Dear lady, I saw this morning on the front pages of many newspapers, a photograph that shows her. Nestled on a small open, broken-down, a shawl around her head. Behind her, you see two girls, a larger, wide-eyed, frightened, and the other baby, who has his eyes closed but I imagine its two daughters. Beside her the figure of a man's shoulders: her husband, I presume. In his face, lady, we read an expression of embarrassment mixed with resignation. We are taking away from Ponticelli, east of Naples, where the field in which house was on fire. On the back of that truck in a bad way - to make mattress nets from shore - an inscription: "old crap". I am writing, my dear lady, to apologize. I know his people, his stories. Just recently, on the outskirts of Turin, I met one of your community: how much suffering, but also how much humanity and dignity in their faces. In our country people are talking about for years now, security. E 'need sacrosanct safety. The need for security we all there is cross, it belongs to every human being, in every community, every people. It 's the need to feel respected, protected, loved. The need to live in peace, cooperation and willingness to meet in our next. This need to protect every community, including yours, has decided to adopt a set of rules. He established the terms of coexistence, decided that it was lawful to do and what was not permissible, because this harms the common good in which everyone could identify. Those who transgress the rules were punished, sometimes with the loss of freedom. But even that punishment, the worst for a man - being the most precious freedom, by nomadic people and you well know - was intended to reintegrate into the community, to take back. The sign of civilization is that of a justice system that punishes the offender, not for revenge but to accompany him through the sentence, a change in growth, to a power coscienza.Da long time this conception of security is crumbling. Is crumbling in the face of people's fears. Fears caused economic insecurity - which affects a growing number of people - and by the presence in our city faces and stories that are already living the economic insecurity and poverty eradication as tragically, and who had to leave their own countries in hope of a better life. I will try, dear lady, to explain with a picture. And 'we felt as if everyone on a ship adrift at sea, and knowing that the number of boats is limited, the risk of sinking helps us to see our neighbor as a competitor, one that could save our place. The reaction is then cast from the ship are considered 'too, too bad if they are almost always the most vulnerable. The logic of the scapegoat - is fueled by an irresponsible use of words and images, with information at times ready to foment hatred and fear - how it works. There rages about who is below us, about who is more helpless, not understanding that this is a logical suicide that could transform ourselves victims a day. I live with great concern that state of affairs. History has taught us that the legitimate prosecution of crime you can easily switch if it is not justice and rationality, the criminalization of the people, the existential condition of the idea: Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, political dissidents have tried their pelle.Lo repeat, it is not "justify" the crime, but to have the courage to recognize that those who live on the margins, without opportunities, are more likely to commit crimes than those who are integrated. And do not forget those very common forms of lawlessness that do not raise the same public alarm because "decriminalized" in coscienze di chi le pratica, frutto di un individualismo insofferente ormai a regole e limiti di sorta. Infine di fare attenzione a tutti gli interessi in gioco: la lotta al crimine, quando scivola nella demagogia e nella semplificazione, in certi territori può trovare sostenitori perfino in esponenti della criminalità organizzata, che distolgono così l'attenzione delle forze dell'ordine e continuano più indisturbati nei loro affari. Vorrei però anche darLe un segno di speranza. Mi creda, sono tante le persone che ogni giorno, nel "sociale", nella politica, nella amministrazione delle città, si sporcano le mani. Tanti i gruppi e le associazioni che con fatica e determinazione cercano di dimostrare che un'altra sicurezza è possibile. That where reception is built, where people feel recognized for what they want to assume the same duties and responsibilities, they want to participate as citizens in comune.La law, which is necessary must be based on proximity and social justice. Asking others to comply with a law without first putting them in a position to become a citizen, you make fun of others and ourselves. And the fan connection to establish a "crime of illegal immigration" was born from this mix of cynicism and hypocrisy: instead of limiting the increase in hiding, thereby increasing suffering, a tendency to commit crimes, paure.Un 'last thing I would say, dear lady. I hope that this The photos shows together with your loved ones can shake just a little 'our consciences. Serve a look inside and ask ourselves if this indeed is the direction we want to go. Stimulate feelings of care, concern, empathy, that many Italians, believe me - even after they were children and grandchildren of migrants - continues to entertain. The embrace, wherever she is right now, with her husband and her children. And let me tell you that I do on behalf of the many who believe and are committed to a more just and more humane.
Luigi Ciotti
president of Gruppo Abele and "Freedom. Associations, names and numbers against mafias"
