Abbiamo seppellito Derek Rocco Barnabei oggi.

           Ho fatto lezione stamattina prima di recarmi al cimitero. Ho invitato i miei studenti a partecipare, a scelta, alle esequie, come segno di condivisione dell’angoscia del popolo Italiano, attonito da questo omicidio di Stato. Nessuno si è visto, però. Né io ne sono rimasto sorpreso. Speravo soltanto che alcuni di loro, dato che studiano l'italiano, avessero voluto essere presenti, ma mi sbagliavo. I giovani americani sono completamente ignari di quello che succede intorno ad essi. Spero che non sia troppo tardi per loro quando finalmente capiranno.

Il corteo funebre è arrivato alle tredici e un quarto, proveniente da Somers Point, New Jersey, circa 200 Km. da Broomall, Pa. nel cui circondario si trova il cimitero. La Santa Messa era stata celebrata nella chiesa di Saint. Joseph, a Somers Point, alle dieci. A richiesta della famiglia, la tumulazione è stata strettamente privata. C'erano la mamma, Jane Barnabei, il fratello Craig con la fidanzata, la sorella di Jane e il marito, e alcuni altri membri della famiglia che ancora vivono in Pennsylvania.     

Di estranei c'eravamo solamente io e mia moglie. Non siamo rimasti estranei a lungo, però. Appena mi sono presentato, sono stato accolto con sorrisi, abbracci e baci. Per oltre due anni, mi sono tenuto a contatto con la famiglia mentre cercavamo di aiutare lo sfortunato giovane. Però, avevo sempre parlato al telefono con Jane, qualche volta con Craig, e alcune volte anche con Rocco quando si riusciva ad ottenere un collegamento a tre. Non avevo mai avuto occasione, però, di conoscerli personalmente. Sfortunatamente, la conoscenza l'abbiamo dovuto fare oggi, al cimitero. Ho scritto molto a suo favore. Sono stato uno dei pochi a scagliare dardi epistolari contro gli ipocriti. No, non ero un straneo, anzi mi hanno trattato come un membro della famiglia.

         A benedire il feretro presso la tomba e a recitare le preci di rito c'era il Rev. Joseph M. Derrig, parroco della vicina chiesa di San Pio X, ivi convocato per richiesta del sacerdote della Virginia che ne aveva ricevute le spoglie. Da discreta lontananza, un inviato della Associated Press, con una macchina fotografica munita di potente teleobbiettivo, scattava con circospezione alcune fotografie. Prima che arrivasse il feretro, mi ero presentato a lui esprimendo  la mia sorpresa che un rappresentante dei newsmedia fosse presente, dato che a detta del Philadelphia Inquirer, "il caso ha destato scarso interesse negli Stati Uniti," e il New York Times non ha dedicato mezza parola all’evento. Lui non ne sapeva niente. Aveva ricevuto l'incarico di seguire questo evento ed era venuto.

Nessun gruppo italo-americano si è fatto vedere. Sapete, quelli che ogni anno spolverano la storia di Sacco e Vanzetti e organizzano conferenze, specie in seno agli atenei che insegnano la lingua italiana, e inveiscono contro il pregiudizio che contrassegnò quella sciagurata causa avvenuta nel 1927/28, mentre continuano ad ignorare la storia di Derek Rocco Barnabei. Il caso Sacco-Vanzetti è sepolto nella storia ed è, quindi, politicamente "innocuo"; quello di Barnabei è troppo scottante e potrebbe richiedere più impegno personale. E' meglio non agitare le acque. Si potrebbe andare a fondo!

Le spoglie di Rocco erano state sistemate in una bara color marrone, austera, quasi spartana, totalmente spoglia degli ornamenti con cui le bare in America sono normalmente fregiate. Pensavo che fosse quella passatagli dallo Stato della Virginia, ma il direttore delle pompe funebri disse di no. Evidentemente, non gli hanno regalato nemmeno la cassa. Comunque, date le circostanze, quell'austerità gli si addiceva a Rocco. Dopo sette anni di martirio, non avrebbe voluto presentarsi al suo Creatore con falso sfarzo. Perciò, la sua aureola sarà tanto più rilucente.

Finito il rito religioso, ognuno degli intervenuti sfilò a fianco della bara, poneva un fiore sul feretro, passando oltre. Anche la famiglia, ha compiuto questo gesto di pietà con riservata dignità. Non ci sono state grida sconsolate o drammatiche scenate di disperazione. In America questo non succede generalmente. Ma sono sicuro che in ogni caso, Jane di lacrime non ne ha più da versare, dopo sette anni di veglia ai piedi della croce.

Prima che la famiglia risaliva in macchina, ho presentato a Jane un dono. Si trattava di un quadro in cui, in una scena eterea, si vede Gesù in bianche vesti che abbraccia un giovanotto, anche lui con una lunga tonaca bianca. Nello sfondo, in bianchi tratti irreali, si intravedono le figure di Dio Padre a bracia aperte, e al di sopra della scena una Colomba: la Santissima Trinità accoglie l'anima di Rocco in Paradiso. Jane è rimasta molto toccata da questo, esclamando: "Sembra proprio Derek, visto da dietro."  Le ho dato anche due poesie, una intitolata, "I'm free," (Sono Libero) di autore sconosciuto. L'altra, di Robert Browning, intitolata, "Along the Road," (Lungo la strada), in cui il poeta dice di aver camminato un miglio col Piacere che non ha mai smesso di parlare, e con tutto quel ciarlare, non gli insegnò la saggezza. Ha camminato un miglio col Dolore, invece, che restò muto, ma quante cose imparò dopo che il Dolore aveva camminato assieme a lui. In certe occasioni, solo il poeta riesce ad  apportare un tantino di conforto all'anima afflitta.

Prima di partire, Jane si lamentò che, data la distanza che separa la sua abitazione dal cimitero, non le sarebbe stato possibile visitare la tomba di Rocco troppo spesso. Io l’ho rassicurata. Recandomi all'università ogni giorno, passo a meno di un chilometro di distanza da essa. Sarò io a fermarmi di tanto in tanto a visitarla, a lasciare un fiore, a mormorare una prece.

        Addio, Rocco.

Legal Murder in America

September 15, 2000
An innocent man was executed in America last night, and nobody noticed.

             On Thursday night, September 14, P.M. I cranked up my computer to write an article about the Barnabei case. I wasn’t sure what kind of article. He was supposed to be executed in Virginia at 9:00 P.M. We all hoped for a miracle, so I waited for events to unfold. At 9:06 my phone rang. I picked it up feverishly, hoping that whoever was calling was going to give me the good news for which I had been praying for months. Alas, the opposite was true: one of my friends, who gets Italian television, was calling me to tell me that Derek Rocco Barnabei had just been executed. The execution was scheduled for 9:00 P.M. Virginia doesn’t fool around. We had to hear it from Italian television, because in the land of the free and the home of the brave nobody cared. After all, he was only an Eye-talian: not even a mafioso!

            Ironically, earlier in the evening I had put the finishing touches to a story on the death of Tommaso Natale, that took place on October 28, 1943, in Italy. It’s a chapter in a book I’m writing about WWII. Tommaso was shot by a Nazi soldier just because he had not obeyed his order to halt. He was shot in the back. That Nazi had no more right to give orders to an Italian civilian in his own land, much less shoot him, than Gov. James Gilmore of Virginia had to execute Derek Rocco Barnabei. In America a man is presumed innocent until proven guilty, right? Wrong! The Commonwealth of Virginia apparently makes its own rules: its prosecutors failed to link Derek to the murder of seventeen year old Sarah Wisnosky. Yet, the jury not only found him guilty, but they condemned him to death. Four appeals were denied despite the plight of the Italian people and Parliament, the European Parliament, the Pope and an entire array of famous people including Richard Gere for a stay of execution. Alan Dershowitz, of O.J. fame, who picked up the case in its late stages, said: “The Barnabei case represents one of the most egregious miscarriages of justice, and one of the most compelling cases of innocence I’ve ever seen…” But, Virginia was immovable. At the time of actually putting him to death, the justice system in the United States demands that every possible evidence be exhausted before injecting the poison in a body that would then be dead forever. Virginia, with a mountain of evidence at hand (most of them mishandled anyway), but “inadmissible” because not presented within 21 days, kills a man who was not a hardened criminal and who consistently cried out his innocence. Nazi Germany had nothing on Virginia.

            Even more disturbing is the fact that it was Italian television (Barnabei was half Italian, but the Italians of Siena were the only ones to set up a subscription and funded most of his defense) that announced Derek’s demise immediately because its cameras were on the spot: American media were totally silent. The only newspaper that dedicated an article to the case was the Philadelphia Inquirer, on Sept. 3, 2000, but it reeked of sarcasm about Italy making martyrs of felons in death row. Even the day after, an article in the Inquirer by Jeffrey Fleishman, admitted that the execution “drew scant attention in the United States,” and focused more on the Italian reaction to it. Yes, Mr. Fleishman, Derek Barnabei was only an Eye-talian after all. Imagine those stupid Italians holding a vigil at the Colosseum? Don’t they have a sit-com to watch on TV or something? Egads! Never mind that as an American citizen, Mr. Barnabei’s constitutional rights had been brutally violated in a criminal manner.

After the announcement came that Derek was indeed dead, I put on CNN all night, but they didn’t say a word. KYW News Radio, didn’t mention it nor did local newspapers even announced Derek’s death. The Italian American community (which has been stripped of its identity these days anyway), was nowhere to be found. Gone are the Little Italy’s of America, and with them any sort of solidarity, if there ever was one, has been lost forever. Of course, with the media ignoring the case, the average Italian-American didn’t even know about it. But, what about the Italian-American fraternal organizations, and the foundations, and the institutes? And the intelligentsia at various universities throughout America, where were they? Every year they take the Sacco and Vanzetti case out of mothballs, they blow the dust off of it, and talk about it for an evening. Then they put it back for another year just like they do with the statues of various saints that they parade around towns because of traditions, even though these days the traditional neighborhoods are nothing but ghost towns. Yet, they allowed another case, even more flagrant to take place right under their noses. “Derek who? Barnabei?  How do you spell that?” Give me a break!

            And, where were the Italian American politicians, who at election times join in those procession: (to get votes, not to express their faith)? The Torricelli’s (Derek’s own senator), the Santorum’s, the Cuomo’s. Where was the Church, the Archbishop of Philadelphia, himself being of Italian discent (especially considering that Derek’s mother is a graduate of Overbrook High School, hence a Philadelphian), where was His Eminence? More poignantly, where was Antonine Scalia? Fishing? After all, the Supreme Court of the United States had the last say. I challenge any of the above named, politicians, especially Judge Scalia, to write to me and show me the criterion that proved to them that Derek was guilty! As an American citizen, I have the constitutional right to know. If they can’t do that, then they’re all just as guilty of legalized murder as Gilmore is.

            I’m not going into details about the case, but if anyone would like to read more about it, the family, who lives in Somers Point, N.J., has a web page at the following internet address: www.barnabei.com. Everything is there. American Citizens, read it, and tremble!

When I taught English at Bishop Kenrick High School, I used to teach the jury system of justice as it exists in the United States. I was idealistic then: I thought that in America justice will prevail in all cases. Isn’t that funny? That’s what Derek thought, too! I used to turn the classroom into a court room. The operative, ever recurring concept was: reasonable doubt. A person accused of a crime in America is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and the burden of proof rests with the State. Culpability must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, otherwise the jury MUST return a Not Guilty verdict. The Barnabei case was not only replete with reasonable doubt, but it reeked with judicial “irregularities,” (and I’m being mild here). The judge, the DA, even the Supreme Court of Virginia, and those who had anything to do with the case, all exhibited questionable attitudes. It’s all on the internet. Read all about it! This case should have been thrown out of court the second day of trial.

            So, how, how, how does a sovereign State, a member of the original thirteen, which figured so pre-eminently in establishing the “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all,” how does a political entity of such historical stature sink so low as to put an innocent man to death? And how does it happen that everyone else in the United States has his head in the sand and ignored the whole sorry mess, even while the whole of Europe has been in an uproar about it for a couple of years?

Going back to the case of Tommaso Natale (cousin of Judge Sebastian Natale of Dauphin County, Pa.), I see no difference between the two events. In fact, the last time I ever saw such a degree of official arrogance as exhibited by Gov. Gilmore in the Barnabei case, was when I lived under the Nazi’s, in Italy. If they accused a person of a crime (against the Nazi’s of course), there was no recourse that had any weight: he was summarily shot. Much like Gov. Gilmore said: “I say he did it, and that’s that.” In both cases, moral and State law were violated. Hitler was crazy, but what’s your excuse, Gilmore?

            An Italian newspaper this morning called the USA, “the country of death,” and I’m afraid that the assessment was tragically correct. In America, these days, we’re killing unborn babies by the millions, killing on the streets is a daily occurrence, killing in the schools of students by students has dipped as low as the level of the first grade, and now we’re killing innocent people under the aegis of righteousness. Virginia has rejected the appeals of the Italian Parliament, of the European Parliament, and even the Pope with a resounding raspberry, and at 9:00 P.M. they proceeded, with impunity and hubristic arrogance, to eliminate an innocent man.

The realities of modern America flies in the face of the idealistic dream of Thomas Jefferson, ironically the quintessential Virginian, (and of his friend, the Florentine, Dr. Filippo Mazzei who suggested much of the contents of the Declaration of Independence, to him! Barnabei was of Tuscan origin, too). This is not what Jefferson had in mind. Bloody, bloody America, you are morally bankrupt!

An innocent man was executed last night in America, and nobody noticed!

Where is the Italian-American Community?