When I met Jose Gonzalez this week, I could see that he was an open, friendly person. I was right, but even more importantly, Jose is a smart person who prefers to ask and learn than to be ignorant and get cheated by others.

Many good people continue to get cheated by other people and businesses, which is one of the reasons I founded this newspaper – to help people become a more informed consumer, voter, parent, etc.

Any situation that requires us to make a change (does not matter how small or big) is a challenge, but I believe that any change or challenge always represents an opportunity to grow and learn. Making change to better your life always requires reliable information. I know that even to get that kind of information can be a challenge, but if we get in the habit (like everything in life) of informing ourselves and always asking different sources about the things that we do not understand we can make better decisions.

The housing market is a perfect example. So many people bought a house without enough reliable information. Now many of them cannot afford their payments. Our lead story in this issue talks about the need to inform ourselves to save ourselves. Jose Gonzalez is not a victim because he chose to inform himself.

We have to trust ourselves - we cannot always rely on somebody else’s “best” judgment. Too often people will see an opportunity to take advantage of our ignorance, and if they have that opportunity they will take it. So it is in our hands to change that and stop being a victim. The best way to protect ourselves is by getting informed and opening ourselves to different experiences, people, and cultures. Most importantly, we always need to ask regardless of the issue that we are facing. Ask the mortgage person, the doctor, the teacher, the lawyer, etc.

“Knowledge is Power” is the truth Visión Hispana Newspaper promotes. We want you to be powerful, so take every opportunity to grow your knowledge of the important things in life.