Remarks at a Columbus Day Dinner in Brooklyn

Mr. O'Connor, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Ambassador, honorable judges, noble candidates, Members of the greatest Congress ever, ladies and gentlemen, my friends:

First, I want to thank you for your friendship and for your asking me to come here to celebrate this great Columbus Day with you.

What we celebrate on October 12 is not the fact that one Italian discovered America, but that five million American-Italians discovered America.

I might add tonight that there are eight million Americans of Italian descent--eight million and one. One is in Rome tonight-Jack Valenti--but he is coming back, I am told.

On Columbus Day, we celebrate those sons of Italy who have helped to make this Nation the great Nation that it is. But we also celebrate America--which has brought out the greatness in so many sons of Italy.

We celebrate Arturo Toscanini, Fiorello LaGuardia, and Enrico Fermi. And we celebrate Rocky Marciano and Joe DiMaggio.

We celebrate the memory of those poverty-stricken immigrants from south Italy whose descendants today are in the American mainstream.

We celebrate the facts about today's Americans who trace their heritage to Italy.

The statistics about education--as I pointed out last evening in our meeting with my beloved friend Senator Pastore--the statistics point out this fact: that the second-generation Italian-American has finished more years of school than the average American.

The statistics about jobs point to the fact that the second-generation Italian-American is more likely to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or an engineer, or an executive than the average American.

And the statistics about income reveal a natural parallel don't know that I should say this with money as tight as it is, but the second-generation Italian-American makes more money than the average American.

Yet it hasn't been too many years since Italian-Americans have felt the raw pain of discrimination right here in America.

So our historical perspective should remind us that, as newer members of the majority, Italians, of all people, understand and practice the cardinal American virtue: fairness to all, regardless of race, or religion, or place of national origin.

Now you have a wonderful evening planned. You have a great American, my beloved friend, a most high public official, one of the greatest I have ever known here to speak to you and I didn't come to butt in his party.

I did feel somewhat like the little boy who didn't get the invitation to the dance. I just sat down and wrote myself one.

But after having been engaged in my vocation for 35 years, it is pretty difficult for me to be spending the night in New York City, after having visited in various areas of it all day, and to be here to meet the Premier of Laos in the morning, and to overlook a congregation as numerous as this this evening.

I just want to leave this one thought, because I have already talked long enough. And that thought is this: There are many Americans tonight who are feeling the same weight which you and your families once felt. There are many Americans tonight who need to see the cardinal American virtue of fairness to all, regardless of their religion, or their ancestry, or their race come into play.

And for other Americans who are now feeling that need, I ask those of you who have crossed the river to extend to them a helping hand.

I was at my home the other Sunday and my younger daughter insisted that I go to church with her very, very, very early in the morning. We went to a little church, a very poor church, very humble people, God-fearing, God-loving people. I went there and the priest talked about peace and our relations with our fellow human beings. And he spoke as his text: "Love thy neighbors as thyself."

Then I went on back at 8 o'clock and had my breakfast with my daughter and with her husband. Then about 10 o'clock my older daughter got up and came down and asked me to go to church with her. We went across the mountains about 40 or 50 miles into a completely new area of the world.

We went to a completely different church. And the preacher started talking about our relations with our fellow human beings. He started talking about the Pope's request that we all pray for peace. And he concluded by discussing at some length the text: "Love they neighbor as thyself."

To me that was a very encouraging sign that in this period, regardless of which side of the mountains you are on, regardless of which church you were in, regardless of which daughter you went out with that day, that the people of this country were taking the high road and were thinking along the same line: "Love thy neighbor as thyself."