Living in a dangerous country

I often get the same question from friends and family, and sometimes total strangers who I have just met. When they learn where I live, they ask "But do you feel safe there with all that violence going on?" And in all honesty, I tell them, yes, for the most part I do feel safe.

It is true, the country where I have been living most recently has been racked with some of the worst violence known to mankind. Everyday ... every single day ... there are shootings, and muggings, and carjackings. We see it in the news every night. It seems that almost weekly now, we learn of another horrible incident where a gunman (or gunmen) enters a business or a night club or a school and opens fire killing and injuring dozens of people. It is usually to settle a score, to seek revenge with someone. But almost always, innocent people get caught in the gunfire. Just yesterday was the latest incident that happened not far from where I am living. Another lunatic entered a small beauty salon and murdered eight people. Eight innocent people whose day started off perfectly normal. Eight innocent people who never made it home last night to their children, their loved ones, their families. People just going about living their lives, only to have their lives taken from them by someone most of them did not even know.

At this point, you may be saying, "Yes, I've heard all that. That is the exact image that I have of Mexico. And that is the reason I will not go to Mexico. It is just too dangerous." But I am not talking about Mexico. For the past four months, I have been living back in the United States, and the violence I am seeing here is honestly worse than what I see when I live the rest of the year in Mexico. Mexico is not without its faults, and certainly the drug violence there has taken a tremendous toll with innocent people sometimes falling victim. But in Mexico, it is a war among gangs and armies fighting over territory. In the U.S., it is personal and hateful and based on anger toward fellow human beings. In two weeks, I will return to my Mexico home where indeed, I will feel safer.