Fortunately, the equestrian circus of the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Costa Concordia. The Isola del Giglio was once again invaded by subjects in search of a television appearance and overwhelmed by the usual river of rhetoric that flowed from the microphones of pseudo sent / s of pseudo information programs.
Well did the Mayor to say “enough”, which was the last time, and starting next year they will go to Giglio only the relatives of the victims. It was time you might say. La Concordia was one of the worst pages not only of the Italian merchant navy, but also of the information system that aroused, as happens with every tragedy, the worst of the worst, in those transmissions that from morning to afternoon infect us with a quantity of crap that will not be able to dispose of for the next few centuries.
Throughout the political and media circus that revolved around the tenth anniversary, a name seems to have escaped and not only from the celebrations, but actually escaped in these ten years. The name is that of Giuseppe Girolamo.
Giuseppe was 30 years old and worked as a drummer in the ship’s orchestra. He made the passengers and officers dance while they posed like pleasures with the ladies on board, chief among them Captain Schettino. He was a normal person: he played, did his job, which was not bad, and he certainly didn’t think he was in the middle of a shipwreck.
Giuseppe that evening, after the impact, had managed to find a place on one of the lifeboats. A family remained on the deck, with a little girl of a few years. The young drummer did not hesitate for a moment and left his place on the lifeboat making the child and the parents get on.
Giuseppe Girolamo did not know how to swim. He died that evening.
A spontaneous gesture, done without thinking much about it. There is much and much disproportionate talk of heroism, but the meaning of this word is unknown to most people. Indicates those who make a highly risky gesture for a higher cause with full awareness of the danger to which they are exposed. Joseph knew that the risk of dying, if he had come down from that spear, he was very high to him. But it went down.
Well this boy has not been awarded no medal for civil valor. An honor would not have brought him back to life or nullified the pain of his loved ones. But it would have been the precise duty of the state to give it to him. It should be added that a street, a theater, a school was not dedicated to his memory. Anything. Simply forgotten, except for his loved ones and friends from his country.
Giuseppe did not need medals, what he did he did not do to be called a “hero”, but this nothing gives us the measure of what this country is. Not of what it has become, but of what it has always been.