Love or selfishness?

Marco is a homeless person, one of many; one of those who convinced Ernesto Olivero to create the Arsenale della Pace. I still remember the day Ernesto told me his incredible story, and also the moment when he told me he never wanted to see people sleeping under a bridge again, and today I admire the wonder of his results.

I have addressed this issue many times with Striscia la Notizia and I have met many similar homeless people, and the thing that has always left me speechless is that, in addition to all those who are forced to live a life on the street, there are many who choose it instead. Marco is one of these or, better yet, Marco found an escape route on the street, which however has been destroying my soul for some time.

This guy has been helping me for months in the creation of a journalistic report that has as its object the laundering of dirty money deriving from online scams, with a very simple mechanism: the homeless person is asked to open prepaid cards in his name, which are then used to credit them with the money from online sales of objects, which evidently will never be delivered. When the unfortunate person on duty makes the transfer to the card, the homeless person takes out the cash and gives it to the scammers who in doing so find themselves with laundered money in their pockets without having risked anything. From this round, the homeless person pockets only a few dozen euros, and it is clear that the scammers exploit the position of need of these people to achieve their own interests, knowing that even if they were discovered the responsibility would not fall on them. However, Marco, less than a week after having accepted to be part of this mechanism, decided that he did not want to continue, it was not part of him, and he reported himself. In short, his honesty prevailed over the need to eat. Together we have defeated a gang of individuals who are very active throughout Italy and, mainly, thanks to him.

The other week Marco joined me for lunch in a pizzeria and – for the first time – I had the opportunity to ask him why he was on the street, what had caused him to fall so low and how I could help him. Marco emphasized that he had never had problems with work, with addictions, with his family, with the State, with friends, with anyone in short, but that one day he simply decided to leave everyone, including his wife and daughter, and go and live under a bridge. Naturally I insisted and I didn't believe his too easy explanations. I never expected the answer he then gave me. «A year ago, during a very normal evening where my wife and I were having dinner, we received a phone call. One of my daughters had an accident: she was driving, and she collided with another car. She and her friend died. From that day on I died with her. And I never got home again." What could I have said? The pain of a father who loses his daughter cannot be healed with words. Marco had tears in his eyes and I with him.

I tried to make him understand that life is also this, and that he was not to blame, but he looked at me shaking his head. At a certain point, however, I imagined the face of his other daughter, the one still alive and waiting for him to come home, and that of his wife left not only without a daughter but also without a husband. Can pain make us selfish? And yet, we are not alone in suffering; many people live in suffering every day; those who are at war, those who have nothing, those who lose a family member, those who get sick, those who are raped, those who are beaten, those who are discriminated against, those who are, and those who are. But life is also this, and you cannot go to a living daughter and deny her a husband to a wife who loves her. Yes, our pain can make us selfish, even without wanting it, but I hope with all my heart, and I will pray for this, that Marco between life and death still chooses life.


NP October 2024
Max Laudadio