John M. Ackerman: Mexico's Citizens Need to Raise Their Sights Beyond Protests John M. Ackerman - La Jornada
go to original April 29, 2013

The critical junctures that the country is experiencing today demands that citizens raise their sights and generate new themes for public discussion. First, it is necessary to overcome the racist and intolerant Manichean logic that divides the nation between "learned ones" and "neo-tribal vandals", between "true students" and "hooded, violent ones", and between "well-behaved, respectful"  teachers and "resentful or criminal guerrillas". Beyond the visceral pronouncements in favor of or against specific actions taken by dissident groups, a thorough discussion of the underlying national situation is urgently needed.

The main problem confronting the country is not that a group of youths have broken a window in the Rectory Tower [Administration Building] of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), or that thousands of teachers betrayed by the government have attacked the headquarters of the main political parties in Chilpancingo, or that normalistas [Normal School, i.e., Teachers College students]  have handed out soda and chips to passersby in Morelia. What has us prostrate as a nation is tight authoritarian and corrupt control by a handful of discredited politicians, unpunished monopolies and manipulative media. This tripod makes up the minority that has actually "hijacked" the country, and all our efforts should be channeled in an intelligent and peaceful manner to dismantling its domination of public space.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

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