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A post by "Frank Koughan" | http://burrohall.blogspot.com Frank is the author of Burro Hall, and is a former CBS News 60 Minutes producer who has been living in Queretaro since 2006. To see more posts by this author, click here. |
I’m currently holding plane tickets for a vacation in the United States next month. I just came across the following report from ABC News:
A gunman has killed eight people in a nursing home in the town of Carthage, North Carolina, and injured others including a police officer.
…Small town America has often borne the brunt of outbursts of gun violence.
Earlier this month, a 28-year-old out of work man killed 10 people, including his mother and a toddler, in a shooting rampage through two counties in the southern state of Alabama, the worst in the state’s history.
In December, a man dressed in a Santa suit opened fire at a Christmas party being given by his ex-wife in Covina, California, killing nine people before shooting himself.
In October, an ex-convict opened fire with an assault rifle at a man and two children who had come to trick or treat at his home in Sumter, South Carolina on Halloween. A 12-year-old boy died of his wounds in that incident.
In September, a mentally ill man shot eight people, killing six, in Alger, Washington a month after being released from prison.
There are constant calls for US gun laws, tied to the second amendment of the US Constitution guaranteeing the right to bear arms, to be re-examined.
But they stumble in face of opposition from the powerful gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association.
Can anyone familiar with the US advise me – is it safe to travel there? Am I better off eating the nonrefundable fare and staying here in Mexico?
April 3rd, 2009 at 5:28 pm
I’ve been comming to Mexico since the eaarly 60’s and have never seen or been involved in anything like the US media is exposing. Agreed, these are different times but my wife and I now live in San Pancho Nay. Mexico and we love it.
There is not a hint of problems along the Riviera Nayarit coast. I lived in Hawaii for years and was always awqre of the underlying current of mistrust for the visitors ( white people ) but Mexico is very cool. The deminer of the Mexican people is great. There happy to see outsiders and they value the foreign
investment via tourism which brings with it nes jobs and oportunity.
Life is great here, come on down.
April 6th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Hmmm, I’m not sure the first commenter actual read your article. I, on the other hand, am waiting for the Mexican Government to issue a travel warning to the United States.
Because you forgot to mention these:
Friday’s killing of 13 people in a shooting rampage inside a New York State immigration services centre was at least the fifth deadly mass shooting in the US in the last month alone that have left 44 people dead in all, according to an MSNBC compilation.
March 29, 2009: Robert Stewart, 45, shot and killed eight people at Pinelake Health and Rehab in Carthage, North Carolina, before a police officer shot him and ended the rampage.
March 29, 2009: Indian techie Devan Kalathat, 42, shot and killed his two children and three other relatives, then killed himself in an upscale neighbourhood of Santa Clara, California. Kalathat’s wife was critically injured.
March 21, 2009: Lovelle Mixon, 26, shot and killed four Oakland, California, police officers after a traffic stop. Mixon was killed in a shootout with SWAT officers.
March 10, 2009: Michael McLendon, 28, killed 10 people – including his mother, four other relatives, and the wife and child of a local sheriff’s deputy – across two rural Alabama counties. He then killed himself.
In case you didn’t get that… the five incidents just mentioned all happened within ONE MONTH in the United States.
April 8th, 2009 at 1:55 am
I live on the northern US border and limit my visits to short daylight trips.
The constant tension that starts @ the border with the Homeland Security apparatus, the ever present heavily armed para military Washington State Police and countless county and municipal forces plus the many military bases mean visiting a place that seems to be under siege.
People seem friendly enough but cowed and beaten down.
Don’t ever joke or smile @ someone in a Post Office that seems to be an serious offence maybe because it’s a federal office.
Only the most reckless or intrepid make road trips through the USA cheap gas doesn’t make up for the grinding poverty and backwoods squalor that lines the highways.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Brilliant! I’ve been in Guadalajara for 8 years and amn constantly asked about the “security” in Mexico. We’re going to LA for a week and I just plagarized your e-mail and sent it to everyone I know.
April 8th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Excellent story. I live in Playa del Carmen and it is a very safe area. Come down!
April 9th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Ha! This was a brilliant post, and SO funny yet sad in the fact that people who don’t know anything about a foreign destination decide to write it off because they are scared from what they see in the news, completely forgetting that their own local news only shows the bad stuff too.
April 10th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I totally agree with ur comment, the media in the US is being very disrespectul towards mexico and border cities
April 10th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
ur very right
April 12th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
We just returned to the USA after being in PV for several months. I’m glad to be back in the USA but am also looking forward to our return to PV in Oct. for a 6 month stay.Your posting was good example of the issues we deal with in the USA everyday but life goes on and people contiue to travel wherever they want.
How much do you want for your tickets? HA!
April 16th, 2009 at 5:30 am
Well I live in the USA and let me tell you the reputation is just not fair. There haven’t been any mass killings in my town for over a month, and it’s been at least two years since I personally had to kill anybody. Course I have an electrified razor wire fence and a pack of Dobermans between my house and the roving gangs that wander the streets. If you pansies are too scared to come to the USA then stay home! Sure it ain’t for everybody. But then neither is freedom!
April 18th, 2009 at 12:18 am
This is so “funny,” but not in a ha-ha sort of way. My husband and I just got back from Mexico after vacationing for a week. My folks were just there for 3 weeks and my uncle was there for over a month. Each vacation was delightful and uneventful, except my husband fell out of his beach chair and hurt his thumb.
While we were gone for ONE WEEK, a man murdered his 5 children. This was about 15 miles from our house. Another 5 people were murdered during this time, also within 20 minutes from our home. We live in a rural area, not some “big city.” I felt much safer in Mexico than I do here!
July 3rd, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Sadly this is the case. I have travelled to Mexico for years, even to places that are considered “outright dangeours” and I never, ever, had a problem or witnessed something violent happen. I had the opportunity for the last 25 years to travel throughout Latin America by plane, car, train or foot. Throughout all those years I saw exactly one (1) act of crime being committed: a man being chased for stealing a purse. The media is totally unfair to Mexico, yet we refuse to see our own social problems. From reading another article on this site, it apperars that many more US citizens die in a single US city at the place they call home in a month’s period, than in all of Mexico over a 3 year period. At any rate, if you are going to Cancun, and you are going to be guzzling 4-5 beers every single night, what do you expect if you get in trouble? Take my advice: don’t drink! Or if you do, do it in EXTREME moderation. If you are sober you tend to be more aware of your environment. Enjoy the place, enjoy the beach and the sun! Forget alcohol. If you just want to get drunk, don’t spend a penny going to Cancun just to pass out 5 days on an expensive hotel couch. Stay home and save your money for the day you decide to take a real vacation.
November 25th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Frank, go ahead and keep the flight reservations, but get connecting flights to Vancouver or Toronto. The USA is not safe, but our airports have Soviet-style security thanks to the TSA. So as long as you don’t leave the airport, and continue on to Canada, you’ll be fine.