John Marchi passed away last Saturday. In my opinion, he was among the best and the brightest and he deserves a place alongside New York City's other unblemished political heroes such as Fiorello LaGuardia and Mario Cuomo. He left us at a time when positive political role models for Italians, Italian Americans, and those who want to be, are becoming scarce. History repeats and our time is another one during which too many elected representatives are being exposed as disgraces of one sort or another. Even in the heat of battle, John Marchi demonstrated that the connection between disgrace and politics is not a given, and on the contrary that the connection between grace and Italianita is.
