August 23, 2010

The Killers of Juarez

By In Thoughts

One of the greatest crimes of the favored is apathy to the plight of the unfortunate.  Many Americans feel this to be true and for a few moments each year, they gather behind the news of the day and text money to a cause.  They allow others to work out the details and go on drinking Starbucks and smoking pot.  Edmund Burke wrote, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  Americans now are doing something worse than apathy, they are actively contributing to the plight of a nation.

Laws are based on action, not inaction.  Yet, if a friend was choking in your kitchen, you would help them, right?  What if you had set them up to choke?  Americans contribute twenty billion dollars to the Mexican government to help fight the drug industry.  Yet they also consume an estimated forty billion dollars of illegal drugs each year from the seven Mexican Narco Cartels.  Many of you reading this are direct contributors to one side or the other of this problem, sides which when broken down can best be described as a struggle between good and evil.  Perhaps listening to the audio documentary La Frontera will alert you to the result of your actions and help bring you over to the good side.  Perhaps calls for giving in to evil will wane when you hear of the effects many of you unwittingly contribute to.

Many people including reporter Colm McNaughton risked their lives to help make this documentary possible.

Written by Jon Hillenbrand

Jon Hillenbrand is a Chicago-based artist working in photography and filmmaking. He has over 15 years of professional award-winning experience working both locally and nationally in television, print and web advertising. He currently calls Evanston, IL home.