who so desperately want a better life for their children.

Just last weekend, we saw a remarkable thing. Millions of Afghans, men and women, voted in the first democratic election in Afghanistan’s 5,000 year history. It was a triumph of the human spirit. (Applause.) People said it wouldn't happen. People said that the Taliban and al-Qaida would keep people from voting. People said that the Afghan people weren't ready for this. And yet, as I sat in my home last weekend receiving reports, the reports were so encouraging. People were lining up at 3 o’clock in the morning outside of polling stations. The Taliban blew up a bridge, and the people came to the bridge and walked along the river till they found a place where they could cross that cold water to get to a polling station. They came in burkas, the women in burkas, fully covered up except for their hand coming out from the burka with their ballot in it, to vote for the first time. (Applause.) They would not be denied. (Applause.)

It wouldn't have happened had it not been for the leadership of the coalition, President Bush, Prime Minister Berlusconi, so many others. (Applause.)

Now we face another challenge in Iraq, preparing to hold its own historic elections next January. We face a difficult challenge. There is a deadly insurgency that's raging, a deadly insurgency fueled by leftovers from the old regime, terrorists who have come to make trouble. We expected this kind of difficulty. But I have every confidence in our coalition troops and in the Iraqi forces who are rapidly being built up to deal with this. And the one thing I have absolute confidence in is that the Iraqi people want the same choice for freedom, the same choice to pick their own leaders, that the Afghan people have, the Italian people have, the American people have, and we will not rest until they exercise that choice. (Applause.)

On behalf of President Bush, of course, on behalf of all of us here tonight, on behalf of all the American people, I want to express our heartfelt gratitude to Prime Minister Berlusconi, to the Italian people, to my colleague, Franco, for the service that they are performing around the world, for their sacrifice, and for being our steadfast partner in the cause of freedom. Thank you, Franco. (Applause.)

When I look out over this wonderful audience, it gives me such a surge of pride in our country. Everyone here can tell a story like Tony Danza's story, a story about America, a story about how this wonderful country has given so much to each of us and to our families and to the world.

Like most of you, I am the descendant of immigrants, in my case Jamaican immigrants. My father and my mother came here in the '20s on fruit boats. My father arrived in Philadelphia, my mother at Ellis Island. The same story you heard from Tony, the same story that could be repeated a thousand times tonight: My parents worked hard all their lives and believed in the American dream, and they wanted to pass that dream on to me and to my sister .

I was born in Harlem, Charlie's district. Right, Charlie? (Applause.) I was raised in the South Bronx, which was my old neighborhood, a marvelous mixture of people in that neighborhood, races and religions and aromas wafting out of apartment buildings. The good people of Kelly Street gave me my first window on a wide, wonderful world full of families with the same high hopes and dreams for their children as my parents had for me.

My boyhood pals came from every ethnic background imaginable on that block. We were Jewish, Puerto Rican, Eastern European, Catholic, West Indian, African Americans, and yes, Italian.

So long before my life took some unexpected turns that could only occur in America, and long before I had the privilege later in life, when I was moving up in ranks to meet the Carluccis, and the Valentis and the Frattinis of the world, on Kelly Street I had the privilege and good fortune to know some wonderful Italian Americans in my youth.

And one of the most memorable and vivid characters among them was a guy who had a shop around the corner from my house. It was a shoe shop. And his name was Sam Fiorini, a first generation immigrant -- a very thick accent, almost as thick as my parents' accent. It's a wonder I came out of that neighborhood able to speak any kind of English at all. (Laughter.) We kids in the neighborhood were fond of him and we called him "Sammy the Shoemaker."

Sammy worked hard in that shoe shop. He worked hard to support his family, but he also knew how to enjoy himself and have a little relaxation in the shoe shop. And when I was about 15 years old, it was Sammy who taught me how to play poker. (Laughter.) And every night after school and when I could get away from my homework, I'd go around the corner to the shoe shop.

And we'd play friendly games of poker in his shop with a little -- a few bucks, you know, in the corner (laughter); and it was Sammy and me and the off-duty cops of the 41st Precinct (laughter and applause). And we'd be there right in the front window of the shoe shop, and we'd use for chips these little wooden pegs that I'll never forget, that you used to hold the soles of the shoe to the shoe before you put the whole thing on. And those would be our chips.  And I'd chew on them as a little toothpick as well as using them as chips. And Sammy said, "Don't chew-a da pegs. It costs money." (Laughter).

One night, we're in there playing -- me, Sammy, a couple of off-duty detectives, a couple of cops, a brand new rookie cop is outside and spots the game. He comes in to break it up. The veteran cops and the detectives took him back outside and explained to him the rules of 163rd Street and Kelly Street. (Applause.)

My parents, of course, were terribly disappointed and disapproving that I would engage in this, but since I was with Sammy and the cops, and not hanging around on the street corners, I couldn't get in much trouble.

As I look back with such fondness over 50 years later and think about Sammy the Shoemaker with his thick accent and with his admonitions to me, I learned that Sammy Fiorini taught me more than just how to play poker. He made me feel grown up and included. Without either of us knowing it, us two immigrants came very close to one another. He gave me the valuable example of a decent, kind, hardworking man providing for his family, reaching out to his neighbors from all backgrounds -- he didn't care who you were, you were his neighbor. Contributing to the life of his community, investing in the American dream with every peg that he pounded into every shoe that he made, raising a family, creating a new generation to which he could pass his legacy, as Tony said.

My guess is that many of you here tonight also have known a Sammy, or are related to one, may God bless them all. Wherever I go in this world, I carry deep inside me that kid from Kelly Street, and the spirit of America that Kelly Street gave me -- the spirit of an America that is united in its diversity, all embracing in its humanity, and so full of possibility.That democratic spirit has always been our country's greatest strength and it remains our greatest hope, and it's the greatest hope for the world. And that generous spirit continues to be our greatest gift to the world -- a world still torn by ethnic conflict and where countless, countless millions of parents still yearn for the chance to build a better life for their families, for their children, just as our parents yearned and were satisfied in their yearning by coming here to the United States.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the success of our nation comes from strong, vibrant, giving communities such as yours and your deep belief in the values that hold our "nation of nations" together, a nation that touches every nation and is touched by every nation. You value freedom and family and faith and you are committed to working for a better future for people all around the world.Together, we Americans of all walks and from every ethnic background are working with allies and friends across the globe to build a world of liberty and prosperity, where tyrants and terrorists cannot thrive. The wonderful people we honor tonight, Luciano Pavarotti, Tim McGraw, Joseph Plumeri and Carmella La Spada have served their country and humankind in their own special way. And so I offer to each and every one of them my warmest congratulations. You have reflected great honor upon your Italian heritage. A special word of appreciation goes to Carmella. I want to thank Carmella for reaching out to the families, and especially the children, of our fallen servicemen and women and reaching out to all of our veterans and making sure we never forget their sacrifice. And all of us who have been proud to wear the uniform are indebted to you.

This is such a great evening for Alma and for me and for all of you and your families. I salute the National Italian American Foundation for your great contributions of heritage and hope to our nation and the world.

Thank you all for making me an Honorary Italian American. I am deeply touched and hope that Sammy the Shoemaker would be pleased.May God bless you all.

Thank you.

(Applause.)