D.C. Massage Parlor

Here is another piece of news sent to me from Polaris Project.  If you'd like to receive these updates, you can do so at  http://act.polarisproject.org/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=2986.

"A downtown Washington D.C. business has shut down after nearly a year of operation, Change.org reports.

Sky Spa presented itself as a massage parlor. According to a suit brought by the District government, however, the joint functioned as a locus of prostitution. Polaris Project has alleged that it was part of a national network for trafficking Asian women into prostitution, .

Most recently local activists launched a campaign on Change.org asking the business's landlord, Jerry Schaeffer, to shut down the operation and refuse to rent to other such operations in the future.
The so-called spa had the vibe of a place offering something more than just rub-downs. Windows were blacked out, customers were monitored with security cameras, it operated seven days a week until 2 a.m. and catered only to men.
Spas of this sort have a record of "reopen[ing] at the same location under a different name," said Dan Brooks, the activist who created the campaign for grassroots organization DC Stop Modern Slavery."

 When I saw that this article was about a D.C. locale, I first wondered if I had ever heard of Sky Spa.  Then upon realizing that I've never heard of Sky Spa, I thought to myself, "Of course I've never heard of it, I'm a guy.  I don't frequent spas."

Now, I know that some men do frequent spas on occasion.  There's certainly nothing 'unmanly' about receiving a massage or something or another (I really have no idea what other things someone can pay for in a spa), but I hope that I'm not alone in questioning the validity of a spa that only provides for male customers.  Please, someone correct me if there's nothing suspicious in that.  But this Sky Spa place went a number of steps further in blacking out the windows, monitoring the clients on video cameras, and staying open until 3 a.m.  I can't imagine desperately wanting a massage that early in the morning/late at night.  I struggle maintaining faith in humanity when I read that this place was allowed to operate for even a year.  Did it really take that long for people to figure out that this wasn't a normal spa?

Because I've never heard of the place I did a Google search to look it up.  The district isn't the biggest city in the country, so not much is far away from me, but being in the northwest section of D.C. on Massachusetts Avenue, Sky Spa's location on the corner of Connecticut and Rhode Island Northwest is fairly close.  Given my question above, I question whether I should start going to spas that are nearby to help out in discovering these places faster.  Even without giving it much thought I fear that I don't have the courage.  But more discomforting is whether or not I actually care enough to risk myself for the sake of others.  I think that perhaps many people, if they are honest, would come to the same uncomfortable thought.  Do we actually care enough to spend a significant amount of money or to risk ourselves or to 'waste' a few hours of our time to help other human beings who may be held in various forms of captivity?  Without doubt this is a level of selfishness that requires some serious reflection, to deal with it and hopefully conquer it, because my dignity in the image of God can only be maintained if the dignity of others is upheld.

What most strikes at my heart when I looked up the location of Sky Spa, though, are the advertisements I saw on the page that came up when I clicked on Sky Spa.  Sky Spa is listed on the website of a little organization named Spa Hunters.  I had doubts about an organization that would title itself Spa Hunters, as if spas would need to be hunted out from the depths of obscurity and create an underground network of secret spas.  The explanation at the bottom of the page is that it is often hard in metropolitan areas to know which spas are 'worthwhile.'  Taking a quick glance on the page with Sky Spa's information on it, I know exactly what these spa hunters mean by 'worthwhile.' 

A friend of mine who was working with me in the library as I'm typing up this blog entry looked over at me while I was looking disgustedly at the page, and she remarked, "John John, are you looking at porn????!!!!"  Seriously, little else could be concluded from all the advertisements on the Spa Hunter page.  Young Asian women were displayed with very little clothing on, often with the head of the woman cut-off so that you could only see her breasts and mid-section, as the picture advertisement for the other spas advertising.  And these pictures would flash back and forth with words like, "We know how to make you feel GOOD!" and assurances that the spa is open late or 24/7.  One advertisement even claims to be a Swedish spa but with a picture of an Asian woman pushing together her breasts. 

Advertisements like those must work or the spas would stop using them.  The unfortunate truth is that many Asian spas and massage parlors are known to be places of prostitution where you can get a whole lot more than a massage.  These spas aren't even bothering to try and cover that fact up, they are blatantly advertising it as the reason to choose that particular spa, as the reason why that spa is worthwhile.  And when advertising such as this is so successful and widespread, how am I, one person, supposed to change the culture that makes these places of Asian trafficking well-established?

I have no answer to that question.  And because I have no answer I am left feeling depressed at the moment.  But I choose to remain steadfast in my hope that with God I can make a difference, I will make a difference; and that you all reading this can make a difference, will make a difference.