It's so easy to get over your head in all this, the problems facing Mexico and the US are large and complex and intricately linked. While I don't think the US coverage of Mexico is correct, I did not mean to trivialize the very real war that is going on down here. No, it does not effect my day to day life and no, tourists are not targets and are unlikely to see any of it. As usual, it is the poor and the disenfranchised that are the random victims and it is the poor and the disenfranchised that are recruited for the job of soldier. Both sides of this war, the army and the cartels are staffed by those who have few other options.

The other group that are too often the victims of violence here are journalists. It is not safe to be a journalist here in Mexico and write about the cartels or corruption. You don't have a free press when to write the wrong thing is a death sentence. That is something that bothers me a lot about my adopted home. It is something that is on the minds of most of the bloggers I know as well, you bite your lip at times when considering what to write.

One of the blogs I read regularly is written by Jeremy Schwartz out of Mexico City for a paper in Austin, TX. He has a clear view and a lucid pen, I recommend his blog Uncovering Mexico. This week he talks about the resurgence of Mexico in the minds and press of the US.