[Letters to the editor are welcome on any and all subjects. Sign your letter in the text body with your name and e-mail address as you wish them to appear, otherwise we will use the information in the "From:" header!]

Letter from A.X. Perez

Letter from A.X. Perez

Dreams

On Facebook, I mentioned that with Mexican Independence Day (16th of September, Dia del Grito,) and Constitution Day (17th of September) Falling on Thursday and Friday, this weekend should (should have?) been celebrated as a four-day holiday called Dream of Freedom Weekend. Next year it could be a three day weekend and in 2024 as a mid-week holiday.

I refer to this as Dream of Freedom Holidays because for too many people in both Mexico and the US being actually free is a dream. Most of us are in big cages and/or on really long leashes and don’t notice our freedoms are restricted. For example, it is illegal for an American civilian to acquire a fully automatic weapon manufactured after May 1986, but even if it weren’t, the things are expensive enough, not to mention use so much ammo, that many people can’t afford one unless they really need one, which means damn few of us will go through life realizing how oppressed we are by the (obscenity of choice) Hughes Amendment and NFA of 1934. Which leaves us in a better place than our friends in Mexico, one of whom, when asked why he kept trying to sneak into the US to gain freedom answered the Border Patrol Agent, "Señor, they have all the gons (guns)." Even so, both in the US and Mexico, people don’t frequently need guns, full auto or otherwise, to go about their honest business unhindered. Of course, when they do, they need them rather badly.

Unrestricted gun ownership is just an example of a dream that is almost true in the USA, and quite a bit less so in Mexico. Part of a dream of freedom that citizens of both countries have fought for and struggled to make work, and, to be honest, haven’t quite achieved. So I say let’s have a two-day holiday celebrating that dream, until the day we are having a two-day holiday celebrating that it’s come true. While we’re at it, let’s see what we can do to bring it closer to coming true.

A.X. Perez
[email protected]

Was that worth reading?
Then why not:

PAY A.X. Perez