LET'S START WITH THE INDIVIDUAL

Just yesterday, in a town about 6 hours from Guadalajara, 66 people were killed and 70 or more were injured as they were stealing gas from a government pipeline that they had broken. It's said that the people from the small town nearby ran out with as many containers as they could, happy and taking selfies, as they took advantage of the free gas that was pouring out. It then exploded.

This has been a widespread problem in Mexico over many, many years and our new President is determined to crack down on it. The country is said to be losing billions of dollars of gas each year due to theft. There are those up in power that are putting in valves to divert the gas. There are those that are breaking pipelines. Then there are those that are taking advantage of all the corruption and stealing the gas for daily use.

In order to try and stop this, the President ordered all pipelines in key areas shut down, including in Guadalajara where we are. I won't pretend to understand the whole situation, but from what I understand, they are working to stop the corruption at the top. However, people are still breaking pipes and stealing gas. I'm not sure how this will all end, but I feel for those that had family members killed yesterday.

This affects us in that the gas stations where we are have to now wait for gas to be brought in by truck, which means less gas and longer waits. At least half of all gas stations are shut down at any given time and those that are open have line-ups of 30 minutes to 5 hours long, depending on how lucky you get. Pretty well before anyone goes out for gas, the whatsapp group chats are full of people asking which gas stations nearby are open at that exact moment, hoping that someone else in the group has seen one open with a short line-up.

"There is no gas"

So, to my point, we need to start with the individual if anything is going to change. People can blame the drug lords and those high up that are profiting from all of this. People can blame "those" people that steal. But, as in the case of this explosion yesterday, it was a whole town that was out there stealing. It was families and young people. We need to start with ourselves and with those around us. If we can't choose for ourselves to respect the law and one another, how will we change a whole country? Those in power used to be common townspeople too.

We are just a drop in the sand here in Guadalajara, a city of 7 million people. What can we do?? It seems daunting.

But we can make sure we don't cut in line at the gas pumps. We can show others that we will treat them with respect and love even when we don't agree with what someone else believes. We can teach and show others how to live a life that honors God, and in doing so, live a life that honors one another. We can cut off corruption in our circles, because it's everywhere.

If it's not gas or stealing, it's gossiping or cheating one another or any number of things that lead to not caring about the person next to you and how your actions affect them.

I know Mexico has a widespread problem with corruption. But maybe we can stop and think about how our actions are affecting those around us. Maybe it's not full scale like what I'm describing, but maybe we're taking advantage of someone or a situation for our own benefit in other ways.