Human Sex Trafficking

AJ Teaters | 1 comment

Human Sex Trafficking

Hopefully you're speechless because you NEED to listen to what I have to say. I don't normally get up on my soap-box about issues that are as powerful, significant and compelling as this. Obviously, if you have read my last few blog posts they were about 4-square, dating and little kid body odor. So I think it's sufficient to say that this topic must hold a high level of importance to me for me to be talking about it.

Being a Phoenix resident, and having spent most of my teenage and adult life living in the Phoenix Metropolitan area this information shocked me. I had no idea that Phoenix was a city where minor sex trafficking would be an issue, and not just an issue but a powerfully overwhelming issue. "The exact number of children being exploited through prostitution, pornography, and sexual performance in Arizona is impossible to determine because no agency or organization has specifically focused on data collection to document the problem. However, it is reasonable to assert that Arizona's developed highway system, warm climate, high tourist and snowbird population, and wealth of convention centers and sports stadiums attract buyers and traffickers alike, making Arizona a target for domestic minor sex trafficking," (http://www.sharedhope.org/Portals/0/Documents/ArizonaRA.pdf, pg.10)

This is an issue that is not usually a topic of dinner conversations, Christmas parties or something you have to get your team to guess at charades, but this IS a topic that needs to be discussed. First read the 10 Quick Facts About Child Sex Slavery and educate yourself before you read on.

"Most commonly, young people who end up under the control of a pimp have come from abusive homes and have run away. They are lured into a relationship with someone who claims he will care for them and love them.

At some point, the tables are turned and the "protector" becomes abusive and forces the girl to sell herself on the streets or through internet ads. The young lady believes that the money she earns will create a better life for the two of them. Between threats to her and her family, psychological manipulation, and physical force, she has been beaten down enough that she will comply, becoming more deeply entrenched in a vicious cycle of abuse, lies, rapes, and every kind of demeaning sexual acts.

Sometimes, a child or teen will be forcibly abducted from home or school or even a friend's house. Such a victim may not be as emotionally needy to begin with, but the perpetrator will still use the same methods for breaking her down to get her to comply with prostituting herself.

Paige [the girl depicted in the video above] was 16 was she was abducted and forced into the world of sex trafficking. She was still wanted by her mother who worked hard to get her back home and into a treatment center. However, the pimp's hold on her was stronger and more insistent, so Paige went back with him to a tragic end.

There are minimally another 100,000 girls like Paige, and some boys, in the United States who are brutally enslaved to be raped for profit repeatedly on a daily basis. The statistics are overwhelming, and the unseen faces and unheard voices of these children are screaming out for help. No child deserves to be abused. No child deserves to be treated like an old rag that is used over and over and finally thrown in the trash. No child deserves to be brutalized and ripped apart emotionally by being a sexual toy for the most perverse of fantasies," (http://streetlightusa.org/the-story).

So, before you jump out of your chair and run out the door and scream this injustice from the hilltops and hamlets of the world, educate yourself again. Learn how to be the best and most valuable tool in this fight. What should you do to get involved?

1. Visit Streetlight USA website: for information about the issue, the history and the story behind this organization.
2. Become a modern day abolitionist: Take a stand and become involved in making a change you want to see happen. Become a Modern Day Abolitionist
3. Do work: use your voice [tell people about this cause to fight this injustice], use the resources available [hand out information to friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, etc. or request a speaker to come talk about this issue], DONATE [time (volunteer), money, furniture, supplies, etc.] Various Ways To Give

Hopefully this has lit a fire inside your heart, a fire that will eventually consume and burn down this injustice. Let's take a stand, voice the cause and hold fast to this thought, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery," (Galatians 5:1).

*Side Note*

AJ Teaters | 1 comment

*Side Note*

I know that I am supposed to be continuing my 3 part series on “Don't be a Christian Appliance” but I've had something on my mind that I just haven't been able to remember to post until someone reminds me of the idea.

Enough with my vague-ality I might as well just get into the what it is that has got me side-tracked. Recently a couple of friends and I went out to see the “The Town” (That new Ben Affleck movie that takes place in Boston and centers around back robbery) which is rated 'R' for different reasons, but the 2 that float to the surface the fastest are language and violence. Pluggedin.com states, “The f-word tally exceeds 150,” with the run-time only being 125 minutes, that means that they said the f-word more than once a minute throughout the movie. I just want to dispel any judgment on the movie because of the language issue, if you ask anyone who lives in or grew up in Boston or close to it will tell you that (as hard as it is to believe) that's just how they talk out there. My in-laws are “Mass-holes”, trust me when I say I can back up this statement with credible references, and no they don't drop the f-bomb every minute (actually the never do) but they know what goes on back there... experience.

Where was I? The Town, great movie but has a slight language problem and is a little violent. The violence is nothing out of the ordinary for a present day bank-robber type crime movie: Car chases (with explosions), shoot-outs, beatings and pistol-whippings, so nothing that I haven't seen in my 8+ years of watching rated 'R' movies. But this isn't the problem, hopefully you've caught on to that by now.

My friends and I walked into the theater, on a Saturday night, and throughout the mandatory commercials we talked and caught up on any current news in our lives. Not until the previews started, had I noticed the travesty that was taking place right in front of me... I had almost eaten all my sour patch watermelon candy?! I couldn't believe that I just spent $4.00 on a bag of candy that was practically empty by the time the previews started! Nevertheless I ate the last few slices and dumped the sour-sugar coating that had collected at the bottom of the bag into my mouth when I noticed something else... something worse than my candy running out. We were surrounded by families, families with children... FAMILIES WITH SMALL CHILDREN, I'M TALKING 3-5 YEAR OLDS!

I couldn't believe it, I literally stood up and looked around me during the previews. I counted 3 separate families that had brought their kids to see this movie. Once the movie started I can, for the first time, honestly say that I wanted to smack a woman in her face. Why? Because she was shhhh-ing her kids during the movie, she actually told them to, “be quiet and watch the movie!” Once I realized that by smacking this woman in the face I would be doing nothing but smacking her in the face it made me think, "Smacking this woman wouldn't make her realize her faults, it wouldn't make her think over her decision, and it wouldn't make her take her kids and bring them into theater 3 where they were showing “Alpha and Omega” (that cartoon wolf movie)." I knew smacking her in the face would do nothing but give me a few minutes of gratification, but it wouldn't help the kids that were being forced to watch a movie that was (in every sense of the word) wrong for them to be watching.

Don't get me wrong, I'm normally not a violent person, but this was too much for me. I tried putting myself in their shoes and thinking HOW could anyone come to the conclusion that bringing their children to a rated 'R' movie would be appropriate? I thought about it throughout the entire preview section until I finally came to an answer: IT ISN'T! But what do you do? Should I have called Child Protective Services (CPS), told the manager of the theater, or tried to talk some reason into the families? I was absolutely appalled into a state of shock.

I teach, at the moment, so I am surrounded by kids (every age group) for half the year. I see the differences in children/students that have parents that are involved in every part of their lives. I see how easy it is for children/students to do whatever they want: interrupt you when you are teaching a lesson, call another student a name that they don't even know the meaning of, but heard Stewie call Peter it on the last episode of “Family Guy”, or be completely oblivious to the consequences of their choices. Am I saying that I only see this in the grade that I teach, no, but I do see it pretty much in every grade in school. A wave of disrespect, irresponsibility and entitlement has swept over this generation and is strangling the common sense out of them. Teachers then talk to parents about their child's/student's behavior and the parents say, “I don't know where he/she gets it from.”

The saddest part of this post is that this wasn't the first time and we all know this won't be the last time I run into something like this. I can count a handful of times I have seen underage kids in movies that have no business watching, or talking about a TV show they watch that I know the jokes or theme is geared toward adults, or bragging about their high-score on a video game that should even be discussed by them. Far too many times am I out late at night and have to stop by Wal-Mart (mostly out of convenience since it's late) to pick something up, and who do I see trudging through the aisle? Yep, you guessed it, a small kid or small children hanging on to their parent's hand, belt loop or just half asleep in the cart. I know it's not like I should think that I can walk into a Wal-Mart of all places and get a good image of solid parenting, but I'm talking 11-12pm at night. Isn't the answer as simple as: if you have children and you want to go see a rated 'R' movie you have to get a baby-sitter. If you don't get a baby-sitter, you don't go. If you don't get a baby-sitter, you don't say, "Grab the kids, we're going anyway!"

Having children is a privilege and a sacrifice, you can't just make them into adults and then back into children whenever you want. The thought crossed my mind sitting in the movie theater, "I wonder what's worse: Keeping the kids in the theater watching 'The Town', or sending them off to a theater all by themselves to watch a kids movie?!" Then I realized this question should never have to be asked!

Let me just end this rant/rave by simply saying, if this is how we parent our children what type of society can we expect in the next 20-30 years?