Though I was only eight years old, I’ll never forget the summer of ’59. Mom and Dad loaded my sisters and me into our trusty Plymouth station wagon for a glorious two-week vacation across the Southwest—destination Disneyland. Though the memories of Disney, Knotts Berry Farm, the Painted Desert and the Grand Canyon have faded, I’ll never forget our day trip into Ciudad Juarez. As we piled out of the car onto the dusty street lined with authentic tiendas, I was immediately surrounded by a panhandling band of little boys my age shouting, “Nickel please! Nickel please!” Fifty years later, I can still see the face of one little black-haired, brown-faced boy who offered to sell me his half-eaten piece of corn on the cob in return for a nickel. We shopped and left Mexico as we found it.

Today, the prospects for the children of Juarez are worse than ever as Americans consume the illegal drugs shipped through Juarez en route to the U.S. Mexican civil society disintegrates while America watches from a safe distance above the border.

Lately, it is hard to ignore that Ciudad Juarez has become a literal war zone where unimaginable brutality has transformed this once sleepy tourist town into a living hell for its 1.3 million inhabitants. According to the El Paso Times, “The violence, which has included kidnappings, car-to-car shootings on boulevards and victims pelted by machine guns in broad daylight …has Juarenses looking over their shoulders as they try to go about their daily lives.”

The state of affairs can only be described as anarchy, with drug cartels brazenly fighting each other while intimidating and even assassinating police and government officials.

It’s no wonder that Mexicans are openly asking if their country has descended into civil war. When polled, 53 percent of Mexicans said cartels are defeating Mexican forces engaged in a nationwide crackdown. Only 24 percent believed the government is winning. On our side of the border, 62 percent of El Paso voters believe the violence is spilling over into their city.

With encouragement from President Bush and new funding from Congress, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has taken a hard line on the drug cartels, sending federal police and army troops to Juarez. Yet, the Merida Initiative, a multi-year, $1.4 billion program is aimed at beefing up Mexico’s law enforcement capabilities in its war on drugs, is in trouble in the Congress. Reductions in the funding commitment and unilateral “strings” attached to the remaining funding place the plan in jeopardy.

The Arizona Daily Star aptly observed that the Democrats should fear that McCain will, “probably try to cut into the Democrats’ growing lead among Hispanics by saying that their proposal to reduce the Merida Initiative by up to $190 million amounts to ‘abandoning’ Mexico at a time when President Felipe Calderón's government is facing attack from the drug cartels.”

This indeed is an opening for McCain, especially considering that both U.S. Presidential contenders have already delivered their obligatory Latin America policy speeches—both devoid of any focus on Mexico. Yet, turning the U.S. voters’ attention to Mexican issues might reopen a raging immigration debate. Will McCain play it safe and ‘leave this sleeping dog’ alone? Or, will McCain seize the opportunity to win recognition from Hispanic voters by boldly extending the “McCain Doctrine” to include a ‘surge’ of military assistance for Mexico.

The opening for McCain is real since Obama has his own challenges gaining the Hispanic vote. One veteran Texas political organizer summed it up for the Dallas Morning News, “Right now, Obama has a problem with the Latino vote, a very serious problem. If any Republican ever had a chance to get the Mexicano vote, it would be McCain.”

Certainly, doing our small part to establish security and civil society for a people living next door is as urgent as doing the same half way around the world in Iraq. McCain’s support of the Merida Initiative is a strategic opportunity that would secure our border while helping himself—and the people of Ciudad Juarez.