17. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.

An issue of national concern to me is the drug war in Mexico. The drug war in Mexico affects me because I have family living in Tijuana and my parents as well as me have an uneasy feeling when going to Tijuana to visit them also, I have suffered from the crime created by the drug war.

A few months ago my godmother, who owns a small business in Tijuana, was kidnapped and we suffered a lot from not knowing where she was and how was she through that time. It was difficult for me because I realized that it can happen to everyone and that the crime is almost unstoppable. Although I wished that my family would not suffer from the crime, my sister, which is what created the most fear and anger, suffered from the crime created by the drug war. While she was with her boyfriend at restaurant in Tijuana, thieves stole her bag from her boyfriend’s car and broke the car’s window to grab it. Then a person told them that they were breaking into their car but that they had guns so it was not an option to try to do something. Although nothing happened to her, in her bag she had many important possessions like her driver’s license, her passport and her cellphone. These recent issues have created a fear in most of my family because we do not want any one in our family to go through something similar.