Seminary Conclusions.

Op-Ed Submission/ Human Trafficking.

This is a piece I just submitted to a couple of newspapers. Hopefully, it makes some people think.

Slavery, as much as we would like to believe, has not ended. There are still 27 million slaves in the world today. How, you might ask? I’ll tell you how. They are in brothels, rock quarries, rug loom sheds, restaurants, sex shops, peep shows, orange farms, wars in the jungles of Africa, and slavery in almost every major city in the United States. We may have thought that the transatlantic slave trade ended in 1865 with the thirteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “Neither slave nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction;” but unfortunately, there are still millions of women, men and children enslaved around the world.

Human trafficking is a business that generates over $32 billion dollars annually, according to International Labor Office. This is not a small operation, and the United States is not exempt from this epidemic. Over 200,000 human slaves exist in the U.S. today, and 17,500 are trafficked in each year. Also some 30,000 are trafficked through the United States on their way to other international locations. These statistics are staggering, and we as people, as the nation that is built on freedom need to stand up and put an end to it.

As a person of faith I believe we need to stand up for the rights of other human beings, whether they be a sex slave in Nepal or an illegal immigrant that has been trafficked into Florida to pick oranges and undergoes inhuman treatment. I urge all Senators, Congressman, and Presidential candidates, to make human trafficking a part of their platform. I urge a support of HR 3887, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which will strengthen the current laws to effectively identify and aid victims of trafficking.

We need to stand up together to put an end to Human Trafficking and slavery. You don’t need a faith perspective, to see that slavery is inhuman treatment. We are in a nation that fought hard to attempt to free ourselves, and then fought internally to make sure that when we say ‘freedom’ it meant for EVERY person, regardless of race, class, sex, or sexual orientation. We need to fight again for the freedom of those who cannot free themselves. Defenseless women, children and men who are duped into slavery, kidnapped, and forced through threats to their family. I ask everyone to step out, find out, and make a change. There are many organizations to be involved with or find out more information from. A good place to start is the Not For Sale Campaign: www.notforsalecampaign.org.

As Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State said, “Defeating human trafficking is a great moral calling of our time.” Wouldn’t you like to say that everyone was truly free?

Labels: human trafficking, oped, slavery, U.S

posted by Dana @ 8:30 AM