Is that a Foot?

There is tremendous violence in Mexico these days, mostly because of the drug trade. But there are kidnappings (which have kind of become a cottage industry in Mexico) robberies, extortion and the like that have nothing to do with drugs. It's just all about money.

Click here for yet more disturbing pictures and an article from Borderland Beat about a recent mutilation. The victim was probably involved in drugs. But no one deserves to die like this.

It's hard to pin down who is ultimately responsible for all of this murder and mayhem. But I believe that those who use drugs have some responsiblity for the violence, too.

When I was 12 and 13 years old I used to ride horses at a show barn in Griffith Park. The glamorous adults who ran the show gave the impression of being squeaky clean. But, snoop that I was, I discovered that some of them were heavily involved in cocaine use. One of the men blamed his nervous shaking on hypoglycemia and I was so naive that I believed him. In the 70's and early 80's everyone and his pet parakeet had hypoglycemia. However, now, as an adult, I recognize that such nervous behavior was probably not related to blood sugar, but rather to a big pile of cocaine!

People who use illicit drugs, most of which come to California through Mexico, are in some way contributing to the violence. The people who die horrible deaths due to their drug running may be bad people themselves, but they all were once somebody's baby. They were real people. And the violence is real. It is not a cartoon or a video game. And drugs, and the people who use them, are not glamorous.

Best Wishes,

Jen :)