Just Another Brick in the Wall

by Dani Mc Mahon

I am going to start by saying that I try to avoid reading the news too much. It is usually grim and really dulls all the positivity i try to havr around me. However, since last year I have been following the US election and subsequent inauguration of one Donald J. Trump. I am not going to get into how disgusted I was to see him become present (I've already done that in a separate blog piece). I want to write this piece today because while I was on my news feed this morning it was flooded with news stories about the wall Trump intends to construct as a border between the US and Mexico. I made the mistake of clicking in the comments on  the article posted by RTE news. What I found were some horrible comments about Mexicans and their country, from people, might I add, who have probably never even been to Mexico!
Having lived in Mexico for almost three years, being married to a Mexican and having a huge extended family of in laws and friends in Mexico I was deeply saddened and offended by the comments.
Mexico is a spectacular country, with people who for the most part are humble, welcoming and big hearted. I hate to see Mexico being slated in the media and by people like Trump and all his white supremacist followers who have created this awful image on a global scale of Mexico as a place full of drug trafficking, job stealing, rapist good for nothings. As in every country there are awful people, look at the states and all the people who take up weapons and kill others needlessly in places such as schools...how would the people of the United States like to be branded as gun crazed psychos? I'm guessing they would not like it one bit!! I was surprised by these comments not only because they were expressed by irish people who understand the weight of oppression having lived under the thumb of Great Britain for so long with the issue  of a border in our own country but because I thought we were a better people than that. I was obviously mistaken.
As trump prepares to build his wall I worry for the Mexican people. Mexico is a country in development with extreme gaps between the rich and poor with the majority of the Mexican population being classed as being impoverished. These people do not have the means to fight somebody like trump or a country like the states and I fear they will be trampled.
So before you comment on Mexico or the Mexican people the next time do some research, go to Mexico (I dare you!) and see if you still have the audacity to make your hurtful comments.

¡Viva México!