Fifty thousand in Trapani to remember mafia victims
From various parts of Italy, this year, on March 21, people gathered in Trapani for the XXX Day of Remembrance, organized by Libera
There were fifty thousand people who, on March 21, participated in the XXX “Day of Memory and Commitment for the Innocent Victims of the Mafia” organized by Libera.
They were mostly young people and marched through the streets of Trapani amid colorful flags and slogans against the Mafia. Among them, in addition to 500 family members of innocent victims from all over Italy, Libera President Don Luigi Ciotti, former national anti-mafia prosecutors Pietro Grasso and Federico Cafiero De Raho, several mayors and bishops.
Don Ciotti recalled that “Italy is a country that is not entirely free,” that “today’s adversaries are called corruption, mafia, inequality, poverty, abuse of power.” That “it is necessary to stop the ethical drift of a piece of the world that abandons the poorest and most fragile humanity, such as migrants.”
During the event, the names of the 1101 victims were also read out. An impressive figure, considering that on the first Memorial Day, March 21, 1996, there were about 300 names read out in Capitol Square.
The school world was undoubtedly present: pupils and teachers, together, to say no to the Mafia.
From Palermo, the Higher Education Institute “Damiani Almeyda-Crispi” also answered the call, whose Philosophy teacher Ilenia
Sellitto reminds us of the urgency of “educating children to be active citizens, making them actively participate in initiatives of this magnitude.”
“Small steps” theirs that, along with those of those who made the Trapani procession lively and peaceful, were valuable.
“Memorial Day was an opportunity for growth,” Professor Sellitto continued.
“In the eyes of the children, the innocent victims, whose countless names echoed in Vittorio Emanuele Square, acquired a new dignity because, intrigued, they began to ask questions about their faces and stories, and about the importance of memory, a renewed source of light on oblivion and silence. Finally, listening live to Don Ciotti – who addressed the young people with the most beautiful words as ‘hope for the future’ – gave back precisely to them the joy of having been among the main protagonists of this Day.”
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- Ilenia Sellitto and ISS “Damiani Almeyda-Crispi” of Palermo