Heroes make the sun rise in the mornin’
Heroes make the moon shine bright at night
Heroes make our lives a little stronger
In the soul of everyone he can be found
From the song “Heroes” by the Commodores
There have been a couple of occasions over the years where I’ve heard people wonder aloud-with varying degrees of pain and regret, and sometimes tears- if they could have made a difference in the life of someone who was determined to destroy themselves and anyone or anything in their path. It was often an exercise of trying to convince themselves that they could have said or done something dramatic to turn that person’s life around.
But sometimes a simple act of conviction can have the most powerful and dramatic effect.
When 20-year-old Marisol Valles Garcia was named the police chief of the police district of Praxedis G. Guerrero, a crime-burdened town near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico back on Oct. 18, she forced men and women around the world to look in the mirror and readjust their badges of courage.
Marisol was quoted as saying, “The weapons we have are principles and values, which are the best weapons for prevention.”
Sure, she’s being dismissed as young, naive and foolish for taking on the role of a public official, especially when public officials have increasingly become the targets of assassination by Mexican drug-cartels that have consistently demonstrated that there is no limit to their subhuman barbarism.
According to one report more than 28,000 people have been killed as a result of the drug war that has been going on since Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels in 2006.
Some folks have even gone so far as to place rhetorical bets on how long Marisol will stay alive. That’s understandable; cynicism is sometimes the reflection of a mirror that cracks from cowardice.
May God be with her as she tries to make a difference…
The Muse Minefield 