They have all of them reached the airport by now in a swarm of bodyguards. Pietro Grasso, Chairman of the Italian Senate,  a nice stocky typically sicilian man. Orlando, the Minister of Justice, Filippo Spataro, the Mayor of Comiso, bravely wearing the three coloured stripe of the italian flag.  Together with the Lord and Lady Mayors of the various neighbouring towns, each with their coloured  town Insigna…. along with a number of Councillors and Town secretaries, the latter all dressed up in black and poshed up by local hairdressers.

By  Francesca Piatti

7th June 2014

The Police Chief, hoards of policemen, various important Carabinieri and a smattering of plain-clothes men with their ear intercoms turned on, all were there. Not to forget the Reverend Morishita, the Buddist monk who built the Peace Pagoda high up on the mountains overhanging Comiso. Also, Angelo Nicosi and Salvatore Aiuto, faithful protagonists and helpers at so many peace venues. And, later on in the day Crocetta, the President of the Sicilian Region, also appears…. maybe a trifle late in order to avoid the boos and jeers of the No Muos activists who are always on his tracks… And high up, across the roofs of the deserted Nato buildings, some long distance snipers have been carefully placed to keep watch.

photo by Francesca Piatti

Everyone’s is coming to the former Magliocco airport to give it a new name, that of Pio La Torre, the man who  so  strongly supported the idea of reconverting the military facility and staunchly contrast  the arrival of the 112 Cruise Missiles there.

Outside, leaning on some pedestrian barriers are the weather beaten farmers from Comiso, side by side with the younger No-Muos activists, buzzing with activity and ready to jeer at President Crocetta and the speech of Chairlady Boldrini of the Italian Parliament.  While the activists of Libera (the Anti mafia Committee) wave their banners, the supporters of the Centro La Torre stand still with dignity, and the cameramen of the Italian RAI TV are busy trying to intercept the various VIP’s as they arrive.

A small ritual ceremony follows with the unveiling of the marble plaque bearing Pio La Torre’s name, when the message of the President of the Rebublic is read out by the Mayor before the deeply moved face of Franco La Torre, his son,  and the band blares out the Italian anthem. Then everybody goes inside… and the politicians get crowded in by journalists, who are out for any interesting piece of news…. While the blissful Monk smiles and talks about peace, and we all finally reach the small room prepared on an upper floor where the speeches are planned to take place and where the waiters are already lined up ready to serve refreshments.

I must admit that the Chairman of the Senate’s speech is a fine one, recalling some of the episodes in which he lived side by side with Pio la Torre before the latter’s tragic death, perpetrated by mafia killers. On this occasion he forcefully demands  that the rich pension benefits still being handed out to politicians akin to the mafia-world be quickly and officially revoked, and this statement immediately gets picked up by the newspaper reporters, ever on the look out for scoops.

One of the orators describes the historic phases of the former Magliocco airport and in so doing waves his arm at the earth-covered missile ramps still evident beside the airfield, excavations where Nato had placed an arsenal so tremendous it could destroy the entire planet six times over. Six times? But wouln’t once be sufficient?

As everybody knows, politicians are  often verbose and enjoy the sound of their own voices, reading out long speeches from sheaves of paper which nobody actually listens to. Some of their party colleagues listen with dead-pan faces, while the women Councillors and some of the ladies present wait patiently,  as do the secretaries wearing eight-inch heels,  and so do the young girls in the tiny miniskirts which the Comiso Council has conveyed there to prettify the venue.

In a moment, food and drinks will be served, and  then everybody will go off home…

Outside, the Comisan people and the activists of Libera and No Muos have got fed up with standing in the burning sun and have left the main entrance. All that’s left there now is the rainbow  banner on the metal crowd-barrier and the official cars, ready to rush the VIP’s to some other political meeting.

But what is the airport really like now, is it any different from when it belonged to Nato, …has it been somehow changed by the passengers passing through its halls – over 160.000 since the beginning of the year?

photo by Francesca Piatti

No way. In the hall of the airport on a sort of platform have been positioned some soldier-dummies, some plastic men on guard  apparently placed there to watch over a few ancient Greek vases recently retrieved from local gravediggers. Dark figures which seem to say: “We, the military are still here, this airport still belongs to us, notwithstanding all the families coming in with their trolleys, the children taken through on wheels, the foreign tourists arriving in short trousers and local  business-men coming in hugging their briefcases.

The warring spirit of the Military airport is still there, on the alert, unwilling to step back. Quite like the barbed wire  still left there around the airport grounds. Like the thousands of soldier-maisonettes now falling apart due to disuse, a broken tile thrown on one side, a lopsided drawing in a deserted school on the other. Just as the rusty iron frames and the earthed-up ramps of the Cruse missiles, from which these once raised their heads and threatened the whole world.

Outside the main hall remains the rainbow banner with the  Magliocco Airport prophecy still promising onlookers “Today a wall of cardboard… Tomorrow a human one”.   Yes today the people who have gathered here are in flesh and blood, totally human , and so is the name of Pio La Torre replacing that of General Magliocco, the  fascist warmonger who wiped out so many natives in Africa .

But if the airport is destined to belong to the people, there’s a long way to go yet. The tourists arriving with their suitcases, the small bar handing out Italian coffees, the car hire desk and the security personnel diligently carrying out luggage checks  won’t be assertive enough,  absolutely not.

The plastic soldier-dummies have to disappear forever, and Life must enter these walls  properly, once again. Within those deserted buildings, the thousands of empty rooms, the barren cinemas and theatre, the ghostly tennis court, the American school with old kids-drawings still flapping on the walls. That’s where Life must enter.

To defeat the military spirit Life must take possession of those areas once again. With forms of vitality and energy from Comiso, new lymph is going to Sicily.  For, could it come to pass that the  temple of world destruction is turned into a living stage, a melting-pot of energies rejoicing and celebrating because the danger of nuclear destruction has been averted?

That’s exactly what the rainbow banner is asking for:  “Today a wall of cardboard… Tomorrow a human one”  So did the thousands of pacifists who came here decades ago, claiming that Comisan land be handed back to Life. Here is their request,  one they still insist on.  Today beside those military dummies in the hall, those pacifists are present also. Along with the spirit of Pio La Torre, their souls marching on,  still marching forwards.

See earlier report at:

http://www.pressenza.com/2014/06/the-renaming-of-aeroporto-torre-comiso-7th-june-2014/