I am in Tempe browsing through the weekend newspapers after arriving from my latest trip to Rocky Point, I find it ironic that during the same weekend one paper asks in big capital bold letters, “ Is Mexico Safe”,  while the other shows, “14 people  shot in Tempe”, same weekend same newspaper…

So is Mexico safe? Absolutely not!  Neither is Tempe! Maybe ASU should warn students not to go to Tempe because they could be shot (of course ASU’s campus is In Tempe so that would be a little tough to achieve for ASU students). Actually, one of the most dangerous things most of us do every day is drive in our cars. you can die from a car accident! More so, when you are born there is just one guarantee: you are going to die, we never know when but we will eventually all die. Insurance companies know more about probabilities and play games with those numbers so they can make money on life insurance policies, but the fact of life is that it eventually ends with death.

Sending your kids to school in USA is dangerous: there are shootings almost every year, Concerts are dangerous, freeways are dangerous, there have been random shootings even in a gym or a grocery store, and there has even been a shooting in a hospital recently, all in the US. Random people, random places.

We have all heard the many American tourists and retirees who feel proud to say how safe they feel in Rocky Point. I have always felt safe in Rocky Point. I also feel safe in Tempe, then again I could be shot in either place so the feeling of safety is just that “a feeling”. Maybe I feel safe because I have never been shot, maybe I feel safe because I have not done anything illegal, maybe I feel safe because the people I deal with are not criminals or maybe it’s just my personality that makes me feel safe, better yet:  maybe it’s a choice.

Choice is freedom:  I choose to go to Mexico, enjoy the beach, the culture, the food and the wonderful sunsets, and I choose to feel safe. I also choose to get up every day and not think of the many dangers in the world, but of the many opportunities that  day offers to me. I take risks and I could die taking them, but I will die without them anyway so I don’t see another way to live. I am happy to have the freedom to choose to take those risks. I think the USA is a great country with a beautiful neighbor that is Mexico, and I enjoy both places.

I invite you to do the same and most of all enjoy today because we don’t know what tomorrow brings on either side of the border!