Pushing Past the Night by Mario Calabresi

Author:Mario Calabresi [Calabresi, Mario]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-59051-378-1
Publisher: Other Press
Published: 2009-08-16T04:00:00+00:00

9.

the chamber of deputies

THERE IS A POINT when the normally mild-mannered, easygoing, civic-minded people who go by the reassuring name “the relatives of the victims” start to grow restive. They rebel, they speak out. Not that anyone notices. In a country that’s used to full-throated protests, to people lying down on railroad tracks or occupying the stage at pop music festivals, the relatives’ words fly well under the radar. Their protest takes the form of angry letters or threats to return commemorative medals. Respect for the dead prevents them from giving full vent to their feelings, but the pain underlying these small gestures is of terrifying dimensions.

These sudden eruptions never stem from a single provocation. They always come after a series of insults, affronts, slights. I have developed a key to understanding these outbursts through my passion for cataloging. I’ve learned to predict and sometimes even staunch them, warning government officials that malcontent was growing and would soon erupt, somewhere. Luckily not everyone turns a deaf ear. Some officials have shown that they understand these delicate moments and, in silence, without fanfare, without seeking political gain, have tried to heal the pain.

One such instance was the day in July 2004 when, after years of stalling, Parliament finally approved in committee, by a unanimous vote, new regulations to benefit the victims of terrorism and massacres. Shortly thereafter, however, problems arose with funding the measure. So for many victims, the promised restitution has been a dead letter. Five years have gone by and the law has still not been fully implemented. Exasperation has led some family members to take a step that they would never have contemplated earlier: they decided to file suit against the state.

The malcontent of the families comes from their sense that the state has ignored or abandoned them. Their feelings are easily understood in light of an unfortunate series of events in spring 2006 that combined chance, carelessness, and a remarkable lack of political, historical, and cultural sensitivity. On May 31, a few days after he was sworn in as president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano issued a pardon to Ovidio Bompressi, the convicted murderer of my father. The decision had actually been made and finalized under the previous president, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. The only thing that Napolitano did was affix his signature to the document.

The problem is that no one alerted us beforehand. I was on my moped one day when my cell phone rang, not with one call but with two. They were from Luigi Contu, my boss at the ANSA news agency, and Arturo Celletti, the political reporter for the Catholic newspaper Avvenire, calling to warn me that the wire services were carrying the story about the pardon. I was flabbergasted. My cell phone fell from my hands and was crushed beneath the wheels of a passing bus. I raced home to phone my mother before reporters called seeking her comments. Luckily she was in the park watching her grandchildren play on the trampoline. When I told her the news, she was beside herself.

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