Back in the mid-1990s, I attended LAV school at Camp Pendleton. The rules prohibited Marines with less than two years service from going to Mexico. Barely, my term of service had exceeded two years. My fellow Marines, a few of whom had broken the rules by spending weekends in Tijuana, considered me lucky for getting the priviege to travel to Mexico. But not only did I forgo weekends in supposedly sleazy Oceanside, I didn't travel to Mexico once. Instead, I stayed in sleepy San Clemente, whose beaches, bars, and juke boxes represented my idea of heaven. Even the on-base NCO club was a preferable haunt to Tijuana. My reluctance to go south puzzled many of my fellow Marines. For the privates and PFCs, the fact that I could go dictated that I should go. No thanks.

That a fellow Marine had eaten a hepatitis burger in Mexico merely confirmed my decision. My aversion to travelling south of the border then is why so many Americans are averse to travelling south of the border now. Any place where the rule of law is lacking scares me. I can deal with criminals. But when the cops are criminals that is quite frightening. Some people fear clowns. I rogue authority is my phobia. Rather than your own behavior determining your freedom, the whim of an on-the-make cop does. These days bribes are the least of the worries of travelers to Mexico.

Many Mexican cities are lawless. The three U.S. consulate workers murdered by Mexican drug gangs in Ciudad Juarez highlights this danger for Americans. But Mexicans need no reminder. In the first two months of 2010, 410 people were murdered in Ciudad Juarez. By way of comparison, Washington, DC, about half the size of Ciudad Juarez and long considered the "murder capital," reported 140 murders in all of last year.

Even Acapulco, long a mecca for American tourists, experienced 17 murders over the weekend, which included several cops. Numerous people were beheaded. Is that your idea of a dream vacation destination? I'd rather vacation at Revere Beach in March.

The United States is almost alone among G8 countries in that a Third World nation sits on its border. Americans can control whether they go to Mexico. It's harder to control whether Mexico comes here. Considering what happens in places like Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and points beyond, can you blame Mexicans for wanting to leave that? Considering what happens in places like Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and points beyond, can you blame Americans for not wanting that to come here?

One of the dangers of illegal immigration is that the pathologies of Mexico get exported into America. The kidnapping wave in Phoenix was (is?) an example of this. One of the dangers of merely visiting Mexico is that the benefits of life in America, such as the rule of law, get left in America.

I live a few miles from the Mexican border, thankfully the violence that has hit other places hasn't hit here yet, but the corrupt police are notorious.
A friends son, while less than a block from the border was arrested by the police when he wouldn't make a "donation". His parents go down to the jail to see him and amazingly they claimed he wasn't in the jail, that is until the parents made a "donation" to the person at the desk and suddenly the kid's name appeared on the clerk's roster. A couple "donations" later and the kid was released into their custody.

I've been to Revere Beach in March and have been to Mexico. And I'd have to agree that Revere Beach in March is a nicer and much safer place. Although, Revere Beach by way of demographics sort of resembles Mexico these days.

Way back when, I visited Tijuana and found it to be all it's advertised to be - drugs, disease, shanty town neighborhoods, dangerous bars, rampant immorality featuring live bestiality shows and roaming bands of child prostitutes. Truly sad and depressing. A one stop two day visit with a troop of fellow military guys (for the protection of all) was enough.

Our next trip to Mehico was just to pass through Tijuana down the coast to Ensanada, which wasn't quite as bad but not that great either.

The bad news is that currently, due to the practically non-existent border policies of our alleged Government, we have Mexico like crimes spilling over into all of our border states and watching parts of the United States being transformed into pockets where the law is ignored making crime nearly uncontrollable.

But, I guess at least we're demonstrating what a kind, gentle and caring country we are and that being politically correct trumps all including our sovereignty and security.

And scary to think that the O's next act after the Healthcare boondoggle will be to open the borders wider and naturalized whoever decides to come here uninvited. According to plan.

We used to go to Tijuana as a family when I was a kid and took the red train from San Diego down several times later on. It got progressively worse so that now no one in the family has been in over 20 years. We used to ride horses on Rosarita Beach. Them were the days.

My stepdaughter was at a language school in Mexico a couple years ago and bussed over to Acapulco at the end of the term with some friends, Anglos and Mexicans. They hit the beach after dinner which was around midnight and were promptly accosted by a couple of Federales. They searched their belongings by flashlight and came up with some planted weed to use leverage their "fines." My stepdaughter is beautiful and has never known adversity in her entire life. She attacked the cops verbally and in Spanish, the Mexicans being too timid to input, and eventually ran them off. Guess she asked them repeatedly to show their credentials. I'm proud of her but advised her that was one life gone and not to try it again. Over the years there have been several disappearances of everyday Americans. One doesn't want to join them. Still, we go to Cozumel at least annually.

What I don't understand is that with all of the fine places on the Planet that people could go to, why would one put ones self in harms way to go to a place that is lawless, brutal and corrupt?

The good fight in such places is not worth fighting and as nobody is going to change or improve the situation, what's the point?

I remember a story from years ago about a woman from Brookline Mass. who, as a good fair minded "we are the world" liberal, took a sunset walk on a Mexican beach that she was told to specifically stay off of.

Rape and death followed.

One can not make the world what it isn't. The rest is all about self preservation.