Although I’ve never seen “Braveheart,” I watch enough television to know there’s a famous scene where Mel Gibson, with a face done up in blue and white and a kilt that would strike fear into any invading army, yells that “they may take away our lives but they’ll never take our freedom.” He died, but his scripted words still resonate, and as the State Department urges college students across the country to be very careful about spring breaking in Mexico, I hope this other group of body paint-loving freedom fighters will take up the torch. Undoubtedly, Gibson will be quoted often during those long days in the Cancun sun as countless waitresses and co-eds get referred to as “sugar t*ts,” but the government needs to realize spring break is a student right, and no amount of kidnappings or murders will stop us from our yearly invasion of the Red, White and Green.

At issue here is the escalating violence between drug cartels and the Mexican government, which has led to town-wide firefights and deaths. But before you start second-guessing your travel plans, it’s important to keep in mind that most of this fighting goes down around border towns — not the places featured on MTV. The way I see it, if you’re spending break 10 miles from Texas, you’re either doing land survey work for the wall, avoiding Anton Chigurh or lamenting your desire to rent the cheapest party bus possible, and if that’s the case, you probably deserve to be kidnapped. Ultimately, Cancun and Puerto Vallarta are still reasonably safe places to be for break, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have reasons to worry.

There’s something scary about the words “drug war.” For one, wars never end up being very fun. But more importantly, they really mess with the economy. Fighting in Iraq was supposed to free up cheap oil, but instead all the public saw was record gas prices. If this effect holds true for these Mexican drug wars, what are college students going to do? Airport security stepped up their game, and you can only pick up so many extra shifts at the Union before your plane leaves. Fortunately, barring an Independence Day-esque explosion of Wall Street, your U.S. dollar is still going to stack up pretty well against the peso, so you should be fine. Remember, that $8 you spend for a burrito on State Street can buy you a small child in Guadalajara.

The State Department didn’t go so far as to tell students to avoid Mexico this break, but they are asking them to exercise extra caution and use common sense, and while the sentiment is appreciated, they need to understand common sense under normal circumstances is very different than common sense after your fourth Mai Tai. Under normal circumstances, common sense tells you to avoid barbed wire tattoos and guys with cameras offering T-shirts, but once your plane touches Mexican soil, that logic dissipates. By asking people to be aware of their surroundings while on spring break, the government is either trying to cover their hides for when something does go wrong, or they really are as ignorant as we all assume.

If there is one piece of advice to give before we all embark for sunnier destinations, it’s this: Go to Mexico, but when you do, avoid those novelty shirts that make fun of government acronyms. I know, we all get a good laugh out of your “FBI: Federal Bikini Inspector” tee, and that “DEA: Drunk Every Afternoon” shirt really goes well with your board shorts, but just in case a shoot-out between a drug lord and the federalis does break out at Senor Frog’s, you don’t want to look like an agent. Or an idiot.

Sean Kittridge ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism.