I’m on the sofa, it’s raining outside, the radiators still rigorously off. This year autumn arrived late and we enjoyed almost alarming October temperatures; now the climate change it’s getting into our ropes, we’re sadly getting used to it. The government has changed and my concern grew.
The world I would like does not provide for discrimination between rich and poor, it does not provide concessions for the better-off social classes, but a fair distribution of services. When I go out in the morning I don’t want to see the homeless gathering his belongings to migrate in search of a meal, I don’t want to see the patrol of policemen called to check on black boys sitting on a bench, suspect only for the chrome plating of their leather.
I wish the world looked more like those beautiful scenes lived in Bologna, a city that has given me the best example of inclusion in my life. For example, what does it take to understand that a migrant is a person who leaves their country in search of better conditions? What does it take to make that small effort of empathy and imagine setting off alone, with a backpack, leaving everything behind. But not to go on the Camino de Santiago, in the midst of pilgrims and spirituality. Those who migrate do so out of necessity and often in disastrous, uncertain conditions; fatigue, violence, suffering are the price to pay for those seeking a new life. Death often stops them first.
And we, can’t we really imagine all this? Do we really want to continue to ignore this human tragedy and close ourselves in a selfish “First the Italians”? (never thought).
I’d like to leave the house and see smiles, free time, time to dedicate to children, relatives, friends; I’d like to see a company that participates, that informs itself, that is ready to change its point of view when necessary. I would like cultural exchange to become my daily bread and that minorities are no longer called minoritiesbut that they are pieces of a colorful puzzle considered incomplete without them.
I would like to see more often, and not just on the social channels I choose to follow, rainbow families, homosexual couples kissing and holding hands on the street, smiling, feeling free to show their love without any fear. I wish those frustrated and ignorant people who criticize and damage all this, discover that the hatred they pour out on others will then consume them from within.
I hope one day to have children with my husband and I would like them to have a world open to diversity, not only in conceptual terms, but in legislation. A world where rights for people with disabilities are strengthened and respected and in which it is easy to ask without offending, to inquire without being indiscreet. A place where LGBTQIA people they do not have to justify their being to anyone, but can hold any position, task, job position only on the basis of a meritocratic system.
What I like about new generations is that they are ready for this. They trained on social media, they are more easily informed about how we thirty-year-olds did it at their age. They are not weaklings, but they know their rights and do not sell out.
For my part, I try to have a broad vision of the world, travel, listen to people, read the news, insights; I don’t judge something I don’t know, but instead try to understand it.
Writing my ideas in black and white is a way to tell your story how is the thought of a Paralympic athlete who has been living with disability for years, explore the world, speak languages, compare and question. Perhaps not everyone is given the opportunity to live a life like mine, but certainly no one forbids you to stop and think a little more about what really matters.
Read also: “Able” and “disabled”, but on what basis?