Proceso: Sabina Berman*
Dear Reader,
Speaking frankly, haven't we, one hundred times, breathed the poisoned air of horror? Haven't we already crossed the limits of outrage a hundred times, each one unbearable in its moment?
Perhaps, today, it behooves us citizens who aren't barbaric--who aren't murderers, or thieves, those of us who haven't kidnapped anyone--to ask ourselves some questions?
Perhaps it behooves us, the 90% of the population, to ask ourselves if we know what to do so that this last massacre, that of Iguala, isn't added to the pile of heinous massacres of the past ten years?
How do we make this horror become a turning point? A moment of change in the country?
Shall we burn down houses of government? Shall we assault public buses? Shall we ransack stores? That is to say, shall we turn ourselves into what we hate: barbarians, vandals, criminals?
Or shall we stay within the bounds of the law and appeal to those who govern, even though we no longer believe in their efficacy, or even in the truth of their word?
What demands shall we make today to that morally dubious authority that aren't just a copy of yesterday's useless complaints?
What claims shall we make that don't end up limited to a single case--exceptional because it has captured the world's attention--but that transcend the entire political system?
How shall we create obligations for a president who responds to our horror through clenched teeth, with the promises that another president made five years ago, identical to those made by another president ten years ago?
Another march? More raised fists? More angry phrases?
More furious newspaper articles?
Storms that officials let pass while they play bridge within the corridors of power.
How do we escape the rituals of victimization in which we are caught?
Demand a Commission Against Corruption, which we can see from the outset consists of members of a political class held together by their mutual concealment of corruption?
And then what?
Do we then return to the quiet, reactionary sadness of pessimism?
Do we then sit before the TV to await barbarism's invasion of our immobility once again: a family member kidnapped, a neighbor robbed, payment to the neighborhood extortionist, friendship with the politician whom we know is a thief, the silent acceptance of the arbitrariness of yet another arrogant official, the new and more terrible news of another massacre?
How will we make today's shout of "ENOUGH!" a true "Enough!"?
Can we list in ten points all the demands of an entire society?
In ten points realizable in the short term? Ten points that the president can fulfill without delay, because they are within the laws? Ten points that supersede ideologies, that, indisputably, may be moral? Moral because they are beneficial to the common good of Mexicans.
Ten points that require unprecedented actions by the president? Actions that require him to execute a U-turn? To do something never seen in our country?
Ten points that, although they do not cover all the crime and abuse (how could one fit so much in ten points or a thousand?), require the president to cross an historical threshold and turn his back on the rituals of impunity?
Judgment, finally, of a relative of the president, Arturo Montiel? [Governor of the State of Mexico, 1999-2005, preceding Peña Nieto, who is his nephew. He is suspected of various corrupt acts.]
Judgment, finally, of a member of the ruling party, Humberto Moreira? [Governor of Coahuila, 2005-2011, then briefly president of the PRI, forced to resign over allegation of misuse of state loans.]
The capture of La Tuta, [Servando Gómez Martínez, head of The Knights Templar cartel] which means not leaving a single stone unturned in Michoacán to find him?
The release of Dr. José Manuel Mireles [Michoacán self-defense leader] from prison?
Can we agree on ten points?
Can we take a survey on the social networks, for the majority to choose and adopt them and then submit them to the president of the country?
If not us, who? If not now, when? Spanish original
*Sabina Berman is a Mexican playwright and director of theater and film. She has been awarded many prizes for her work, including the National Playwriting Prize four times.