Bartolomeo Vanzetti On Freedom Of Speech

Freedom has always been one of the most beloved words of the American dictionary. From a philosophical point of view America has always been the country that puts the most emphasis on the idea of fundamental rights. For example, freedom of speech in the US is elevated to an absolute level. In fact, in America freedom of speech is perceived so highly that any extremists, xenophobic, and fascist speech is protected by the law if it is not a clear incitement to violence – while in Italy and Germany any recall to fascism and Nazism is a criminal offense. Therefore, in a national born on the idea of self-made men where the land had to be conquered by the strong ones who had the courage to do it, the idea of emancipation has a different meaning.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were among the millions of Italians that emigrated to the US. Their case is an interesting example to show how magnificent was America in the eyes of many man and women of that time. People emigrated to the US not only because of economic reason, but also because America was the new land, the place where everything was possible. In fact, while Sacco moved for economic reason, Vanzetti was a man that came from a notable family in Puglia who emigrated to the US because there was no better place to live for a young man in the 1920s. However, what they fund in America was a nation of opportunities surrounded by poverty and misery. Sacco and Vanzetti were trialed because as many other Americans, they believed that what was happening in the US was unjust. In other words, one America was getting all the benefits of the flourish economy, while the other one was dying for malnutrition. America was deeply divided between the ones who were part of the capitalist dream, and the ones who did not want to conform to that world. For this reason, in the days after the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, one of the most famous American novelist of that time, John Dos Passos, wrote, “all right we are two nations.” He divided in words what the what the American dream had divided in practice. On one side conforming America, made up by the people who guided the economy and the ones who were fueled by American consumerism, and on the other side, what Michael Harrington called, “The Other