(ThyBlackMan.com) Human trafficking exists. It is all too real. I have a friend who lives a short drive away from my house. My friend’s name is not important, but my friend’s story is extremely important. Imagine being a child in a nice home with both parents. Imagine having what society deems as a normal life. Now imagine one day, your father selling you to one of his friends for drugs. Imagine the unspeakable things which occurred next. That’s my friend’s testimony. If you saw my friend dining at a restaurant, you’d have no idea of this. If you saw my friend at work, you wouldn’t believe what I just shared. But that’s the point. Human trafficking is slavery. Yes, slavery. Slavery is alive and all too well in 2014. It’s here, it’s there, it’s everywhere. This is a grievous stain upon the collective soul of mankind. Our human shame. Our human stain.
Child prostitution. Sex trafficking. Drug abuse. Kidnapping. False imprisonment. All manner of abuse. Battery. Even murder. These are the tragic outcomes of crimes against humanity so heinous, most people cannot bring themselves to acknowledge their existence.
Interstate 10 is only 35 miles south of us. I-10 is a transcontinental U.S. highway. It runs from coast to coast, from Jacksonville, FL to Los Angeles,
CA. I’m sure you knew that. Did you also know that I-10 is the 4th most heavily used thoroughfare for human trafficking in all of America? Let me break that down for you a different way. If some pedophiles decided to abduct a child you know, and they managed to make it to I-10, it’s highly unlikely you would ever see that child you know and love again. Not alive, that is.
Can you allow yourself to conceptualize human predators ordering children as casually as someone would order a pizza? It’s happening – right now somewhere in America. It’s happening in small towns, in large cities, and everywhere in-between. A huge crackdown by the NYPD and the FBI in New York City during the Super Bowl this past February resulted in 45 arrests. According to a Reuter’s investigative piece written by Marina Lopes, “16 juveniles were rescued in a two-week crackdown on prostitution in the New York-New Jersey area leading up to the Super Bowl. The bureau said some of those arrested claimed they traveled to the site because of the high-profile football game, which drew an estimated 400,000 visitors to the region.
The minors rescued ranged in age from 13 to 17 and included high school students and children reported missing by their families, the FBI said. Arrests were made and victims recovered in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, said FBI spokeswoman Barbara Woodruff.” Similar crackdowns have been successfully launched during other championships – including the NBA Finals and the FIFA World Cup.
Ours is a world in which neither boys nor girls are ever truly safe. Ours is a world in which children playing outside in their own front/back yards is akin to them playing out on the Autobahn. I know of a house in my hometown where a single mother lives with her seven daughters. I’ve personally driven past all seven girls playing outside in a yard with no fencing and no adult supervision. For hours. Mere feet away from considerable traffic. When the church located next door offered help to the girls’ mother, it was angrily refused. I still pray for that family. Those girls are at-risk, and their mother somehow remains blissfully unaware.
Everyone suffers when our children are robbed of their innocence. The children. Their families. Their friends. Society as a whole. Yet, a symphony of silence is performed daily by those who won’t believe, those who can’t believe, and those who have the power to combat this savagery but fail to do so for reasons known only to themselves.
Human trafficking is a calling-all-cars situation. We’re at DEFCON 1. It’s a full-on red alert. The safety of our children is in imminent danger – and we’ve got politicians on 5-week summer breaks? Shame on any Democrat, any Republican, and any Independent who fails to pay sex slavery the attention it is due. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings come a cry for help.
The epidemic constituted by the reprehensible exploitation of America’s children are not only violations of the laws of man – but also violations of God’s law. Therefore, we cannot remain silent anymore. We can no longer simply look away. Decency dictates that we intercede and intervene. Are we not called to love our children as we love ourselves? They are us. We are them.
This human stain cannot remain. It’s a hole in our unified soul. Animals love and nurture their young. Are we as people unwilling – or unable – to do the same? I will fight slavery/human trafficking. Will you join me? Please?
Staff Writer; Arthur L. Jones, III
This talented brother is a local Minister, weekly featured Democratic Op-Ed columnist, non-profit advisor, and sees the Braves winning it all this fall. Rev. Jones welcomes your comments! Please email him directly at: tcdppress@gmail.com.