Let's get out of the corner

We are pressured by inputs that should alert us. On the one hand, the tragedies of earthquakes, floods, floods... which are impressive due to the disasters and victims. Even if in this media society of "consume news and run away", unfortunately, we quickly move on, with little memory and perhaps a great desire to cynically think about something else. And we are still disturbed by tensions that smack of armed conflict, from the war in Ukraine to the far from painless outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa or in the lands of Armenia... but we risk falling into the habit. It is serious for those who feel responsibility for the present moment in their soul. And then the migrations that show no signs of decreasing. Many were already talking about it years ago, but nothing has been done to humanely and socially take on this unstoppable phenomenon, which today "explodes" in the midst of political choices that cause some shivers. As if we were riding a wave of closure, of rejection, of annoyance. Quick but also complicated solutions are sought, with the result of wounds, discouragement and anxiety that remain on the skin and in the souls of those who arrive in search of dignity and a future. Politics shows all its limits, with short-sighted visions. But even society does not make great efforts to allow itself to be questioned in depth, about a change of era in which migration remains a widespread fact, to be taken up as a true and sometimes distressing appeal.

If we then broaden our gaze to the international quadrant, the crisis of democracies, which risk becoming blocked, begins to alarm us. While autocracies, democracies, tyrannies, neocolonialisms advance and weigh down the general climate in which the common good is forgotten or bypassed. Just look at the impotence of the UN!

Without forgetting the inconclusiveness of states when it comes to decisive choices in terms of environmental protection. We can no longer find the courage to remedy the damage caused on the only planet we have. Always, and almost only, compromises, postponements, inconclusive patches.

He may perhaps become discouraged. And it wouldn't be unmotivated. But we are the ones who can introduce beliefs, projects, sensitivity and concrete gestures so as not to resign ourselves to the worst. There is a strength of humanity that only needs to be supported and accompanied, without retreating into who knows what sheltered corner. We are all in the boat. And everyone has talents to spend on changing course, not resigning themselves to the routine that instead infects. Letting the waves of another sign have the upper hand.

The protagonism of each individual, bucking the trend on today's dark frontiers, is not a utopia. It's a chance worth taking. To believe in.

Corrado Avagnina

NP Ottobre 2023