Dear Europe, I am a great supporter of you since I was told in elementary school that besides being Italian I could be European.
They told me that one day I would travel without customs, that I would pay with the same currency in every country and that I would be defended by the Italian and European armies.
They told me that no child in the world would go hungry anymore, because together they could help more children.
They told me that if I couldn't do a job here, I could turn to you and go somewhere else "to Europe".
They showed me your flag waving next to that of my beloved country and they explained to me why you existed.
You had to represent all the states - from the smallest to the largest - and with you no one would have been different, discriminated against or hunted. With you, democracy could really work.
Your flag also said it, all blue, with that perfect circle in the middle, where each star was the same as the others.
When I grew up, you grew up too, but while I was studying and having fun, you already had to face immense problems.
I believed that the horror of the Second World War really saved our consciences from the tragedy of war.
From those weapons used with too much lightness and from deep and unmotivated hatred I thought that something good could be born, you.
You, Europe, should have been the undying example of Peace that wins (or tries to win).
You should have been the symbol of adherence to a more advanced and higher form of government, in which everyone leaves something they don't need to take something they need.
You, perhaps, also knew what to do when the children died of hunger in Somalia but you didn't.
Perhaps, after the11 Settembre you knew how you could react differently, soothing souls and using History to avoid another massacre. And yet nothing, you've joined the bandwagon.
Perhaps now, you know what needs to be done to stop this migratory wave that affects our coasts.
You would like to welcome everyone, but space for all does not exist and then you do not know what to do if you do not betray your ideals and allow you to build walls, mark people and fill trains full of desperate people.
Was it all a beautiful dream? Or dear Europe can you really exist?
No, don't tell me you already exist because if you really existed we wouldn't be at this point.
You have the same consistency as Platonic ideas, you are perfect only in the mind of those who imagine you.
You exist on paper but not in reality and instead of being the greatest of victories you have become the greatest of defeats.
Now, my dear Europe, you're just a slimy tangle of economics, finance and income, you're a bureaucrat, you complain about everything and you can't stand anything.
You have become lazy, do not waste breath for anyone, even when this nobody knocks on your door, built on the lives of those who sacrificed themselves in your name.
You are the victim of a policy that called you your friend, but who instead raped your ideals, crippling them.
You would like to be the one who helps to understand the errors but you have become a tragic mistake yourself, because it does not exist but you exist, because you want but you do not give.
But the errors are not only your Europe, they are states that belong to you and for which you should be a brilliant beacon.
These sovereign states are not always easy to manage, after the war on their knees, praying that all this pain would not be repeated.
And today? Today they forgot about it, that's all.
Today that pain that tore at the faces of their grandparents is painted on other faces, for other reasons, but nobody moves.
It can't just be Germany's fault if your wallet cries and nobody helps.
Thanks to you, Germany had the second life that she had hoped for so much, she regretted it and rolled up her sleeves to be great again. But without you, there would be no Germany today.
It cannot be just the fault of France, who wanted you as a daughter.
It cannot be the fault of Italy for which there are never words.
It cannot be just the fault of society or the economy made up of incomprehensible words.
No, my dear Europe let's tell the truth: they have betrayed you all, including yourself.
Whenever something was not right, you lost a piece of your ideals and every time you told yourself that it was nothing important. Until you lose everything and even say that you never existed.
You, Europe, shouldn't be a photo of a dead child on a beach.
You should be that hand that that child saves him, a hand whose fingers represent a Sovereign State that has decided not to use you as an excuse to care about your neighbor.
No Europe, you can't have betrayed us all, somewhere in that tangle there must still be that universal pillar that founded you.
That need for aggregation, collaboration and cohesion that only you represented for everyone.
We alone are too small for a world that calls for revenge on all sides.
We have left you a little piece of us, of our history and of our generations, we have believed that together we could write a new and even better story.
But what do you want, when it comes to change, we are all a bit selfish and we like it that others always change first.
Now that I'm an adult, my dear Europe, I wanted so much to see you strong enough to fight your battles alone.
I would have liked to see you engaged in important projects to save other countries from war, hunger and death. Just like you saved those states that belong to you, just in a manner of speaking.
Instead, I find you, prematurely aged, still branching those quisquiglie on who has to do what in place of whom.
Instead of finding you engaged on the front lines, bringing your ideas, I find you divided, insecure, lethargic.
Instead of saving children, you watch them die asking others what to do, but you already know what needs to be done.
My dear Europe, I would not have wanted to see you die even before seeing you big, and yet you wanted to.
(photo: europa.eu)
