My Two Cents Minus 16%

Last week, I drove down a major road in Tijuana in the best section of town past a federal court building. One hour later, on that very street, someone opened fire on that very building, and the Mexican police returned fire. Right there, on that busy road, with traffic flowing freely and with no regard for innocent people, bullets whizzed through the bright morning air. It was 11 a.m.

I can't help but think how our lives could have changed had we been delayed that morning. If we'd been running one hour behind schedule, as many times we are, we could have found ourselves trapped in the middle of a shoot out. We could have been shot.

We live in the nicest area of Tijuana, and yet violent crimes take place every day. It was only a few months back that there was a shooting at the local grocery store that most of the consulate community frequents. A three-year-old little girl was killed in the crossfire.

In the U.S. we would never frequent areas where crime is prevalent. We would never subject our children to the possibility of seeing people blown to pieces in front of their eyes. Yes, violent crimes take place in good neighborhoods in the U.S. as well. But they are an anomaly and not a daily reality as they are in Tijuana and at other dangerous posts around the world. And when such violent crimes take place in the U.S., it makes headlines. In Tijuana, it is simply accepted as a way of life.

Every day that we leave our house, we put our family in danger. For this, Chris receives a 15 percent danger pay increase to his salary. When I hear that the House of Representatives has passed a bill that will cut Chris's salary by 16 percent, it makes me angry. The way I see it, and I know that there will be those that find fault with my logic, such a salary cut would, in essence, cancel out his danger pay. He would go back to making exactly what he made while we were in D.C. and never had to worry about getting shot while driving down the street. Our sacrifices would go unrecognized.

We are new to the Foreign Service and have barely had a glimpse of the reality that other families have lived in for years. I don't know the hardships that most Foreign Service families have had to bear. What I do know is that every single officer and his accompanying family love the U.S. and they serve their country with pride. They are brilliant, hardworking, self-sacrificing individuals who honorably perform their duties as representatives of the U.S. government. They perform a duty just as critical to national security as the military, and they do not deserve to have their salaries singled out. Believe me, it is a cut that will be felt by each and every family serving at overseas posts.

I hope that Congress will hear the plea of its Foreign Service officers strung across the globe and not insult the work that they do with a salary cut. But most importantly, I hope that Congress will not send them the message that they are not important.