“It was a revelation that stayed with me forever, in thinking about how much was accomplished in so short a time in those places in Europe that embraced freedom,” Joe says. “You can’t take anything for granted, and it’s astonishing to me the way this collectivist impulse keeps coming back when there’s so much historical evidence that it impoverishes people.”
One reason Joe is a Cato Sponsor is that he wants to partner in the Institute’s work to “create a rational dialogue about what works and what doesn’t.” The liberty movement “has a substantial fight on our hands,” Joe says.
“Liberty has existed in healthy nations and was invented in healthy nations. The fastest way to lose it is to lose your sense of yourself as a nation that values liberty,” Joe explains. “We really must have a society that protects liberty and the freedom of people to make their own way in the world.”
Joe believes Cato’s principled, nonpartisan mission allows it to bring people together and improve their understanding of today’s biggest challenges. “I think that as time goes along, we’re finding more people we can count as allies who are amplifying our message, or at least some part of it, in ways that are useful.”
The rewards of freedom were inherited by Joe, as his own family had benefited from the economic opportunities of America. His grandparents left Sicily at the turn of the 20th century and paved the way for Joe’s father to attend law school and his uncle to become a three-term mayor of Buffalo, New York. Joe followed in his father’s footsteps and practiced law, serving as an assistant district attorney, the chair of the Criminal Justice Section of the New York State Bar Association, and a regulatory and administrative defense attorney for many years. While his travels exposed him to some of the very worst consequences of authoritarianism, whether of fascism or communism, his work as an attorney brought him face-to-face with the pernicious effects of government intervention at home.
Today, like many in Cato’s community, Joe hopes to correct policy failures such as “the criminalization of the regulatory environment, the delegation of the legislative function to the bureaucracy, metastatic regulation, the stupidity of substance prohibition, and the death penalty.”
Joe also believes that “it is good to remind ourselves about the gigantic progress that’s been made with free markets.” When he speaks to friends about these issues, he stresses that “capitalism is a cooperative construct, and it’s getting smothered by government intervention.”
So we’re proud at Cato to count Joe as a partner in our work to build appreciation for our shared values by increasing the quality and quantity of our communications and outreach activities. Joe’s decision to create a gift for Cato in his estate plans in addition to his generous annual contributions is made even more meaningful by his personal engagement with our resources and scholars. We look forward to working together over the coming years to convince even more people to see liberty’s promise for a freer and more prosperous world.
