A 69-year-old Mexican man living in Ciudad Juarez got sick of people dumping dead bodies around his house. He put up a sign that said "PROHIBITED: Littering and dumping corpses." It didn't matter. In the 23 months that followed, he found four more dead bodies. Then, in Oct. 2008, in the middle of the day, a group of men shot him as he stood on his doorstep. Two months later, they killed his daughter, dumping her body beneath the "prohibited" sign. A day later, the daughter's sister and friend were walking in the dead daughter's funeral procession. Armed men killed them both, shooting more than 20 bullets from AK-47s into their bodies. In order, the names of the family members killed are: Francisco Maria Sagredo Villarreal, Cinthia Sagredo Escobedo, and Ruth Sagredo Escobedo.
I do not understand.
My parents taught me to respect the neighbors, to leave the dog alone when the sign said so, to play nice with the kids down the street, to leave alone the lines the fence drew. What parents, what people in this world, could raise children who murder? And not just murder, but murder like that? And children whose reactions, when faced with a simple man's sign that tells them what they're doing is wrong on so many levels, is to do it all the more, and even worse?
Do not tell me that's just the way it is. That their parents were probably high on the very drugs that pay for their children's guns. Or that they didn't have the Church, and it's such a shame, and whatever.
Do not try to answer those questions unless what you say is a way to make it better.
