My mistake. At first I thought you were an educated immigrant who believes that social change is happening and wants to be a part of it. Now I see that you are just a social elitist who recieved an American education who doesn't understand the culture he is a part of because he is isolated in a border town while becoming increasingly detatched from the country he came from.

Again. My apologies.

It's good to see that you are so proud of the Mexican government. The same Mexican government that was run by a dominant and often corrupt PRI since it came into power at the end of the 20's. The same Mexican government that has had to repeatedly restructure their police force and millitary due to contunuous corruption.

The significant obsticles Mexico has to overcome concerning health care, education as well as quality of life issues are not going to be solved by increasing the number of Mexican people into the U.S.

Having more Mexicans in the US is not going to keep dogs from crapping into and kids from playing in the water suppy in Mexico City. The U.S. has gone over and beyond the call of duty in supporting Mexico and supporting Fox in his reforms.

In return we get increased demands from Fox in how many people we are supposed to allow to emigrate, demands on how immigrants should be treated and the expectation of amnesty for anyone that is able to cross the border.

NAFTA has taken a significant number of jobs away from Americans and taken those jobs, along with significant U.S. investment across the border. Resorts like Cancun, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas are beiing infused with American capital that is providing jobs and an improved quality of life in those areas.

The Mexican reliance on the U.S. for aid and investment is extrordinary. So why don't you look in your own backyard. Why aren't you taking your education and success across the border to help make your country a better place to live?

Why, because you realize that the quality of life and the opportunities for a succesfull life are here. That's why you probably chose to stay in the U.S. to attend college. You understand that the importance of education is much higher here and thusly there is a vastly superior educational system.

The importance of education is not as culturally important in Mexican culture as putting in a hard days work. Mexans aren't coming into this country to take high tech and high income jobs, they are coming in to take shit jobs, the jobs that a lot of Americans don't want to do.

And good for them. The life that they are able to carve out here from an 8 dollar an hour job is a hell of a lot better than the cardboard house with the dirt floor and the dollar a day job they left behind. They are able to have a decent place to live, clean water, clean streets and good schools for their kids.

Oh yes, schools. As a husband of a teacher in a Compton elementary school, what I see and hear about is a struggle first hand. First of all over half the entire school district in Compton is hispanic. 99% of all the kids in the district are on free lunches and breakfast programs. They are poor, they are from blue collar families and their parents work hard.

Most of the parents speak minimal or no english. They don't attend parent teacher's conferences, they don't help their children with their homework. Not because they don't want to or don't care, but because they themselves don't understand the language or the material. For the most part the disciplin problems that she deals with are far and above what she would find in a less depressed climate. And there is hardly ever any follow through from the parents even in repeated discipline issues.

Of course there are some kids that are able to rise above their station in life and show promise, work hard and have supportive parents that truly understand the value of education. But they are the exception rather than the rule.

What does this all mean? Well, just having vast sheer numbers of people here doesn't mean a damn thing. Realizing the importance and value of education, fitting within the structure of the system, looking beyond the here and now and looking at making a lasting contribution have got to be goals of Mexican immigrants before any "revolution" takes place.

Once Mexico becomes a place that people don't want to excape from to realize the American Dream but a place where their citizens want to live because it is a great place to earn a quality living and educate their children you will see your revolution.

Until then, Mexico will still be viewed as merely a source of cheap labor for American business on both sides of the border. A nice place to visit but no one really wants to live there.