Also this year the Luigi Longobardi Group ofNational Sailors Association of Italy will be present at the Liberation Day celebrations on Thursday 25 April which will be held in Castellammare di Stabia.
The celebration of all Italians and not just one part, as the association chaired by retired Marshal Aldo Verdoliva is keen to make known. The ANMI Luigi Longobardi Group of Castellammare di Stabia has always been present at the civil and military ceremonies of the city, also carrying out activities at the various educational institutions aimed at passing on and preserving the historical memory of the Navy and the Stabia Naval Shipyard.
It should be remembered that Italians of every political persuasion based on the ideas of democracy and freedom and not just one part contributed to the Liberation. But also many foreign forces, civil and military, which were needed in a true “international cooperation” for the freedom of our nation.
April 25th can only be a celebration, rich in many different sensitivities and cultures because it marks the victory of pluralism as opposed to the thought imposed by the force of a few on the people, as was the case with the fascist dictatorship.
President Aldo Verdoliva he is keen to point out: “The idea of the Resistance was born as a plural idea, made not only by the partisans – of every political faith – but also by the military (over 650 thousand were deported to concentration camps and 50 thousand soldiers never returned).
From the Sailors, we remember Captain Domenico Baffigo who sacrificed his life to defend our shipyard. From the carabinieri (Salvo D’Acquisto, one of the most significant examples of sacrifice for truth and justice), from the religious, from the Jews, and from the women: many women, workers, farmers, many students.”
All civil and military institutions, fighting associations and will participate on April 25th
above all citizens without distinctions of parties with the only clear distinction: on the one hand democracy and freedom on the other dictatorships.
Verdoliva concludes: “I thank the young people, the students who yesterday, today and in the future, are protagonists of the meaning of this historic ceremony, founding Italian democracy and freedom. And so, as a pacifist, libertarian and democrat, well within the founding values of democracies all over the world, I can proudly say that I feel, certainly and without any doubt, that this celebration is our celebration, it is that of the institutions and that of the unity of the people.
It is the celebration that must remind the women and men of today, the institutions, all the political parties and groups that we have the duty to know how to preserve and practice that sacrifice and that unity of the people in order to pass it on to future generations.”
This is why April 25th must be the moment in which political ideological differences are put aside and the emphasis is placed on the common values of the Liberation, as an important and still valid reference model today. It is the symbolic date of Italian participation in the Allied war for the liberation of the country from Nazi-fascism.
And since liberation occurred by advocating the common ideals of freedom, democracy and social justice, we must not renounce any of these values, they belong to us, beyond and above any party alignment, because they are still relevant , because they still need to be defended from dangerous illiberal and anti-democratic attempts that are always lurking.
May 25th be a day of collective vital energy, and the transmission of civil and institutional commitments to be transmitted. Only in this way do we truly honor our grandfathers and our fathers who allowed us the path to freedom.
