I am really really tired tonight.

Tonight was the fourth Tuesday of the month. Almost all of my Tuesday nights are taken up with something. The fourth Tuesday is the night of the meeting of the Quad City Interfaith immigrant task force. Only tonight, what with the winter storm, only Cindy and I showed up. And Cheryl. And Meri. And Kaitlin.

Kaitlin is a wonderful young lady. She must be; she gets my jokes. When we moved into the building we're in now, she and her family lived across the hall. The families drew close, and Kaitlin adopted us as her grandparents. Then, last weekend, Kaitlin and Cindy were looking through some of Cindy's family photos, when Kaitlin asked, "What's my grandma doing in your scrapbook?" and Cindy replied, "That's my aunt!" Small world - she really is family. And we're glad of it.

My interest in human trafficking - especially in areas of domestic servitude and agricultural labor- was a byproduct of my interest in immigration, and my concern with the horrors of the sex trade arose largely from the proximity of one of the larger centers of the trade to where we live. Whether you know it or not it's also close to where you are. Even in the placest that people think is least likely. Got a truck stop in Boise? Massage parlor in Salt Lake? Trust me - it's under your nose.

A second area of concern for me is wage theft. It happens all over the place. Immigrants are shipped in to work under slave conditions, then two days before payday ICE shows up. The timing is coincidence, I'm sure. Workers are paid below minimum wage. Or, they are told, "No overtime, under any circumstances." Then they are given a pile of work that would take 50 hours to do, and told to have it done within the week. The expectation is that the worker will "donate" the other 10 hours. I have worked in a situation in which I was expected to take work home, but it was not allowed that anyone would claim overtime. "Donation" was expected. The more appropriate term was never used: "Theft." Wal-Mart workers are forced to work through their breaks, but don't single out Wal-Mart. I doubt that Target or K-Mart or any ot the other retailers are different.

What can we do about this? I've discussed (I think!) our adventure of our prayer vigil at Wal-Mart on Black Friday. I guess those nuns just scared the bejezus out of Wal-Mart!

Every year St. Ambrose University awards the Pacem in Terris award. Last year's recipient was Kim Bobo, from International Worker Justice. We met her, and I've got a copy of a book she wrote, autographed by her. Wage theft is a big issue to them. So, I've been on a Black Friday prayer vigil at a Wal-Mart. I've met a founder of International Worker Justice, and sent them a check. IWJ is starting an office in Iowa City, and may be doing some work in the QCA. We'll see.

Did you know Iowa is a "right-to-work" state? (Translation: right to work underpaid.)

'Nuff for tonight. Thanks for hanging out!