The Capital Times from Madison, Wisconsin • 17

My Father Said Italy Could Sink Into the Sea Motherland Election Gets Shrug From Italians Here Italians are funny people, he says. Theyre not much for government. They really dont give a damn. They know whoever comes in will take a cut off the top, but if theyre left alone and have a little wine, they dont much care." Where there is political opinion, he said, there are often sharply differing views within families. A lot of the youth is active for the Communists and some of the old timers wish Mussolini would come back.

Though highly critical of the corruption and suffocating bureacracy of the Christian Democrat regimes, Paratore is even more critical of the Communists, who he fears would put nearly everything under the control of the state. Nick Stassi, Stassis Childrens Shoe Store, is also apprehensive about a rise to power by the Communists, but not greatly so. Its not like the Communist Party in Russia, said Stassi, who visited Italy four years ago. Theyre more moderate in Italy. Many of them still go to church and receive communion.

By MIKE DORGAN Of The Capital Times Staff The possibility of a Communist government in Italy may be sending shock waves" through Western Europe and the U.S., as many media reports maintain, but those waves certainly have not hit the Italian community here. In fact, theres barely a ripple of concern among Madison Italians over who tnumphs in the mother-country elections scheduled for tomorrow and Monday. The Italian Communist Party has won an increasing share of the vote in recent years, and many observers believe they now have the momentum to topple the Christian Democrats, the party which has dominated 37 faltering governments in Italy for the past 30 years. While genrally sharing anti-Communist sentiments, most persons here of Italian descent apparently couldnt care less about a situation which has Henry Kissinger distraught with worry. Jim Capacio is a past president and current officer of the Italian Workmens Club, a center for Italian-American cul tural activity in the city.

If there were strong views held on the upcoming election, that is the place where they would most likely be expressed. But Capacio says he doesnt give a damn about the election and nobody else does, either. Theres no interest at all, said Capacio. I've never even been there, and I wouldnt go if they paid me. Capacio, whose parents were born in Sicily, said the feeling most older Italian-Americans have toward their native country is that they dont want anything to do with it.

They left hard times there, they left poverty; they dont want anything to do with it. A gray-haired man sitting near Capacio at the club bar nodded in agreement. A native of Sicily who had returned there three years ago, the man said he didnt care who wins the election because one political party is as bad as another. There are a lot of factions there and I dont think any of them would do anything different from the others," the man said. All programs look good on paper, but so what? The number one problem in Italy is people dont have jobs.

Whos going to give them jobs the Communists? The Democrats? He threw up his hands and shrugged. Another gathering place for local Italians, particularly the older men, is the Park Street Shoe Repair Shop. Owner George Fabian says there hasnt been any interest in the election expressed there, either. No, the boys couldnt care less. Most of our fathers came from Sicily, and politics was the last thing on their minds they were thinking about food.

Fabian said the memories of most old timers were laced with bitterness. My father said Italy could sink into the sea and he wouldnt care." Not all Italian Americans here, however, want to forget the mother country. Vito Paratore, who operates the coffee shop at the City County Building, keeps close ties with relatives in Sicily and travels there frequently. In fact, he was there in April when the last national government was dissolved. Lucey Will Push Again Next Year for Reform Legislation and placing limits on the amounts of money candidates could spend, but the Assembly revised it and then killed it by referring it to committee.

Here, too, the need for reform and the requirement that we restore integrity in the political process went unaddressed, he said. I am disturbed, however, at the lack of action on two bills that sought to guarantee a measure of human dignity and humanitarian protection for two of the most powerless minorities in our state, the elderly and migrants, he said. Lucey blamed well-heeled special interests for blocking passage of bills to tighten nursing home code enforcement and to protect migrant workers from exploitation by employers. Both bills were passed by the Senate, but went to defeat in the Assembly this week. The elderly and the migrants had no high paid lobbyists in the legislative chambers this week and they paid Struggling Artists Get Showcase The struggling Artists Art Fair got underway'' artists are represented at the event, which will con-today at St.

Maria Goretti Catholic Church, 5403 tinue Sunday until 5 p.m. Above, John and Helen Flad graced by perfect weather. About 130 Riley, Madison, view her pottery display. $12.6 Million MATC Budget Keeps ax Rate nchanged Stall Photo by Carmie A. Thompson jc current level, and it is within the cost control guidelines of the state.

The budget recommendations were presented by James B. Hasler, board member from Reedsburg. Other members of the budget committee were Owen R. Slauson, Madison, chairman, and Kohn. The legal limit for a vocational district to levy for operations is 1.5 mills.

District Fours operational budget requires only 0.91847 mills. The operational budget for 1976-77 will be $12.6 million, to the current years $10.6 million. Debt service is expected to cost the district approximately $1.8 million in the coming year, an increase of about $700,000. The district is also expected to pay out $2.25 million during 1976-77 for the construction of new satellite campuses in Reedsburg, Ft. Atkinson, Watertown and Portage.

Those funds will come from a $30 million bond referendum approved by voters in 1974. Referendum funds will also be used to build a new MATC campus. No members of the public spoke at the hearing. There are 222 municipalities in the district, which includes most of Dane, Columbia, Jefferson, Sauk and Marquette counties, plus parts of Adams, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Juneau, Richland and Rock The next meeting of the board will be July 12, as required by state law. Gov.

Patrick Lucey said Friday that the Wisconsin Legislature has not seen the last of four proposals he supported which failed to gain passage during a pair of special sessions. Lucey said he intends to propose bills during the next regular session, which opens in January, on transportation, campaign finance revision, migrant labor and nursing home regulation. Legislators defeated the $70 million transportation package in a special session Lucey called last December. The other measures were killed during a three-day special session which ended Thursday. The Democratic governor said he was otherwise pleased with the accomplishments of the 1975-77 Legislature, for the first in 80 years to have Democratic majorities in both houses.

The Legislature accomplished a number of substantial reforms and maintained the philosophy of austerity I have advanced during the last five years, he said. The governor cited legislation dealing with equal rights, power plant siting, medical malpractice insurance, rape, housing construction, veterans mortgage loans, voter registration, crime compensation, voluntary school integration and reorganization of the health and social services department. Lucey also expressed disappointment over the death of a bill to create an election campaign fund through voluntary $1 checkoff on state income tax re- turns. The Senate approved a version containing a modified public financing plan NAACP Assails Corrections The Wisconsin Dept, of Health and Social Services and its Division of Corrections have come under attack by the Madison branch of the NAACP over the departments alleged hiring practices. In a letter to State Sen.

Monroe Swan, NAACP president Eugene Parks called for an investigation of his complaint that although 40 per cent of Wisconsins prison population is black, no non-white persons hold major administrative positions with the Division of Corrections. We can no longer tolerate gross insensitivity and racism involved by individuals who claim to be concerned with our intent, Parks wrote. Wisconsin prisons are being operated as modern day plantations. City Gets Transit Grant of 647,998 A federal Urban Mass Transportation grant will pay nearly 40 per cent of Madison Metros 1975 operating expenses, city transit coordinator James McClary saitj Friday. The grant of $647,998 is about $20,000 more than anticipated, he said.

A previously announced state bus subsidy of $244,638, however, was more than 50 per cent less than expected. Madisoq Metro received $1.6 million in state and federal funds last year. Ginny Vida to Bruce Voeller, the task force executive director who also is in Madison for the weekend conference. This kind of coverage makes gays more real not just a frightening word, he noted. There have been some improvements in coverage recently.

Vida recalls that a dearly, he said. Lucey said the issue of campaign finance was especially timely in the Bicentennial year and after recent national political scandals involving dishonest campaign contributions and expenditures. The Democratic governor noted that not one Assembly Republican voted for the nursing home and migrant labor bills and that only two Assembly Republicans joined to save campaign reform on a critical vote. THE CAPITAL TIMES MADISON, ns June 19, 197617 Staff Photo by Carmie A. Thompson that have adopted gay rights protections in job and housing discrimination.

But we dont get any national coverage of that fact at all, Voeller said. Most of the people in this country do not know that these things have occurred. Sixteen states have repealed sodomy laws. The House of Representatives has legislation pending gay rights with similar legislation planned for submission soon in the Senate. But this isnt mentioned in the press, Voeller added.

The conference also will take up the issue of openly admitting homosexuality to non-gay people. This is one of the important things were trying to do. Were trying to get gay people from all over, from all walks of life, from all races and backgrounds to at least tell their family and friends. He sees more candor coming from younger gays. You are seeing large numbers, especially of younger gay people, saying that they are not going to have any part in this hypocrisy, of living a lie, Voeller aflded.

The Area Board of Vocational, Technical and Adult Education District No. 4, following a public budget hearing has adopted a no tax increase budget for 1976-77. The tax rate will remain at $1,168 per $1,000 of equalized valuation, as at present. An expected 11 per cent increase in total district valuation enabled the board to hold the rate steady. Now they Must Consider Men FONTANA (UPI) The scholarship for women given annually by the Lawyers Wives of Wisconsin has become a victim in the battle against sex discrimination.

The group has been giving Portia Scholarships to women students at the University of Wisconsin and Marquette University Law Schools. The scholarship was named after the woman lawyer in Shakespeares Merchant of Venice. But because of new government regulations prohibiting sex discrimination men will now have to be eligible for the scholarships, according to Marion Stewart of Racine, president of the group. She said the scholarship would be renamed the Lawyers Wives of Wisconsin Scholarships. He Still Builds Viking Ships Wood and metal ships catch the fancy of these Scouts from Troop 102, Ihil Rowlands (left) and Jerry Burke.

The creator of the boats is W. T. Carlson (right). Lake Geneva, one of the artists whose works are for sale at this weekend's 4th annual art fair at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church.

Troop 102 helped the artists set up their displays. Business Administrator Howard Rom noted that the proposed budget was again being presented in a climate of uncertainty. The amount of state aids for 1976-77 is not yet known, the effect of tuition and materials fee increases on enrollment and revenue cannot be determined, and the district equalized valuation will not be announced until October, he said. Rom told the board that the budget is based on an estimated fulltime equivalent enrollment of 6,447, an increase of 466 over this year. District Director Norman P.

Mitby pointed out that the growth in postsecondary enrollment this year has only been possible by expansion of late afternoon, evening and Saturday classes. He cautioned that late afternoon and evening space is already becoming tight, but expressed the hope that additional students could be served through Saturday classes. He said the district programs served 34,374 persons this year, and predicted that the figure would increase next year. The mission of the district is geared not only to full-time students, but to meeting the varied needs of adults through adult education classes throughout the district, Mitby said. In moving the adoption of the budget, Francis E.

Kohn, board member from Westfield, said: The budget meets the needs of the institution, it holds the tax rate to the them to stop putting words like homos in the headlines, she added. does a lot of lobbying in an effort to steer media managers away from limited and biased coverage, especially at the three major television networks. As a group were trying to do two things really. Were trying to get them to cover gay news adequately and fairly. And were trying to get them to generate positive images of gay people in their entertainment programs.

She points to a Marcus Welby installment in which a homosexual high school teacher raped a student. Well that kind of story is not typical of the gay experience. It was hardly a fair portrayal of gay people in any sense. You see, we have not had enough positive images of gay people on TV or anywhere. So the public doesnt have any sense of balance or perspective when they see a negative portrayal like the Welby story, Vida said.

Vida recently won a promise from network executives to stop depicting gays as sex obsessed, rapists. Gays Seek 'Fair, Balanced 9 Treatment from Media few vears ago the New York Times didnt even mention the word homosexual. Now it reports quite a lot of gay news. The tabloid New York Daily News, often sensational in tone, has evolved from a shrill opponent of gays to a more objective observer. Thats a long way, Vida remembers, from a 1973 editorial ridiculing gays and asserting there should be no civil rights for homos, fags, dykes and fairies.

Papers still feel, Vida notes, that If they have a gay person speaking in favor of civil rights, somehow you have to go out and get Hitlers opinion too. In essence, Vida is asking the media for common decency in their dealings with gays. What were trying to convey Is that gay people are numerous In this society, that they are making positive contributions to the culture and we want to see that reflected. The weekend conference also will accent discussions on gays and the law. Youve got 38 cities and counties in NorthAmerica (including Madison) ByBOBMONG Of The Capitol Timet Staff A national effort to humanize and balance portrayal of homosexuals in the media is one of several topics being addressed at this weekends Symposium on Gays and the Law here.

Sponsored by the Madison Committee for Gay Rights, the sessions will go until 5:30 p.m. today and from 9:30 to 5 Sunday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Memorial Union. One of the featured participants is Ginny Vida, media director for the National Gay Task Force based in New York City. The first problem with onr news coverage is that we dont get enough of it Theres an Invisibility of gay people in news reporting. And some papers won't go near discussing gay news despite that fact that we make np about 10 per cent of the population, Vida said today.

Much of the coverage we do get is biased. We have had meetings with Editors around the country trying to get criminally inclined, weird, perverted persons who as men are effeminate and as women are masculine. The National Gay Task Force considered this a major victory. Fair and balanced reporting of gays humanizes the movement, according.