PALERMO – It seems like a big celebration, in the thirty-second stroke of immense pain. The square of the Palace of Justice in Palermo is overflowing with students.
There are girls and boys. There are the girls and boys, gathered here to remember the Capaci massacre and the names of those who lost their lives: Giovanni Falcone, Francesca Morvillo, Rocco Dicillo, Antonio Montinaro, Vito Schifani.
And rightly so. It is right that, over yesterday’s tears, this colorful chaos of chasing voices should be superimposed, of hats and childish eyes. Nobody forgets. Memory is better illuminated by the noise of life and its hope.
Players, declamations and songs alternate on stage. There are thousands of them. The schools of Palermo responded en masse to the appeal of the network for legality and anti-mafia. The banners and drawings tell, each with his personality, a long passage of pain and redemption.
A child’s hand tried to copy the horror on the highway, drawing the explosion. “We pay homage to justice with beauty and commitment”, says Professor Valeria Catalano, director of the ‘Colozza-Bonfiglio’ comprehensive institute.
“We are here to renew the memory of thirty-two years ago, when, from this square, a large crowd began an experience of redemption”, says Giusto Catania, today principal of the ‘Giuliana Saladino’ institute.
“Memory risks fading – says Domenico Di Fatta, principal at the ‘Regina Margherita’ high school -. The teachers tell me that, even in our first classes, there are those who don’t know Falcone and Borsellino.”
Who, years ago, lived here, spent many days here, in the courthouse that stands out beyond the colored tide. They were terrible and courageous days of fights and goodbyes. Where there were tears, today there are smiles, voices and hopes.
