"...doing The Sopranos saved my sanity."  Attributed to David Chase on the 
Bravo Cable Channel, Tuesday, July 24, 2001.

    This statement sort of reminds one of Victor Frankenstein when he sought 
to create his monster because of his own hubris.

    What a strange world this would be, if most people, upon finding their 
"sanity" threatened, turned to saving their "sanity" by creating a monster 
which wreaked havoc on others -- so as to destroy their very identity by 
associating their good names with crime, violence, and sex. 

    Seems like a strange mental health treatment Mr. Chase chose to save his 
"sanity," whereby he created The Sopranos, so that millions-upon-millions of 
law abiding Italian-Americans would now be stigmatized, by their names being 
of Italian derivation, as having to do with all that is negative in our 
society. 

    It would appear that what Mr. Chase did, to save his "sanity," was to 
focus in on one very small sample of Italian-Americanism, 20/100ths of one 
percent, and nurture it from a splinter in our ethnic pride to a very heavy 
cross which each honest Italian-American must now bear -- if the scientific 
polls are correct about how 74% of Americans view Italian-Americans as mob 
connected. 

    "It has been found that we retain audience interest best when our story 
is concerned with murder.  Therefore, although other crimes may be 
introduced, somebody must be murdered, preferably early, with the threat of 
more violence to come."  -- The History of Broadcasting, page 83, 1949 
Edition.  Now isn't it a coincidence that The Sopranos' tale of art follows 
this format?

    If it is true as Mr. Chase tells us, the The Sopranos is, indeed, but 
art, then it is most unfortunate that Mr. Chase did not heed the words of 
G.K. Chesterton, when he said, "Art, like morality, consists in drawing the 
line somewhere."  It would appear, however, "the line" for Mr. Chase's The 
Sopranos leads right to the bank, while for the rest of us of 
Italian-American descent "the line" leads to inept Mafia jokes of Italian 
stupidity and knowing winks regarding our imagined "connections" to The Mob. 

    Well, I suppose that we can all rejoice that Mr. Chase, one of our own he 
assures us, even though his last name is not of Italian derivation, has made 
it big and saved his "sanity" by "doing The Sopranos" AND, it appears, The 
Sopranos just happens to be also his BUSINESS.  Which brings us to the quote 
from Pablo Picasso, "The people who make art their business are mostly 
impostors."

    Fortunately, for the rest of us of the Italian-American Community we know 
the difference between "art"and "business," while at the same time it remains 
a tragedy, for us, that Mr. Chase does not.

    While D.W. Griffith's BIRTH OF A NATION was the tribulation 
Black-Americans had to bear, our cross is David Chase's THE SOPRANOS. 
Unfortunately, we are nailed to this cross, The Sopranos, most securely, what 
with Mr.Chase agreeing to
write another whole years series of this negative stereotyping of
Italian-Americans -- to further enchance his "$anity" no doubt? 

    The greed of gain has no time or limit to its capaciousness.  Its
    one object is to produce and consume.  It has pity neither for 
    beautiful nature nor for living human beings.  It is ruthlessly ready
    without a moment's hesitation to crush beauty and life out of them,
    molding them into money.  -- Rabindranath Tagore

    Bob Miriani