Opinion – Walter Casagrande Jr.: There are many allies of this cowardly government in football

First of all, I’m a Brazilian citizen, I love my country and I can’t sit in my cabin watching our destruction. It’s not just the destruction of the Amazon, but also the destruction of values ​​and principles, things that this government has never shown itself to have.

I come from a restless, courageous generation that has always taken a stand against everything that happened during the dictatorship. Having been an important component of Corinthian Democracy, for me, was not just a passing attitude: I believed and continue to believe in democracy.

I fought for her and I spare no effort to defend her. I’m not one to lower my head – but always without violence, that’s not part of my personality.

I fight for my freedom. Our democratic Brazil has been under attack for four years without stopping. The worst thing is that the attacks come from the people who should protect us and provide decent living conditions for the population.

Destruction also occurs in education, health and culture. There are a lot of incompetent and unprepared people leading these folders and secretariats.

He is Minister of the Environment facilitating illegal mining, deforestation and illegal timber sales. He is the Minister of Health who shows the middle finger to people, makes it difficult to buy vaccines, advertises ineffective medicines and even gets a mouthful for his son.

Culture was left in the hands of a repressed man who is envious of good actors. That’s why his aim has always been to reduce our art.

And in Education, they try to inhibit at all costs investigations into the involvement of the leadership with some pastors in a corruption scheme.

We are still living within several social pandemics that this government caused.

I don’t want, a few years from now, to look back and realize that I could have done more for my country. My weapons, in addition to the urns, are in the spaces where I write and speak. That’s why I have to use them as best I can.

We cannot forget that in football there are many allies of this cowardly government, teams with many supporters and with a great history in the hands of reactionary people used to giving wallets, some of them also investigated.

I was educated politically through music, reading, cartoons by great artists like Henfil. And our art continues, despite all the sabotage, to politically educate people. This is one of the reasons for the hatred of Brazilian culture: they want to form a generation with little enlightenment so that it can be more easily controlled.

Therefore, we have to give our all at the polls to change this macabre scenario.

Despite everything, I want to believe, like Arnaldo Antunes, Marcelo Fromer and Tony Bellotto, that the pulse is still beating.

Hunger, violence, deforestation, inflation
Bad faith, intolerance, hatred, corruption
Racism, ignorance, homophobia, aggression
Attack on the polls and the laws, guns in hand
And the pulse still pulses, the pulse still pulses

Censorship, contempt, misogyny, machismo
Covid, 650 thousand dead, debauchery, selfishness
‘So what?’, ‘I’m not a gravedigger’, ‘Little flu’
‘History of athlete’, ode to torture, coup
And the vaccine is still late, and the mockery is still little
And the pulse still pulses, the pulse still pulses

Fake news, crack, check, mansion
Chocolate shop, militia, no demarcation
And the herd still passes, and the crime still advances
And the pulse still pulses, the pulse still pulses

Lie, cruelty, cowardice, perversity
Illegal mining, bravado, inequality
Genocide, femicide, contempt, inhumanity
And empathy is zero
And the pulse still pulses, the pulse still pulses
Pulse, Pulse, Pulse, Pulse

“We do not want just food,
We want food, fun and art
We do not want just food,
We want to go anywhere”

(freely inspired by “O Pulso”, by Arnaldo Antunes, Marcelo Fromer and Tony Belotto, and “Comida”, by Arnaldo Antunes, Marcelo Fromer and Sérgio Britto, with the due endorsement of all authors)