“Can a sporting event cause inconvenience and inhumanity?”

by MASSIMILIANO LEPERA

Can a sporting event cause inconvenience and inhumanity? We can only begin with this question, a rhetorical question, to highlight some contradictions in terms that have been evident for some time now in one of the most practiced and loved sports of all time, football. However, the following should be noted. It is beautiful and very exciting that a football team can represent an identity of a people, of a city, of an entire region, which comes together in euphoria, joy and happiness to celebrate victories, but also simply participate with enthusiasm in matches and everything related to sports.

In fact, sport has always united, since ancient Greece, in which even, during the Olympic Games (our modern Olympics), born since 776 BC, wars were interrupted to celebrate peace through unity in sport. This is how it is and should be today too. Having said this, given that sport, including football, does not always reflect these values, because acts of violence, racism, abuse and a series of negativities which should in no case belong to sport are added, in this specific case the discussion also focuses on the fact that, however, it is not mandatory to force the entire city to adapt to that specific sporting event. The last case concerns May 1st, the day on which Labor Day is celebrated, during which people are used to having picnics, meeting up, practicing any activity that can represent a relaxation of the soul far from what is the daily and work stress. Well, many have chosen to spend this practice as a function of the home football match that was held between Catanzaro and Venezia, but many others have not.

Precisely on this occasion, a certain dissent was expressed on the part of some citizens, towards a very over the top attitude, to put it mildly, not at all empathetic, especially on the part of some considered to be employed in the security service. order and security outside the stadium. These, however, generated considerable discontent among several civilians, who had not taken part in the match, who simply wanted to carry out their daily functions, with their own needs and requirements, which go beyond any event and concern the single individual , his close person, whose rights always remain inviolable, regardless of everything. Among the inconveniences, the ban on using, in a simple, fast and totally harmless way, a key passage in the city, the one adjacent to the stadium and which branches off towards the northern area of ​​the city, near the cemetery, blocking some pedestrians – not in car, but on foot! – and absolutely not allowing you to go beyond those few tens of meters to reach your destinations, some even with particular emergencies. The passage, closed and delimited by gates, as usual, during the course of the match, would not have caused any damage by allowing some people to enter on foot, simply to be able to access the places indicated above with justified urgency. On the other hand, the most thought-provoking attitude is the total lack of empathy, listening, sociability and humanity towards others, also opposing in an indifferent, haughty and misleading manner.

Rigidity is never a positive characteristic for human beings, because we should dedicate ourselves first and foremost to listening to single individuals, as each one has their own experience, their own soul, each has their own needs – like some, for example, who were completely “drenched in water” following the hailstorm that occurred during the match itself and had expressed the need to be able to move to dry themselves, while others needed to reach their car, parked nearby, for urgent personal reasons – and it is absolutely unacceptable to reciprocate attitudes of indifference or even ignore, without even listening to, the requests of individual people. Therefore, a sporting event or an event of any kind cannot in any way paralyze the activities of the individuals who are part of that social context, going beyond the basic values ​​of the human being, of life, of the right to health and of right to listen to and understand all living beings. This makes us understand that no one has the right to harm the rights of anyone else and free will allows us to exercise our own freedom without overriding that of others. Therefore, in conclusion, it is necessary to have greater foresight, availability and predisposition towards others on the part of especially those who hold a social role, which at a given moment can be decisive, in order not to incur anything that is the opposite of safety, of health, of humanity.