L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 4 BARBARA MINAFRA NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS A s y m b o l i c a c t . The David - the emblem of Flo- r e n c e , o f t h e Renaissance, of aesthetic perfection, and an icon of world art - is shroud- ed in a black cloth, through which we can barely perceive its harmonious proportions. A bit surprised and a bit dis- appointed, people walking to Piazza della Signoria can no l o n g e r s e e i t , b u t f i n d a painful message instead: war kills Beauty. "By shrouding the David – a symbol of freedom against tyranny – we want to pay respect to the thousands of victims of the war in Ukraine, both among civilians and the a r m y , a n d a l s o e x p r e s s Florence's immense sorrow for what is happening at the very heart of Europe," mayor Dario Nardella to L'Italo- A m e r i c a n o . " W i t h t h i s symbolic gesture, we want to deliver a strong message of pain, sadness, and mourning for all the dead of this unjust war." Flash mobs are more than sensational acts aimed at demanding the end of hostili- ties, they are the beginning of a movement that starts from t h e p e o p l e . T h i s i s w h y Nardella, who is also presi- dent of Eurocities, a net- work that brings together the mayors of 38 countries and represents over 130 million people, launched an interna- t i o n a l e v e n t t o a s k f o r a c e a s e f i r e , C i t i e s S t a n d with Ukraine, that will take place on the 12th of March in 200 European cities. "Florence condemns war – Nardella continued – and is close to the people and the cities of Ukraine. Our town is f u l l y c o m m i t t e d t o c a m - paigning for peace and for the swift beginning of real negotiations. I remember when, on the past 26th of February, on the occasion of t h e F o r u m d e l Mediterraneo, 65 mayors and 60 bishops signed, in our Salone dei Cinquecento at Palazzo Vecchio, a declara- tion on the importance, for all people, of peace, justice, equal rights, and freedom." The symbolic shrouding of the David, on the day when w e c e l e b r a t e d t h e 5 4 6 t h a n n i v e r s a r y o f Michelangelo's birth, the 6th of March 1475, coincided with a series of demonstra- tions and candlelight vigils across Italy, a country hyp- notized by the violent images seen on TV, afraid of the nuclear threat, horrified by the ferociousness of a war no one believed to be really pos- sible. Tens of thousands of peo- p l e m a r c h e d i n B o l o g n a , Milan, and Turin, but also in N a p l e s , T r i e s t e , B a r i , P a l e r m o , G e n o a , a n d Cagliari. And then Siracusa, Modena, Bolzano, Reggio Emilia, Padova, Verona. In V e n i c e , e v e n P i a z z a S a n Marco, where large gather- ings are usually forbidden for security reasons, was filled with the multicolored flags of peace. The emotional shock was too strong: it had only happened after 9/11 a n d a f t e r t h e B a t a c l a n a t t a c k , w h e r e V e n e t i a n researcher Valeria Solesin had lost her life. In Bari, the city that in F e b r u a r y 2 0 2 0 , s h o r t l y before the beginning of the pandemic, had hosted the meeting of Pope Francis with the bishops of the three con- t i n e n t s t o u c h e d b y t h e M e d i t e r r a n e a n , m a y o r Antonio Decaro did some- thing highly symbolic, too. Here, in a city that, histori- cally, has a very strong bond with Russia, Decaro didn't focus on our relationship with art and beauty, but on that we have with faith and hope, speaking directly to Bari's own patron saint, who is worshipped by Catholics a n d O r t h o d o x a l i k e : " I n 2003, Putin donated to the c i t y a s t a t u e o f S a i n t Nicholas, the saint of dia- logue and brotherhood, of union, not division. I chose t h i s s y m b o l i c p l a c e t o express the strongest opposi- tion to the military aggres- sion against Ukraine and to demonstrate my closeness to its people. I wanted to leave here, at the feet of this stat- ue, flowers in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Here, w h e r e t h e U k r a i n i a n , Russian, Belarussian, and Georgian communities of our city have been gathering to pray together for peace." In the capital, a powerful "No to war" came from La Sapienza, the largest univer- s i t y i n E u r o p e , w i t h 7 0 0 years of history on its shoul- ders. After, tens of thou- sands of people marched in the streets of the capital's historical center while, at night time, the Colosseum, j u s t l i k e t h e M o l e A n t o n e l l i a n a i n T u r i n , shined with the gold and blue of the Ukrainian flag. Rome is just 2 hours and a half away by plane from Kyiv, just over 2.400 km. President Mattarella visited the Ukrainian Basilica of Santa Sofia, in the Boccea neighborhood, which is part of a community that, in Italy, counts 236.000 people: the largest in Europe, and the fourth here in Italy, after the Albanian, Moroccan, and Chinese. A stable presence since the beginning of the 2000s, as shown by the fact that 77% of Ukrainians in Italy have long-term visas and the vast majority of new arrivals are relatives of those already here. For decades, women (they are 183.000, about 80% of the Ukrainian community in Italy) have b e e n t a k i n g c a r e o f o u r elderly. They became part of our families, learned our lan- guage, supported our coun- try's welfare. In front of the terrifying images of destruction and people trapped in bunkers, traumatized by the faces of c h i l d r e n e s c a p i n g t h e i r c o u n t r y , a n d j u s t q u i t e emerging from the trauma of the pandemic, common peo- ple from every corner of Italy started collecting essential goods, medications, blankets and left with their own per- sonal means of transports to deliver help at the frontiers. M a n y I t a l i a n s – n o r m a l Italians – traveled to the border and brought help to those fleeing from war. More than 20.000 of the over 2 million people who already left Ukraine are here, in Italy, guests of our fami- l i e s , e s p e c i a l l y i n R o m e , Milan, Bologna, and Naples, welcomed by their relatives, but also by strangers who, however, demonstrate in practice the words of our prime minister Mario Draghi during the "darkest days of European history:" this is "the time of solidarity and acceptance, which are funda- m e n t a l v a l u e s o f t h e European Union that Italy h a s b e e n a p p l y i n g f o r decades." It is written also in Article 11 of our Constitution: "Italy rejects war as an instrument of aggression against the freedom of other peoples and as a means for the settle- ment of international dis- putes." The David in Piazza della Signoria, shrouded in black cloth, is a sign of sorrow and pain for the war in Ukraine (Photo courtesy of Comune di Firenze/Alessandra Cinquemani) Italy rejects war

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