Calling evil by its right names

Kudos to the letter writer who correctly identified American gangbangers as terrorists, Nov. 17.

We have a lot to deal with in our own urban - and now suburban - areas before we sally forth yet again into another chaotic war.

I would, however, like to express my concern that the writer used "the mafia" as the yardstick for evil. That phrase inevitably refers to Americans of Italian heritage. If I may quote Father Salvatore Polizzi, the activist priest who saved St. Louis's Little Italy area in the 1970s: "Every time someone uses that word they take away my civil rights."

And it serves as a further reminder that, despite protestations of "we don't believe everything we see in the media," Hollywood has done a very thorough job of propagandizing people into believing that Italian surnamed criminals are somehow more powerful - indeed, mythological - than killers and murderers from different religious or ethnic backgrounds.

Evil is evil. Period. Let's stop using media hype as a standard.

Bill Dal Cerro

Chicago