Piazza della Scala, I was there. Anyway, the protest was pacific.

It was since high-school in Varese, that I started to look for information about the Gelmini reform, together with youths, who were the same age as me, coming from different high-schools, creating moments of reading and analysis. Then, high-school finished, and I ended up to be catapulted in Milan’s university world, which was a very wide and vast reality. To not lose the work that I did in the previous years, I began to attend meetings and debates, which were organised by different student groups. And then 7th December arrived, the first night at the Scala of Milan. Yesterday, I was in front of the Scala, too, in order to demonstrate. But unlike what has been shown, yesterday’s demonstation was pacific, even if there were those five minutes of guerrilla warfare, which, by tradition, all the newspapers focused on. During the garrison of four hours, that was the only case that lasted a few minutes long, in which they resorted to violence.

A violence that was not programmed. It is a method, that one should not use and that we did not want to. And we, and with this I mean the youths I was there with, and all the other demonstrators (apart from the people featured in the news of the whole day), did not resort to it.

I was present with the youths of the Collettivo Noto, a student group, established a few years ago, which gathers us students from the seat in Via Noto, a detachment of the Università Statale of Milan. Even some students from the Accademia of Brera and other faculties were there with us. We students together with the Italian committee for immigrants met after the presence under the tower of Via Imbonati in Milan. We and workers from different theatres. We and many uncertain workers. We and many others. Everyone was there with the simple purpose to demonstrate against the cuts in culture, and against the Gelmini reform. We were there with placards, banners, whistles, leaflets, megaphones, everything that can be used to inform, to combine our voices in the same protest. A pacific protest.

We were on the opposite side of the place. First, I only saw a lot of red smoke, and I heard a firecracker explode. We looked at each other, and the thought was the same: one should not resort to these methods. Later, we saw some people running away, and, instinctively, we did the same. Only a few metres, then a second firecracker. We moved further on a pavement, without seeing anything particular, only the arrest of some demonstrators, and we heard the chorus of cries of “Police, get away!”. The people with megaphones in their hands, students, workers, immigrants, they all called the order, reminding us that violence is no use, and that the protest was and had to be pacific. Everything was solved within a few minutes, then the situation was the same as before.

I get annoyed by the fact that, as already said, only those few minutes were remembered. Yes, because the same message is always passed: student=rowdy person. No, I don’t like it, because I am not like this, just like other students. But generalizing is easy. I’m not a person who takes part in demonstrations in order to skip classes, to create incidents or other things, I take part in them because I believe in what I do, because studying is my job, like my parents, who enable me to study, often say to me; having a personal culture, learning to think with my head, reasoning, knowing, researching: these are the things I’m really interested in, because either I learn them, or I won’t get far in life. I’m quite an ambitious girl, I want to achieve good results, both for me, for personal satisfaction, and as an “exchange” for my parents’ sacrifices. And I think that being present in an active way inside the life of your society is the basis of education. As they say,  “you gain experience”. Being present, but in the right way, of course. And I think that other students can confirm my opinion as well. I trust university, I trust the knowledge it passes on to you, I trust the growth possibilities it offers, the numerous possibilities of meeting other people, the experience it gives you. I trust all these things so much that I can’t let a reform, like Gelmini’s, spoil all this, prevent me from continuing my studies.

Obviously, I don’t expect that everybody agrees with my opinion, however there are several ways to criticize, to state one’s opinion; we are different, and diversity is the source of richness, as long as there is a willingness to dialogue and comparison, done with considered and constructive ways.