Trafficking. Trafficking.
The time of year has come, in our Christian Education year, that the presentation to our class will be focused on safety. I have two safety topics that I use. One is addiction/alcoholism, and that will be next year. Being a gratefully recovering alcoholic, I do have a perspective on this. The other is trafficking. Both are topics about which I have become greatly - enlightened? - over the years. Neither is a topic I wanted to know about when I was a younger adult.
Trafficking is slavery. Strong word, that, and I was introduced to it by our granddaughter, Meri. A few years ago she asked, "Papa, did you know that there's still slavery in the United States?" My response, since I am Grandpa and my B.A. is in history and I took a lot of science and some grad work in theology so I know all there is to know: "No - there's no slavery in the U.S. We had this Civil War thingy, and all those Amendments - no, no, slavery is illegal here."
My, oh my, did I need enlightenment! And it came from friends, Nora Dvorak of my Diocese and Brian McVey, an Episcopal priest in Davenport. I've done some reading about the subject. The Slave Next Door is an excellent book.
I am teaching this to a class of (mostly) middle schoolers, and there's a balance to be struck. On the one hand, I don't want the next day's headlines to read, "Half of the St. Mary's Church first year confirmation students fainted during class. The others' eyes were frozen wide open, and are still that way this morning." But I also want these kids to get three things: 1) This is as real as your shoes. 2) It happens right here (for some time a major center was an establishment in Walcott, of all places. I won't say the name, but it's a truckstop on I-80. You know - an I-80 truckstop. But I didn't say the name, now, did I? And I don't know if it's still such a major center; last I knew, the truckstop was taking steps to clean up.) And 3) The average age of those sold into sex slavery is 12.8 years. You, middle schoolers, are right in somebody's crosshairs. So, we'll touch on what happens, and we'll emphasize how to improve your chances of staying safe. (Hint: Two things traffickers hate and fear: numbers and witnesses.)
Allow me to suggest a definition of slavery: If you are forced to do what you do not want to do, if you are not paid for what you do, and you cannot stop doing it for fear of physical harm to yourself and/or your family, is that not slavery? If there's no turning back, no going home, are you not a slave?
What's the hold that the traffickers have on the trafficked? The two-bit pimp on 2nd and Scott may use the threat of physical harm; he may point out that he knows where the slave's family lives. He may have gotten the person dependent on a drug of which he is the source.
The folks that had the operation at the truck stops present issues besides these. There has been a connection with "Eastern European organizations" (why say "Russian Mob" when you can say "Eastern European organizations"?) They "recruit" a number of youngsters, then ship them out to other locations. These locations are changed frequently. So, if you leave, you are going - well, you have no clue where. If you are trafficked in from overseas, you don't speak the language. Your ID was taken from you (standard operating procedure.) It's sad to me that a Spanish-speaking person in the Quad Cities who is a stranger to the area and needs help wouldn't know how easy it would be to find a Spanish speaker. Heck, if they stumbled into my class a lot of help would be right there. But, they don't know this.
Two organizations that have been instrumental in the fight to eradicate the evil: Polaris Project (www.polarisproject.org.) They have been instrumental in a number of rescues. Also, they keep a valuable set of data on the impacts of this plague, and the status of the states in providing services and legal protections for these survivors (and please - they are NOT victims.) Iowa folks - do you know how many spaces are available in treatment facilities for such survivors? Hint: It's a nice round number.
The other organization I have in mind is Truckers Against Trafficking (www.truckersagainsttrafficking.org.) They spread the word, and they have a leverage in truck stops that the rest of us can only dream of. And, they have used it. Their rescue work is done in collaboration with Polaris Project.
So - off to prep!
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