My delight in fact that the Packers will be playing at the Superbowl has been dampened by learning this fact - Every year children as young as 11 are trafficked involuntarily to provide sex to the fans who come to the Superbowl. I read in an article about a man arrested for trafficking in last year's Superbowl that the average age of the these sex slaves (come on let's call them what they are) is 13 and they have an average life span of 20.
Why did I not know this? Of all the things people in this country like to get outraged about, why are we not united, liberal and conservative in outrage over this??? Though I do have to say, the Evangelicals seem to have more of a handle on this than the Mainlines. I have to wonder, is our fear of being sullied by being associated with Evangelicals keeping mainlines away from this issue?
It's not just the sex-slave trade or the Superbowl - its human slavery IN THIS COUNTRY. Why? This should not be. We fought a war over this people! Brother fought against brother over this. This was decided more than a hundred years ago. WE WILL NOT HAVE SLAVERY IN THIS COUNTRY!
Texas Attorney General Abbott has prepared a task force to identify and respond to traffickers who plan to sell children at the Super Bowl. The SuperBowl Host Committee is still pretending this is not an issue and refuses to take part in this effort. It's probably too late by now but sign the petition to ask the Committee to support the effort.
If we don't convince this year's committee - maybe next year's committee will get the message. The first step is getting people aware of the problem.
I'm deeply shocked by this. The truth is that I don't know much about sex slavery in the US, apart from the general fact that it exists.
ReplyDeleteBut a couple of years ago, I was talking to an FBI agent who is also a parent. This is a guy who has spent decades fighting narcotics, and has seen some truly blood-curdling stuff. He mentioned that the Internet had made traffic in children much easier, and that because so much of it was interstate, people from his office had become involved in fighting it. He wasn't on the assignment, but he heard the stories.
And then he looked me in the face and said, with absolute dread in his eyes, "It's worse than you can imagine. I wish I didn't even know about it."
Which is probably why the rest of us don't, unfortunately. It's too terrifying for us to think about.
Horrifying. Why did I have no idea this is going on, especially given my near-constant presence on social media? Thanks for raising my awareness, Joelle.
ReplyDeleteIt's been hard to find any information on this online, though I did find some. What were your primary sources? I'd like to address this on my blog.
ReplyDeleteIf you google news you will find lots of articles in Texas papers about it because of the State Attorney's efforts to bring attention to the matter
ReplyDeletehttp://www.examiner.com/human-trafficking-in-dallas/human-trafficking-and-the-super-bowl
ReplyDeleteHere's an article about the problem last year
http://news.change.org/stories/the-results-are-in-sex-trafficking-at-the-superbowl