I’m using the name of a famous North American series that has reached 24 seasons since 1999. It makes me remember that I also consumed one, the Spanish, so-called to serve and protect. The two titles allude to what we expect from society and its control bodies: social life designed for peaceful coexistence, through rules that everyone respects and in which every citizen knows he is protected.

As always, fictions give me food for thought since they are mostly idealized reflections of reality. Creators idealize, scoundrels are always punished, justice goes straight, ethical values ​​are embodied in people’s consciences, despite the fact that every society has criminal circles or criminals have infiltrated all institutions. Simply put, the struggle between good and evil, as old as history, happens so that good wins, and with it, the inconveniences produced by real life, even if it is imaginary, have a way out.

Today’s Ecuadorians are not soothed by imagination. The desire for an ordered community, ordered by legality, evaporated into thin air at the mere contemplation of the behavior of “public figures” who shamelessly showed the most serious imbalance: judges – why do those who are most concerned with the humble points of the country’s geography, are they the most wanted? – upset decisions ; members of parliament, with poor memory, squandered party complicity and ignorance; officials of various ranks cheat and cheat.

A wave of arbitrariness and carelessness fell on countless citizens, as if we were living in a jungle, under the slogan “regalada win”. What happened on Father’s Day, when a drunk man drove his vehicle and killed three people, is a living example of the irrational and irresponsible behavior of those who have the right – a driving license – to get behind the wheel. I read that he will deserve 12 years in prison, which should be a cumulative sentence for the value of every human life. What has to happen for something as simple as drinking alcohol to lead to a personal decision not to drive?

There I came across several tweets with someone who pleaded for a more effective education in the country, an education that forms a healthy psyche as much as it teaches knowledge, an education that integrates people into a conglomerate, aware that it has guidelines to adapt to and laws that respect. But the goal seems out of reach, when families give up their fundamental contribution to instilling children’s attitudes, and the campus is filled with fear of influential or violent students. Generally speaking, these are bad times, because negative realities outweigh positive ones, because dissatisfaction with others makes us blind to the chain of support and solidarity that coexistence requires. Everyone pulls to their side, selfishness reigns, no one protects us, but we have to close ourselves in our little redoubt to end each day with minimal peace.

Do the candidates for future elections intend to change this country? Is their stated desire to serve so fervent that they have solutions to our endless problems? I would like to believe. (OR)