WHAT'S SO FUNNY ABOUT MEXICO'S PLIGHT?

I was at a recent breakfast meeting for District 4 constituents. Joyce
Wilson was the featured speaker.

The topic of the City Hall shootings came up. She gave a tempered, but
serious response. Someone asked a question: "Are you going to issue
bullet-proof vests to city employees? (Ha-ha-ha)."

I failed to see the humor then; there was no humor in the bullet hole
and broken glass in Ms. Adauto's office on the day of the shooting.

I went to see for myself. The difference in outcomes was nothing more
than a whim. Had someone at the roundtable simply stood up, the
consequence would not have been funny, it would have been a funeral.

Political leadership at every level seems to be content or placid
about these events --as if this will pass -- that it is seasonal --
car bombs, beheadings. Employees of the consulate and American
citizens are being killed; infants are being orphaned and the list
goes on.

To date, some 28,000 have been killed in Mexico since
2006.

A lot of this is caused by the fact that the United States consumes
more illegal drugs than any other country on the planet. Mexico, I
believe, is our second-leading trading partner; in drug trafficking,
we're No. 1.

The World Cup brought people to video screens around the world to
watch the very athletically skilled kick a ball around the fields of
South Africa. Yet here in the United States -- especially persons who
are tethered to the country of Mexico by way of finance, family or
friends -- gave more energy and attention to persons kicking the ball
around the soccer fields of South Africa. Citizens and the political
leadership on both sides of the border continue to "kick these
killings down the road."

I look at situations such as SB 1070 in Arizona and all of its
sympathizers, and the national attention and media coverage it gets.
But even this controversy has not killed 28,000.

How many more Mexicans need to die, how many more joints will get
smoked, or cocaine injected, before we get serious?

This is serious. I fail to see the humor.

What's it going to take?