Posts Tagged ‘Mexico’

The world is full of clichés.  “Knowledge is power“, is the slogan of organizations urging  individuals to be tested for HIV and other STD’s.

I’m all for knowledge and it seems knowledge should be empowering, but sometimes knowledge is just knowledge.  In fact, knowledge can be paralyzing.  When we know everything we need to know, we don’t always know what to do with the information.  Knowledge is very overrated.

Ignorance, on the other hand, is under-rated and rarely seen as power.  Yet, there are many circumstances, in which, ignorance is at least as empowering as knowledge.  The old adage “Ignorance is bliss”, is my favorite of clichés, because I find it so often true.  Innocent ignorance is the thing that makes childhood so much better than “grown-up hood”.

Ignorance allows us to suspend logic and believe the impossible.  Knowledge on the other hand, ruins Santa, The Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Knowing that The Tooth Fairy isn’t real is part of the “older, but wiser” thing.  Personally, I prefer wisdom to knowledge.  Older but wiser is good, but not nearly as daring and optimistic as young & ignorant.

Such is the case of 20-year old Marisol Valles Garcia.  She’s a college student, so her head is probably full of knowledge, but she’s also blissfully ignorant.  If she knew as much as she thinks she does, she would have never accepted the job as the Chief of Police in one of Mexico’s most dangerous little cities.  She’s probably a smart girl, who has studied just enough criminal science, to make her believe in stuff which works better on paper than in real-life, consequently, she took the job nobody else would take.  Like a modern day Joan of Arc, she has only her convictions to convince her she can stand against armies of drug thugs.

With less than 10,000 residents, and a single police car, this small city has been victim to hundreds of drug-related murders, kidnappings and even assassinations.  Yet, in her ignorance, she believes she can turn around the climate of this city, by hiring more police officers–especially women, and by building a greater sense of community, through more interaction between the citizens and law enforcement.

God Bless her.  She’s just young enough to believe everything she learned in school.  That would make her almost a cliché.  If she had a realistic idea of  risk she’s embraced, she’d probably have been happy with a job at McTaco.  What will happen to her is anybody’s guess, but you gotta admire her moxy.

That’s the beauty of youthful ignorance.  It gives us the ability to believe in stuff and take risks–but her idealism may cost her life.  Call it courage, call it chutzpah, call it cojones–by any name, it’s the idealism of ignorance that has allowed her to believe she could have an impact.  Let’s hope she’s right.

Here’s to ignorance.