You know something is seriously wrong in your country when citizens begin pleading for their lives by writing “DON’T SHOOT! FAMILY ON BOARD!” on their vehicles.

If you ask common citizens about this writing you will recieve many replies. Everyone has an opinion and each is different. I sent this picture to five e-mail contacts of mine from different parts of Mexico and requested they email me back with one word to describe the above picture. The five, one word, responses translated into English were:

“Sarcastic, Desperate, Fed Up, Dangerous, and Tragic”

I then sent requests to the same contacts asking whether or not they felt the above action was justified. All five contacts deemed the above action justifiable in light of the current situation Mexican’s across the nation are facing. We are in danger not only of kidnappings, stray bullets, and cross fires by rival drug cartels, but also by a kill or be killed psychosis amongst the very police and military soldiers who are fighting to protect us.

In the state of Nuevo Leon, two different shootings of innocent civilians have taken place within the past month. In the first incident, Monterrey police mistakenly opened fire on the vehicle of innocent family of six, after confusing their vehicle with a getaway car of armed robbers.

In Escobedo, Nuevo Leon, soldiers opened fire on a woman’s vehicle, hitting her five times and causing her to endure numerous hours of life saving surgery. The reason: Shoot or be shot psychosis. The woman was driving a vehicle with the windows tinted dark. When a sole military vehicle came out of “nowhere” and ordered her to pull over, the woman, fearing her life was being threatened, sped up, ignoring the soldier’s command. The soldier’s fearing they were up against possible narcos, again tried to stop the vehicle. When the vehicle did not stop, they opened fire.

Is it necessary to write such plea on our vehicles? No, probably not. Is it justifiable, most definitly, yes. My personal opinion is, each one of my friends who gave me their opinion, had it right. Is it a sarcastic act, yes, but why not? It is a protest to each and every person who threatens our existance; whether it be a narco drug dealer or a terrified, trigger happy police or soldier. We, citizens, have no choice, but to keep living. While my wife and I have not written anything on our vehicles, I have ofton toyed with the idea of having t-shirts made for us stating: “NOT WORTH KIDNAPPING“, with a copy of our bank balance and personal assets on the back.

Desperate and fed up: You bet. I don’t think there is a person alive in Mexico who isn’t both desperate and fed up with our current living “arrangements”. Dangerous, who knows. Could such an act cause a narco, police, or soldier to be angered and shoot anyways? Maybe. The rules change everyday, but I doubt such an act would cause anymore danger to the family than they already have by simply living amongst the bullets as we do now.

Tragic: This is the answer that probably affected me most. This is the word which not only sums up the writings on the vehicle, but the entire war on drugs; the violence, killings, corruption, lies, hate, and evil which has taken control of our entire nation. This one word now seems synonymous with MEXICO....TRAGIC.