My Cause

It is my belief that everyone has a cause of some sort that they support.  If you claim to be an exception to that, maybe it’s simply because you haven’t found your cause yet.  Sometimes we think too big.  A cause can simply be supporting someone you love or it can be travelling to the other side of the world for a ministry.  Whatever yours happens to be, I hope you discover it soon.  Because there really is something special about having that one thing that brings out the champion in you.  The thing that makes you stand up and fight or fall down and weep.  Or maybe both. 

I invite you to share my cause, if you are one of those searching.  It is very dear to my heart, not because the tragedy has affected me personally, but because my awareness of it came through my writing and I now feel called to use my pen to help aid the cause.

I was doing some research for one of my stories, titledThe Other Side of a Wheat Field.  I’ve been interested in writing about prostitution for as long as I can remember, because my heart honestly goes out to girls who were recognized as immoral, instead of the victims of the times and harsh circumstances, as we now know many to have been.  Also, because I think they’re such a good parallel to today’s judgmental Christians and world culture in how we regrettably still continue to blame the victim. So I started doing some research on prostitutes.

I came across the term “Human Trafficking.”  I didn’t know what it was, but filed it away for later.  A couple weeks went by before I pulled it out again and tried to see how this subject tied in with prostitution.  The horrific news I was reading about just went deeper and deeper, getting horrific and my heart started breaking.  I couldn’t believe that I had never heard about this before. 

What is it? Said simply, it’s the trafficking (or selling) of human beings. AKA: modern-day slavery.  Of course, that’s no big surprise that slavery exists across the world, not when you think of the desparate Third-World countries. 

Here’s what shocks me: It exists in America.  In my country.  The champions of freedom. 

A lot of it can go back to our border issues.  Many pimps go to other countries trying to sell the “American dream” to people desparate for jobs.  Desparate dreamers sign up for that “nanny” position in America (or whatever job it they may need). . . only to realize when they get here they were illegally smuggled in . . . or their visas are taken from them because they naively trusted a stranger to aid their journey to the new country. 

Those sold into labor are then forced to work with little pay, in debt to their pimps for all the vast “expenses” used to get them into the country. They are cut off from the outside world with no communication to their families back home.  They are beaten, abused, starved . . .  Not only is it comparable to the slavery you read about in history and assumed the Civil War solved…its worse.  This secret underground of slaves is run on torture by horrific, cruel people, not landowners in need of help harvesting their crop. (This is not to belittle any horrors that happened to African slaves.  But the truth is, they had a better chance of decent owners and conditions than Human Trafficking victims today.)

But that’s those in physical labor.  Most trafficking victims are in a different ring.

Sexual Exploitation.  The same as above description, only their “job” is selling sex. They are forced to sell sex.  They are drugged, beaten, auctioned off.  Its sickening.

The domestic cases are hardest to fathom.  Not every victim is a foreigner smuggled into the U.S.  American-born girls are human trafficking sex objects, as well.  They are runaways who have been picked up by pimps and many kidnappings are due to sex pimps.  I heard one story of a girl who was eventually found only four blocks from home.  Immediately following her disappearance police had combed the area, but didn’t find her for several weeks.  She was that close.  And even she didn’t know it, as she had been drugged and abused to such a dehumanized state.

Next time you’re in Wal-Mart and you browse the ‘Missing People’ boards, know that many of them may be trafficked somewhere.  And realize, when you are reading/watching/discussing prostitution that many of them aren’t there because they want to be.  Another story I heard of dealt with a teenage girl whose pimp threatened to find and pour acid over her niece if she didn’t cooperate.  The rules of coercion are as old as the hills.  Not all of these prostitutes you hear about are immoral people looking for fast cash. 

This is my cause.  I beg you to join me in the fight.  Contact your local congress member to crack down on this! 

If this is not your cause, however, then I urge you to find another one to join.  Please be part of making our world a better place.

~Emily

This video is dealing with worldwide Human Trafficking.  It’s the best video on this subject that I’ve been able to find. . . and believe me, I’ve looked hard.

STATISTICS ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING (cannot guarantee accuracy):
~There are more slaves now than the 400 years of the african slave trade combined
~approximately 18,000 to 20,000 victims are trafficked into the U.S every year. 50% of those victims are under age 18
~Sex slavery in America cashes in more than $8 million/year

WEBSITES:
(these people can give you a much better picture than I can. Please check them out!)
www.notforsalecampaign.org
www.veronicasvoice.org
www.freeforlifeministries.com
www.thehomefoundation.net
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/11/earlyshow/main3250963.shtml