"We talk about legality ... the important thing is not so much to talk about it, because in reality it is about changing the verb, from speaking to making legality, building legality. As? The answer is always one: build community". How to blame Last, the Colonel of the Carabinieri Sergio De Caprio, who in the name of legality and what it means has long been under guard and in the crosshairs of criminals?
Exactly 25 years ago, it was the 15 1993 January, then Captain Last put the wrists of the boss of Cosa Nostra Salvatore Riina, after having discovered him with his boys of Crimor, the military combat unit he founded. The rest is known history.
And that building a community is possible, as demonstrated by the Capitano Ultimo family home at the Tenuta della Mistica, in the Roman suburbs, where difficult youngsters, former prisoners, immigrants and carabinieri, extraordinary priests like Father Rovo and volunteers work together on a project that is same time, ethical and aesthetic. A place where the tricolor surmounting the monument to General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa is the heart and where the message of brotherhood is that of Jesus of Nazareth but also that of the carabiniere, who serves the people of which he is a son. Here you understand that legality is beauty, it is spiritual elevation, it is participation, it is freedom.
Commendatore Ultimo is well aware of this, his men and all those who legally give everything and someone gave their lives, a long list that includes General Carlo Alberto from the Church, magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, father Pino Puglisi and many others, known names or not, but all with a straight back in the face of injustice.
In the words of Ultimo there is a great heart, a great sensitivity, a hymn of love to what it means to be carabiniere: a choice that todayWe see it every day, it's not easy and you only do it if you really believe in the highest good. Sometimes we should thank them, if we were in a normal country.
Sunday 14 January, at the family home, he will remember the arrest of Totò Riina together with Ultimo, together with his men, together with anyone who has chosen to stay this way and want to participate (info on www.volontaricapitanoultimo.it). Because the evening, from 19.30, will be an opportunity to reaffirm that legality is an indissoluble couple with dignity, with culture, with the education that is received - or should be received - from an early age. And to reflect also on what it means to be carabinieri, the work on the territory carried out in silence, for the people, with sacrifice but also joy of the choice made. Remembering is not just right, it is a duty, at least for those who consider themselves part of a civil society. And it is equally important to act. The rest, they are small talk.
Last Commander, why is it so important to always reiterate the importance of legality?
There is no legality if there is no community, with its own internalized values that are transformed into social, legal action. Laws, rules, cannot exist if they don't express values, if they don't they are borders, barbed wire, fences, oppression. And then we must talk about our values, which do not come from above. These are values that come from the street, from families, from the loves between people. And these loves build a brotherhood. And this brotherhood is a people. Think of our national anthem, “Brothers of Italy”: it is this, it is being brothers, it is not being friends, it is not being sympathizers, it is not being associated, it is not being registered. It is about being brothers.
Is it action?
It is a community. It is a people. It is a nation. It is a prayer. They are beautiful things, they are not things far from us. They are tears and smiles that we meet on the road but which then remain in our hearts, which make us a people, not an association of people, but a community. Sharing, communion, communicating: this path is not lost, it is the path of our grandparents, it is the path of Italian emigrants, it is the path of poetry, of painting, of music. It is the road of the carabiniere, of the flag. And we can not lose this road, because it is ours and because it is the only one we have. And we built it ourselves, with smiles and tears, falling and raising many times. And this is our legality. And it is our only possible legality, where there are no masters and students, but all build together, they walk together holding hands. Sometimes one teaches the other, based on what happens and according to the gift that everyone has.
This is also part of the ethic of the carabiniere, who wears the uniform but then becomes part of the community, perhaps participating in a party, albeit defunct due to the role he plays ...
I say the community, I say the ethic of the carabiniere, I say that the carabiniere must be the guardian of the community. And it must also stand on the edge of this community. But to stay on the edge, to be reserved, the community must have it so great in the heart that it must love it more than all the others who are part of it, it must bring it into the heart with more love. Because he must be happy to see others who are well in his community while he stands at the edge of the party. And this is something that requires great maturity, requires great sacrifice. This great sacrifice must be recognized, otherwise we are doing folklore. And this is not nice, we are talking about fairy tales. The carabiniere is a human being who lives values that cannot be improvised, must be practiced, must be internalized over the years, he works knowing that he will have nothing in return: it is his choice and this is his greatness. We citizens must protect these people, we must give them something that makes them feel proud of what they do, beyond the love that the people give them. We demand a lot from these figures, but the recognition of merits is lacking and lacking. And it's serious.
Many, in front of illegality, pretend not to see and not hear in the name of "tengo famiglia". But should not it be the other way around? Should not we report abuse because we "keep a family" and want to ensure a future worthy for their children? Why is legality so difficult?
It's difficult because talking about the family is talking about community. To speak of community means to accept the nature of the community itself, which is dynamic. It is not that you can impose things on the community, rather it is she who imposes on you what her values and objectives are. There are mechanisms that want to dominate and manage communities, plagiarize them, address them, fundamentally oppress them. This is a problem. And it's a business! It is an approach that must be opposed to the awareness of being a community, the awareness of being a family. And awareness must be built with the culture of doing.
The 14 January in Rome, at the family home Last Captain, remember the capture of Totò Riina, an important event in the fight against the mafia ...
We remember the arrest of Riina, we do it to remind ourselves who we are, where we come from and where we want to go. The answer is always the same: we are street people, we have fought in the street with the people of the street and we want to go to the street, to fight again and again along with the people of the street. We will do it and we do it with the weapons we have from time to time. When we take away our weapons we will do it with our eyes, we will do it with words, we will do it with silence, we will do it with tears. But this is our life, of people's fighters, of street fighters. And those people who fought, you know I'm here, are next to young boys who, at the time of the facts, maybe they were not even born. But the road was there then and there is even now and it is still a poor road, made of humility, simplicity, love and even nastiness. We have to stay there. This is the importance of remembering an arrest that happened on the road, in the light of the sun and that gives us the courage to do other activities, to make understand and understand that legality is not simply to arrest a person, but is to oppose a culture to another, not in the manifestations but every day, in the little things that are the great things. All this makes sense if it is managed by families, by the community, by the people, not by deployments of lobbies or parties that use it for their own purposes, to make laws that follow the ends of some. We have the Ten Commandments and we are not able to follow them, they are enough and they are moving forward. Structuring ourselves in doing, not in the subsections 1, 2, or 3. And let's do it together with the young people. Old and new generations must be together.
Culture, moreover, is also a transmission of values ...
Culture is a great love between people. Outside of this, it is racism.
(photo of the author)
