Ugly El Paso, Ugly U.S.A.

My mother ,who is almost eighty-five years old, is crying today because she has

no pain relief. Once again, her doctors have been unable to find a pain medicine

without side-effects. Moreover one doctor has warned my mother that the

pain medicine prescribed by another doctor has serious harmful consequences.

(He said that many of his patients have had problems with it.)

In addition, today the nasty blowing wind and dust (which I in memory have always associated with El Paso) have returned. What a horrible place to live!

You say: what about people who were born here and will die here? Of course you deserve

respect, more respect than people get in the USA, but don't lie to yourself. Don't pretend

that El Paso has that mysterious quality called "good weather". And don't pretend that

global warming is not real. Moreover, there's some need to acknowledge the extent

to which local history is a history of invasion by bloodthirsty and ruthless empires.....

It's not good trivializing the truths with cliches like "a mix of cultures"....