Corruption; A Regional & Cultural Problem

Daniel Salinas was just elected as Sunland Park, NM's mayor shortly after being released from jail after being charged with extortion back in February. His supporters lined the streets with signs to show their support for their candidates who they swore was innocent of any wrong doing. Salinas turned himself in on Monday March 19th after a warrant for his arrest was issued. Salinas is now accused of offering to hire acting police chief Luis Monarez as the actual chief of police if Monarez would convince his sister not to run against one of Salinas preferred candidates for city council.

Sounds like a that Sunland Park residents should be worrying about, right? It doesn't affect us in any way in El Paso, does it?

We can make jokes about how dumb and naive people in Sunland Park, NM are all day long but what is that going to accomplish? People are quick to say that this is a New Mexico problem and just turn the other way. Well I hate to tell you, this isn't a New Mexico problem. This is a regional problem. Sunland Park, New Mexico is closer to my house than most of the West Side of El Paso. It is closer than Resler, Mesa and Redd Rd on I-10. We have to stop fooling ourselves. The corruption is a regional and cultural problem. Cultural? Before anybody gets on their little ACLU, LA Raza, left wing extremist hate trip, let me explain. I am not talking about people's ethnicity. I am talking about the collective patterns of human behavior and practices that we, and I use that loosely, have come to accept.

The good ol' "That's how we have always done it" excuse to justify any questionable activity is no longer acceptable. My response to that ignorant statement is "That just means you have always been doing it wrong."

Take off the blinders and open your eyes El Paso. I am not the first and I won't be the last to say the following. El Paso is under one of the largest public corruption scandals in history. You have people from different backgrounds, different positions, from several different parts of town but the most common denominator is their party affiliation.  This part of Texas has been run by the Democrats for at least as long as I have been alive. How do we expect things to change when we keep electing people with the same values and the same goals into office? It is just the definition of insanity!