Nogales’ glass is half full, really!

Like death and taxes, one thing is for sure; someone is always going to find fault and reason to criticize something one does. As long as one’s conscience is clear, this should not stop one from doing his or her best and being proud of it.

At the newspaper we get it coming and going. For example, very few community newspapers cover local sports to the extent that we have in the past few years. That’s a good thing, right? We even get occasional fan mail from grateful visiting teams whose own hometown papers don’t cover their sporting events.

Well, we also get mail and phone calls from local people upset because their child was not in a photo or because in their opinion we write too extensively about the player who scores most of the points, gets most of the tackles, or strikes out the most batters.

In our last edition, we featured Principal Fernando Parra in a new column about NUSD for good things he accomplished at Mary L. Welty School. Great, right? Not for some negative Nancy who right away complained because after all, there are other schools and principals doing well.

I am a former president and a member of the board of directors for the Santa Cruz Training Programs. Thankfully, through staff’s hard work and dedication, this organization for the mentally and physically handicapped in our community is doing well. But I have seen the worst of times for this non-profit when things were only aggravated by the naysayers who spread vicious rumors and untruths. Still we kept marching forward.

Nogales is a beautiful bi-cultural community with potential beyond our wildest dreams. It’s hard to fulfill those, however, if we’re terrified of change and scared to dream in the first place. In this community, we are self-effacing to a fault, almost self-defeating.

On Thursday, a historic event will take place paralleled only by the meeting of the railroad at Nogales Pass 127 years ago on Oct 25, 1882.

It is the groundbreaking of the Mariposa Port of Entry. In about four years when the project is complete, we will have a showcase, technologically advanced and environmentally sensitive facility we can all be proud of.

It will be the gateway to a better future for our region, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection can more effectively approach its mission to ensure the safety of our citizens while at the same time facilitate international trade to a degree never before possible here.

And it’s OK, people. We can hold up our heads. I would further suggest we start planning for a huge party to celebrate the port’s completion in 2013.

What’s that you say? Thirteen is an unlucky number? Not for Nogales.

(Write us at 268 W. View Point Dr., Nogales, Ariz., 85621 or manuel.coppola@nogalesinternational.com.)