“But what about the yellers?” It was a question I asked myself as much as Fede before her last speaking engagement. A regular part of speaking publically about the Middle East, in my experience, is dealing with the various crackpots, quarrelers and raging idealogues poised with attacks for every word you say.
Realizing peace is about educating people though, OD volunteers commonly spend much of their “time off” in country speaking to as many people as possible about their work. I’ve attended 2 of these speeches now, not just to provide logistical support but also for the cultural comparison of seeing how Italians react to what they see.
It’s been interesting. The first speech was in the Northern part of the province, Ferrara, incidentally scheduled for the same day as the major blizzard that swept across here in strange patches. As we made our way there through a thick blanket of snow, we heard that “the buses” bringing her audience we coming anyway. Buses? Whaaa? Upon arriving we found very little snow but a whole gymful of kids of all ages playing games. Apparently this was some kind of Catholic Youth Day with “Peace” as its theme. Fede had originally been prepped for a talk with a “small group of middle schoolers.” What it actually ended up being was 15 minutes with the 80 or so kids whose buses actually arrived. Who knows what effect the pictures of dead animals and nonviolent resistance had on them.
Yesterday night was the second outing. We wound our way up into the hills not far away to stop in a charming little village along a medieval wall. The venue was “The Peacock Tree”, a little old school cafe that hosts leftish gatherings, nonviolence discussions, and poetry readings in the local dialect, Romagnolo. (Selections from Feb lineup: “Chickenlegs”-Italians do rockabilly/surf “Waltzing Mathilda”- Italians do Irish[?] Man talks about Fungi and climate change, etc) The mix of down-home cultural revival and political consciousness was cool, surrounded by antique furnishings, posters of Native American chiefs and the various quotes attributed to them translated into Italian, and birdcalls from what must have been quite an aviary upstairs.
Now, the yellers. They were there yesterday, though not amongst the kids the other day. It’s amazing to me that even when someone takes pains to explain that their efforts are really not explicitly political, that they only support nonviolence, and that they really are not there to offer any conclusive answers on anything, people still demand answers on politics, violence, and general conclusions for everything.
Overall the event was charming and fun. I should have asked how to say “yeller” in Romagnolo though.
Evan Welkin 