An Open Invitation

1. Credentials? 35 years in the US trucking industry as an O/O, company driver, in operations and safety. 15 years of living in Mexico, in Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey, and Ixtaba Jalisco. 2 years documenting the false assumptions, claims and lies being fed to the American public by the likes of Teamsters, OOIDA and Publc Citizen. And I must have done something right, because, I have been interviewed on a nationally syndicated radio talk show, on the subject, along with John Hill, Todd Spencer and the spokesperson for Teamsters. My website has been a source of reference for various free lance writers who have written about the Cross Border issue. The most recent being Todd Dills, senior editor at NATSO Truckers News for the cover of the July issue. While Melissa Delaney was spokesperson for FMCSA, I was on the press "A" list for advance notification. She contacted me, not the other way around. And perhaps most important, the Final OIG Report, validated every opinion and projection that I have written about the program and the industry. And in addition to that, the various articles written about the subject, for which I have been interviewed, have substantiated, through the independent efforts of the various writers, every single thing I have written. I have also had reporters and their photographers spend the day with me in Nuevo Laredo gathering background for articles published in such outlets as the Dallas Morning News. I have been referred to as an expert, by others, so why argue!

2. Much of what you mention is media hype. For what reason, who can say. Perhaps it sells papers. If your not involved, life goes on as usual in Mexico, is all I can say, and I imagine the roughly 485,000 other American's living there would agree.

3. No sir, not within 5 miles of the border. The entire country and the majority of the transportation companies are Mexican managed by Mexican managers. Even the Swift subsidiary is managed by a Mexican management team. There is common folk at the border, and common folk throughout the country, not a hell of a lot different from common folk in the US. They make do with what they have and live under the creed, "Si Dios Quieres", If God Wants......There is a burgeoning middle class, well educated who is the next generation. Poverty and corruption? Sure! We have it in the US also. Remember the big bust in NJ last weekend?

4. No you don't have to stay on the toll roads to be safe. I rarely use them. And no, you don't have to have a stack of bills to bribe the cops. Things are changing down there, thanks to Calderon and the fact the normal citizens are fed up with the BS. For instance, in Nuevo Laredo, if you are stopped by the transito, you are taken to an OXXO convenience store to pay the fine. They have a deal with the city and the Banjercito as an acceptance facility. The vehicles are tracked by GPS and citizens who are hit up for a bribe are encouraged to report it. It works!

In Monterrey, similar situation, but they go one step further. On the Transito vehicles, the fine (multa) schedule is posted on the vehicles, and the cops have portable computers to accept credit card payments.

You know, you visit Mexico, leave the superior gringo BS attitude at the border, and treat people with respect, the same way you want to be treated, you'll receive the same in return. You might try it sometime.

 

Did I say that? That your assumption. (And keep your luxury property. It ain't in a good 'hood')

Fact is, according to the CIA Fact Book, comparing US and Mexican crime rates in specific cities does show Mexico has a lower crime rate in many area.

 

Not even close Jim Bob! Mexico has an open democracy as we do and does not restrict their citizens travels. The US does! Been to Cuba lately? I have, a couple of years ago. It's a ##### but well worth the effort.

When the US puts the same limitations on the Canadians as they do on the Mexicans, including an ineffective insult that the fence is, then perhaps I will change my opinion