{"id":108876,"date":"2015-12-17T09:16:56","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T16:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=108876"},"modified":"2015-12-17T12:39:06","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T19:39:06","slug":"in-new-mexico-we-dont-bowl-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/12\/in-new-mexico-we-dont-bowl-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"In New Mexico, we don’t bowl alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> The night of the November 2015 ISIS attacks in Paris, I was suddenly grateful for the miracles of Facebook as my friends all checked in safely. The few-days-earlier ISIS attacks in Lebanon had me worrying about\u00a0an aid-worker friend who I last knew to be living there; luckily, I found a few days later that she\u2019s now living \u201csafely\u201d in Libya.<\/p>\n

\"Elisabeth<\/a>

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Elisabeth Miller<\/p><\/div>\n

Here in America, the overwhelming reaction? Just say no to Syrian refugees. This, after months of tittering at how quickly European nations went from \u201cwelcome all\u201d to \u201cuh oh.\u201d This, given that most Americans were ignorant that we, via the Department of State, have a Refugee Admissions Program that works in concert with the United Nations to resettle refugees here. Which is how we wound up with the latest election-year political football narrative of states refusing to take Syrian refugees.<\/p>\n

That violent extremists seek to enter the United States\u00a0and harm us is a credible fear. That there might be violent extremists amongst a pool of vetted refugees just waiting for their chance (like the Russia-loyal Communist sleeper cells of the Cold War era) is a credible fear. That young men, whose desire to belong<\/a> make them susceptible to messages of righteousness, salvation, violence and hatred by groups like ISIS, want to harm us is \u2013 given how we\u00a0symbolizes all that they hate \u2013 a credible fear.<\/p>\n

If you think that U.S. state governors who\u2019ve made no-Syrian-refugees-welcome-here statements are hard-hearted or misguided, that\u2019s certainly a viewpoint to take. Accepting refugees is a benevolent thing to do, and that compassion for suffering is an American value we should cherish. But at least take a moment to recognize that your elected officials represent everyone in your state, and many people are afraid and do look to those whose job it is to protect them to do so. Political football or not.<\/p>\n

And now yet another reminder that we have own homegrown actors. For me, the most frustrating thing about a Facebook feed of dueling liberal- and conservative-bashing memes is this: While showing\u00a0concern over how our country\u00a0conducts itself in the world, or passionately promoting one candidate over another for no good reason whatsoever is the flavor of the day (although c\u2019mon, I\u2019m a political scientist, so yes, in reality I\u2019m secretly enthralled by any display of political passion), what about here? New Mexico.\u00a0Where you<\/em> actually live.<\/p>\n

A recipe for a perfect storm<\/h3>\n

French economist Thomas Piketty believes\u00a0that economic inequality caused by the West drives these \u201cradical losers<\/a>,\u201d while American scholars point instead to a host of social factors<\/a>. U.S. scholars rarely like to confront their \u201corientalist\u201d tendencies when talking about the Middle East. God help me, but Piketty has a point (see here<\/a> or here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

When you can\u2019t join in. If one misstep results in a detour or setback so severe that you can\u2019t recoup your losses. If you are raised amidst disaster and mayhem. Then you will find yourself making some very interesting life choices that, while perfectly rational given your milieu, others will judge you harshly for.<\/p>\n

New Mexico\u2019s own statistics tell a tale that should make us realize that we run the risk of failing ourselves long before ISIS gets to us. The NM 2015 State of the Workforce Report<\/a> shows incomes lower than the U.S. average and high poverty levels; one out of every five N.M. residents lives below the poverty level; almost two-thirds of those below the poverty level have a high school education or less; our labor force participation rate is declining more than neighboring states. And over one-third are saddled with unskilled jobs \u2013 those jobs with no career development or advancement.<\/p>\n

Why does this bother me, and why does arguing about Syrian refugees make me think about it? Just over 50 miles away, my prior home, Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, has a booming local market for cheap heroin. Like the United States\u00a0and unlike the rest of Mexico, heroin is becoming the thing. And it\u2019s that way in part because of the \u201clost boys,\u201d the large underclass of users and addicts who were raised by and within the violence of the city over the last decade.<\/p>\n

You may have heard them called \u201cni-ni\u2019s\u201d (for no education, no job), but it\u2019s worse than that. It\u2019s no education, no job, and they see violence as the norm<\/a>. So when the cartels come a callin\u2019, they are the warm bodies that fill the low-level slots because, for the short time they have the job, selling drugs is quite lucrative. Rehab won\u2019t necessarily offer an escape given that cartels often use those facilities as both places of recruitment and places of retribution. There\u2019s even drug tourism in Ju\u00e1rez; hotels set up so visiting users from El Paso can walk across the bridge, buy a hit for about the same cost as a cup or two of Starbuck\u2019s coffee, and then hang out at the hotel until the high wears off enough so they can return home.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got the recipe for a perfect storm here. Poverty<\/a>. Unskilled labor. Per a recent DEA report<\/a>, we\u2019ve got the Sinaloa Cartel and the Ju\u00e1rez Cartel right here, plying their trade. Heroin is popular here too. Our\u00a0New Mexico Department of Health<\/a>\u00a0tells us that\u00a0between 2010 and 2014, 36 percent of drug overdoses in New Mexico were due to heroin.<\/p>\n

And our perfect storm gets worse when you include what happens when those who\u00a0did start out advantaged find themselves behind the eight ball. Two young men, with college degrees, both of whom were injured serving in the military. They had every advantage, but became disillusioned when their passion betrayed them. And now? They are under indictment <\/a>for drug trafficking in Miami, the ringleaders of one of the largest synthetic drug rings in Miami history. Crockett and Tubbs would be amazed at how things have changed.<\/p>\n

Things right here need your attention<\/h3>\n

I won\u2019t chastise you for not wanting refugees because you think there is a risk. Nor will I chastise you for snap judgments made in the wake of the horrific attack in San Bernardino, Calif. Human evolution spent hundreds and thousands of years teaching us all to in-group and out-group our way to safety. And being aware of world events is a good thing.<\/p>\n

But there are things right here that need your attention too. Because if crime were to target you, the probability that it\u2019s someone from far away is unlikely.<\/p>\n

As to the how? Robert Putnam is right, we cannot bowl alone<\/a>. One of the very best things about living in an open society under the rule of law with a tradition of individual civic involvement is that we have a veritable smorgasbord of choices to suit every budget, every willingness to act, every political persuasion.<\/p>\n

But of course, I still must say: Why not try donating your own money or, even better, volunteering your time\u00a0before just saying \u201cwe need more laws to solve this?\u201d For ideas, page A24 of the latest Las Cruces Bulletin<\/a>\u00a0or its\u00a0November 2014 and 2015 Community Wish List<\/a>\u00a0are great places to start \u2013 it\u2019s what I did.<\/p>\n

Miller is a seasoned communications and government relations expert whose guidance has been relied on by public, private and government organizations alike. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Claremont Graduate University. Her areas of expertise are issue\/crisis management, immigration law, and border issues. Most recently, she was a diplomat with the U.S. State Department serving in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez. Currently she serves New Mexico as a citizen member of the N.M. Law Enforcement Academy Board.\u00a0She moved to Las Cruces in 2015 when her husband opened Miller Guns & Ammo<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being aware of world events is a good thing. But there are things right here in New Mexico that need your attention too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[236,195,201],"class_list":["post-108876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-mexico","tag-mexicos-drug-war","tag-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}