An ethical choice

Assets and knowledge, time, resources and professionalism are at the service of those who knock on the doors of the Arsenal of Peace and wherever friends and collaborators of Sermig inform us of urgencies and needs to be addressed also with the significant contribution of technologies.
Restitution and the goodness that disarms hearts and minds are the foundations of our ethical choices: building without destroying, welcoming without discarding; contagious choices that help us grow in harmony. The spontaneous and massive response of the people to the war that has been involving Ukraine for months bears witness to this. Thousands of people - young people and adults - flocked to the Arsenale bringing basic necessities, time and skills. They gave an immediate and significant response to the need for food and care to build a coexistence in which people are considered people beyond their stories.
Over the years, a true ethic of service has been set in motion which does not crystallize in repetitive actions, but reads the signs of the times to grasp the good that we can share. It is not an added value that is there today and not tomorrow, but the basis on which to build daily common life. It is projected into society, it is not just theory, but "put into practice".

A CHOICE OF LOVE
It is the ethics of concrete responses to women with children who have escaped from unlivable situations, to the homeless seeking shelter, to those who abandon their own country to take refuge in another that is not theirs, hoping to be welcomed with full dignity. It applies to those who need care, work, a home as well as all children who will not be born because the possible parents live in a society that, beyond nice words, does not take responsibility for them.
This ethic does not crystallize in a repetitive service, but reads the signs of the times to grasp the good for people.

PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE
It's not just responding to immediate needs with a bowl of soup, a cure, psychological support, it's considering the other worthy of the same dignity that I claim for myself. Result? Millions of people help millions of people. In practice, the ethics of service is expressed with the logic of disarming goodness and experiencing restitution with the logic of concrete responses.
An example are the children who find the serenity of play in the village of "Felicizia", sheltered from the violence of the urban suburbs.
The ethic of service is considering others as people in their own right. The ethic of service does not manufacture weapons but, as Isaiah said, instruments of peace: care, food, hospitality, work, education... Every day it makes us examine our consciences regarding individuals and institutions. Is this a feel-good reading of reality? No, it can become everyday reality.

Claudio Maria Picco
SPECIAL: An Arsenal that speaks
NP June / July 2023