Scalia, you're bad!

What follows is a brief summary of a current brouhaha relating to the encounter of Supreme Court Jurist Antonin Scalia with a reporter and a photographer from the Boston Herald:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has accused staffers at the Boston Herald of having watched too many episodes of the Sopranos, after that newspaper reported that Scalia flashed what they called an "obscene gesture" outside a church. The Herald said Scalia flicked his hand under his chin as he emerged from Mass, in response to a question about whether his religious life presents a conflict of interest in cases of church and state. In a scathing letter to the editor, Scalia says the traditional Sicilian gesture he used means, "I couldn't care less" and accuses the paper of believing "that any Sicilian gesture is obscene," especially when made by a jurist of Italian descent. He closed his letter by reminding the Herald that he is an American jurist.

I was drawn to this story for several reasons:

It has always bothered me that Judge Scalia, unabashedly conservative, is viewed by the media as some kind of a judicial troglodyte, an atavistic throwback to the stone age. Only rarely (and usually begrudgingly) are the sharpness and brilliance of his intellect genuinely acknowledged. Do I detect WASPish prejudice playing a subliminal role in the way Scalia is regarded? Does his being of Italian descent grate on certain people's sensibilities? And when it comes down to basics, would it not be well to remember that American Law owes much to Roman and even Italian jurisprudence?

But clearly, the thrust of that reporter’s question is that anyone earnestly practicing a religious faith, paricularly a Roman Catholic, cannot be impartial when dealing with church/state issues. But consider for a moment ~ isn’t it manifestly obvious that even atheism and agnosticism are definitive religious attitudes? And therefore, does it not follow that no one can be totally objective when it comes to making church/state judgements? By casting that malevolent question at Scalia, the Boston reporter betrayed his naivete and Justice Scalia had every right to employ the graphic “brush-off” he gave him.

Being of Sicilian descent myself, I am quite familiar with the expression Scalia used. My mother often directed it at me whenever I unjustly confronted her. But when she used that gesture, she also invariably muttered, “La meglia parole e quella che non se dice!” (The best word to say is the one I should not say now). Yet, as I recall, I much preferred her to use that gesture than the one when she would bite her right index finger and shout menacingly at me, “Saracene!” Evidently, in Sicily, the Saracen occupation (827 to 1061) left Sicilians with an anger that is still festering.

Comments: www.domgab85@aol.com

Scalia should not have given fodder to the reporter by making that "cafone" (boorish) gesture, especially because of his status. He has more class than that. To do that at home is one thing, but not in public, especially when in high public office. I’ll always remember my mother saying, "La cortesia e una chiave che apre tutti porte" (courtesy is a key that opens all doors). Mommy would be proud of me for remembering that and now for using it in the right context ~ Christine Stelmack

Nota bene: What is most unfortunate is that more attention is now being paid to the gesture and the photograph than the fatuous question asked by the reporter. The issue of church and state is of transcendent concern to everyone, here as well as abroad. But let us at least have the honesty to concede that the conflict is so very convoluted, it can never be satisfactorily resolved, anywhere. In the meantime, it would be helpful if we can keep frying pans from calling kettles black ~ Dom Gabriele