Bordertown: The Juarez Murders

A recent trip to a newly opened video outlet yielded an interesting and disturbing find. I have long been a fan of Martin Sheen's work, so my attention was drawn to the hitherto unknown title Bordertown, co-starring Jennifer Lopez. The movie is based on real events in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, located just across the Rio Grande from the west Texas city of El Paso. I had spent several months at nearby Fort Bliss prior to my separation from active duty in the spring of 1969, and had visited Juarez on three different occasions, which further piqued my interest.

My first foray across the border was a daytime visit to an area of shops and stalls selling curios and the types of merchandise that one encounters in tourist traps everywhere. Along with serapes and sombreros, I recall a myriad of paintings on black velvet backgrounds, with Jesus Christ and Elvis Presley as the most common subjects. I remember the aggressive bargaining of several merchants who (possibly) feigned indignation if they were denied a sale. The highlight of the day was a long conversation, mostly conducted in what remained of my high school Spanish, with a vendor who taught English classes in the evening. For well over an hour, I answered his questons on the proper pronunciation and usage of words to the best of my ability. We met as strangers and parted as friends.

Equally memorable was the evening in late December when four members of our squad set out to sample the Juarez nightlife. We were a motley crew: the two squad leaders were a tall, lanky fellow from North Carolina and a Connecticut Yankee of Polish heritage; the third member was a Canadian citizen of native American extraction who had joined the US army to escape the poverty of the reservation, and I was the fourth, an unrepentant liberal with latent musical tendencies. After a few earlier stops, eventually came to a bar with a live band, and there we stayed. I, of course, was interested in the music provided by the house band, a capable mixture of rock and R&B covers. During a break, I became acquainted with the lead singer, and eventually joined the band onstage to sing Revolution by The Beatles. My Connecticut Yankee friend got involved in a long political discussion with a Juarez cop, while our Canadian friend set off in search of a different kind of activity, much to the chagrin of our Southern gent, whose paranoia grew exponentially as the night wore on, culminating with the discovery that our missing member had been relieved of his wallet after being served a loaded drink. Juarez was a rough town, and it was considered unwise for any US serviceman to attract the attention of the local police. As we left, we were being followed by four officers who seemed to have taken an interest in us, but fortunately, we were able to hail a cab for the ride back across the border.

Forty years later, Juarez is home to a large number of assembly plants called maquiladoras, set up in the post-NAFTA era by large U.S. and international corporations to take advantage of cheap Mexican labor and loose environmental regulations. The labor for these plants is predominately provided by young women from the impoverished Mexican interior, earning an estimated $30 to $55 per week under working conditions that were outlawed in this country a century ago. The film deals dramatically with an epidemic of violence that has claimed the lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands of women, while politicians and capitalists seek only to hide the evidence, and the corporate media acquiesces to the dictates of their masters. It is not a pretty picture.

Help Pass the PROTECT Our Children Act 1738

So I just finished watching an episode of Oprah about sexual predators. It was so hard to watch, but I was able to make it through to the end of the program - and I am glad I did. Oprah stated that she was tired of talking about child abuse and wanted to actually do something. Well, it turns out all of us can help, but we just need to act fast. There is a bill that we need to pass in order to help the children who cannot be helped.

Here's what Oprah's website has to say about this bill that's being voted on very shortly:

Hundreds of thousands of children are victims of sexual abuse each year. Due to the sheer lack of resources, law enforcement is unable to follow up on the majority of leads they have.

The PROTECT Our Children Act will:

* Authorize over $320 million over the next five years in desperately needed funding for law enforcement to investigate child exploitation.
* Mandate that child rescue be a top priority for law enforcement receiving federal funding.
* Allocate funds for high-tech computer software that can track down Internet predators.

Okay, so this is the part that we jump in and act. We call, fax, email, or write to our senators, and it can't be any easier, because there's a sample letter you can cut and paste into your email or if you go to Oprah's site (http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20080911_tows_predators) her page has a link to www.senate.gov (or you can just click on the link from this page). From the senate.gov page you pick your state, your senator and then click on the "web form" button if you want to send them an email.

Call Your Senators
If you choose to contact your senators by phone, be sure to tell them, "Vote yes on Senate Bill 1738—The PROTECT Our Children Act."

Write to Your Senators
If you choose to write a letter, fax, telegram or e-mail, you may use the following sample letter—and modify it how you see fit.

Dear Senator:

I know that you believe, like I do, that we must do everything possible to protect children from sexual predators. That is why I am asking for your help.

Last year alone, U.S. law enforcement identified over 300,000 criminals who were trafficking in movies and pictures of young children being raped and tortured. Experts say that one in every three of these criminals has local child victims. Child pornography trafficking over the Internet has given us a trail of evidence that leads straight to their doorsteps, but the vast majority of these children will never be rescued because investigators are overwhelmed, outnumbered and underfunded.

As your constituent, I urge you to do everything in your power to pass the PROTECT Our Children Act (S. 1738, Biden-Hatch). This bipartisan legislation passed the House 415-2, but it is now the victim of petty partisan politics.

Now that we know where these children are and how to protect them, there is no excuse for the Senate to fail to take action this session.

(Your name here)

YES, IT'S THAT SIMPLE! So act now, so that this bill can pass ASAP!

Election '08: Should be about Agenda, NOT Gender

Former Secretary of the State, Madeleine Albright, said it best when speaking about this year's elections, "This is not a question of gender, it's a question of agenda."

For the past two weeks I have watched both a little of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. I may sound bias, but I don't know how you cannot vote for Obama/Biden after hearing them talk about how are nation needs to get back on track. They actually spoke about key issues that the majority of the American public care about, as opposed to the R.N.C. folk's speeches about how a great guy how Senator John McCain is (which I'm sure he is, but we need to hear him speak about how he plans to help our nation overcome so many problems).

My favorite part of the D.N.C. was when they had regular folks who are currently suffering from the Bush administration talk about the problems that they are facing - mostly poverty and the inablility to afford healthcare. There was even a hardcore Republican woman taking a stand against her own party because she has realized that this country can't keep going down the same destructive path.

As the Democratic race was closing in on whether Senators Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton would lead the Democratic party, I was hoping that Clinton would get the nomination. I'm happy to see that she is backing up her party and made a great speech at the convention. I believe that Clinton supporters, like me, are going to continue to vote for the Obama/Biden ticket. Apparently that's not what the Republican party thinks. They may be partially right depending on how conservative you are. If one does their homework though, McCain's running mate Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is no Hillary.

Six in 10 women voters see McCain's choice of a female running mate as a calculated political decision rather than one based on Palin's experience and qualities, the poll conducted by the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group showed.

"Women voters see the choice of Governor Palin as being driven by politics rather than by any sense of conviction on Senator McCain's part that she has the experience and qualities to make a good vice-president," the research group said in a statement.

I think that the biggest issue that doesn't sit well with most women voters is Palin's stand on abortion. We are talking about big time backlash to the women's rights movement!

A majority of the 800 women polled - 56% - said they were put off by Palin's legislative record and her position on moral issues, such as abortion.

"When women voters learn that Palin opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest, opposes stem cell research and, as governor, opposed funding for state pre-kindergarten programmes... a majority say... [they] feel less favourable toward her," the poll showed.

So despite the "homerun" or "a star is born" speech that was described by some critics at the R.N.C., looks like the polls say that the majority of American women are not that impressed by Palin, and I am one of them.

Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention