Mexico Drug War
Al Gore’s movie on global warming was called “An Inconvenient Truth.” There are lots of ‘inconvenient truths’ out there. Most of them we would rather ignore than face their harsh reality and do something about them.
One of them that is becoming harder to ignore is the escalating violence and control of Mexico by the drug cartels. The drug cartels’ growing control of Mexico is possible only through the money and weapons that flow into Mexico from the USA. The money is from the sale of drugs and the guns, mostly assault weapons, are from US gun dealers — and the failure to restrict assault weapons in the USA. While the USA helps Mexico stop the production of drugs, the real solution is in the USA where there is the demand for drugs and the easy availability of guns that have no purpose except to kill people.
When Richard Nixon first became president with a promise of making our streets safer, the story goes that he called together his top advisers and asked them what was the easiest and most effective way to reduce crime. They told him to allocate money for drug treatment. He did and for some years crime in the USA went down. Of course after he won a second term and the “Watergate” situation broke open the extensive money for treatment for drugs was forgotten and never resumed to the same level. The USA would like to give guns to both sides of the drug situation in Latin America and provide military aide to fight drugs rather than offer treatment and reduce demand, the most effective means to stop the drug cartels, along with with banning assault weapons.
Today I planted my last salad greens in the G.P. box in the sunroom and finalized the order for seeds for the spring. Also a friend ‘inconveniently’ called me today, as another one did yesterday, for a ride. I gave both a ride and afterward did not feel any loss of time but a blessing to be of service. What may seem like an inconvenience at first can turn out to be something good.
Gandhi talked a lot about seeking the truth, and when you find what you believe to be the truth, acting on it in your everyday life. Today many would like to seek only the truth they want to hear and to ignore the “inconvenient truth.”
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