Recognizing the mortal loss of our fallen, Paolo Giovanni, Francesca, Emanuela, Walter, Rocco, Vito, Antonio, Agostino Vincenzo and Claudio
hurts and thinking about them does not mitigate their absence. We have tried to bring back and reflect upon in an appropriate manner, the memory of these two martyrs of the 1992 massacres. Just like reopening a wound and making it heal faster with more love, we feel with confidence that they would like to have been remembered after fallen victim to the ills of the land as they still believed in the institutional law and in the State.
We have requested many friends to tell us something by diving in the recesses of their memories. The question presented to them has been simple yet difficult: Tell me where you were when they killed Giovanni, Paolo and the others close to them because of their great love. It has been like causing a disturbance of something that inside of them has not yet found a place of peace. Memories with a thirst for justice have surfaced, with the longing to deliver a more honest world, a moral legacy, or a new song. Remembering that we still do not have a guilty party and those who should have paid, still have not adds to the pain. The accounts we have been given not only convey memories, but also, the heartache, outrage, lack of forgiveness and the unwillingness to even dismiss the memory, of the witnesses cited in this book.
Twenty Years, was born trying to encourage people talk to strangers and friends, and as a result, each one of them has brought his own personal contribution to this most beautiful mosaic.
Those who have voluntarily participated to the book include:
Maria Falcone, Rita Borsellino, Ignazio Arcoleo and Roberto Gueli, Letizia Battaglia, Rachid Berradi, Augusto Cavadi, don Luigi Ciotti and Raffaele Sardo, Amelia Crisantino, Gaetano Curreri, Giuseppe Di Piazza, Alfonso Giordano, Maurilio Grasso, Stefano Grasso and Corrado Fortuna, Enzo Guidotto, Sebastiano Gulisano, Ferdinando Imposimato, Claudia Loi, Pina Maisano Grassi and Chiara Caprì, Antonio Mazzeo, Natya Migliori, Marilena Monti, Carlo Palermo and Denise Fasanelli, Aldo Penna, Pippo Pollina, Enrico Ruggeri, Luca Tescaroli.
Each one of them has given a valuable jewel, made of words, and they have shared it with us. It is not by chance that they come from all over Italy, and not as owners, but only as messengers, delivering this to you.
Translated by Nino Russo
