The comforting words of my faith that I repeat so easily must surely ring hollow to people struggling to find daily food and watching their children die.

Phil Smith, The Poor will be Glad

If some 30,000 people have been murdered in Mexico in the past 4 years, who do you think is really taking the hit? What do these murders mean for the future of Mexico and how will the children of Mexico respond to growing up under this tremendous oppression?

Undoubtedly, the reverberations of these murders, the grotesque violence and the endless convoys of men with guns, will have a long lasting and destructive effect on this generation. It has already been reported that 40% of young men in the state of Chihuahua “want to become sicarios, professional killers.” These types of reports are finally starting to weed their way to the surface of our entangled media outlets. But still, words are cheap without action. So what’s the answer?

On September 8, 2010, the El Paso Times posted a front page article about how Juarez police officers are giving hands-on “training sessions” at elementary schools teaching children what to do in case of a shooting. They will be doing these training sessions at every school in the city. I cringe when I imagine the little ones in Colonia Palo Chino on the dusty basketball court learning skills no child should have to learn. But this is happening. Ciudad Juarez is a complete mess and very few are willing to go there.

Most recently Denver’s Westword published a well written, poignant but unsettling article called Juarez’s children: Drugs, death and fear I have posted some intense quotes from the article, but I encourage you to read it in its entirety. The condition of Juarez and the detrimental transformation of an entire generation is terribly real and should propel all of us into action on some level.

What does this issue stir in you?

Juarez’s children: Drugs, death and fear
by Jen Friedman-Rudovsky

Laura says keeping Alfonso inside (her home) is her only choice, though she admits it’s no way to raise kids. “We have to put up with that for now,” says the 40-something hairstylist. “It’s got to change at some point, but the solution is not going to come from the politicians. All they do is send more Federales, and look where that’s gotten us.”

“In Juárez, your only choice is narco or the maquila,” says Susana Molina, an activist who helped revitalize a once-desolate public park. And maquilas are no dream job. The sprawling factories are infamous for deplorable working conditions, low wages, and long hours. “Narco,” Molina says, referring to narcotrafficking, “offers a better life.”

Even if Juárez were to give up its murder capital reign, it would still be deeply troubled. Education is substandard: 68 percent of 5-year-olds — about 65,000 children — do not attend kindergarten. Juárez has the highest drop-out rate in the country — 29 percent — and students begin leaving as early as the fourth grade. About 45 percent of those between the ages of 13 to 24 are neither enrolled in school nor have formal employment.

“What can you expect when the maquilas’ starting salaries are the same whether you have gone to school or not?” Jusidman asks. “There have to be other economic opportunities for Juárez residents if this city is ever going to change.”