Houston Trafficking

I've decided that anyone who posts anything about human trafficking on my website, on my Facebook, or on the 27 Million Revolutions for 27 Million Slaves Facebook page, I will write about it here, because as I always say: more awareness leads to wider-open eyes, and wider-open eyes leads to changed lives that end slavery and, for those who can, more energetic, tangible combating of slavery.  A friend posted this article to the 27 Million Revolutions for 27 Million Slaves Facebook page:

Houston Trafficking

Parts of this article are amazing to me.  Amazing in the sense that I, despite writing a book in which I try to understand people in regards to slavery, cannot understand people.  Two things stand out to me.

First, the fact that most of the people found in the house, in the squalid conditions, are from Central America.  I almost laughed a little.  We self-dubbed Americans complain and complain about "dirty foreigners," usually referring to Mexicans or other Central/Southern Americans, coming to the U.S. and "stealing" our jobs... yet it is pretty clear that we are constantly taking advantage of those less privileged in the southern American climes.  Taking people from their homes in Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and other countries, probably with the promise of better lives, and then traffic them into slavery in the apparently civilized United States, is absolutely cruel and terrible.  More than that, it's also an indication of how we are taking advantage of them all the time: we shine a beacon of hope, then force Central/Southern Americans, and other down-on-their-luck foreigners, to do jobs that many of us wouldn't dream about doing.  This is one reason why I am very proud of my in-laws: all of them are honest, hard-working citizens who will do anything it takes to support a family with the utmost integrity (not that my family isn't, but since I've been born I don't know anyone in my family who has worked in a factory or at McDonald's or anything like that).  In general, though, we take advantage of those less lucky than we are, and then we complain about the very problem we create by taking advantage of them.  We shouldn't be surprised that this attitude produces human trafficking in our country.  The filth that the victims in this story had to endure is worse than awful, but there is a more disgusting filth: American attitudes that create and sustain human trafficking in this country and around the world.  Our venom is pathetically misplaced and so terribly logically inconsistent that it's laughable.

If you've read my book, the following statement will seem like a repetition: attitudes are extremely serious, and changing our attitudes, what we say, and our lifestyles, we can change the world for the better.  Even if we aren't directly involved in human trafficking, we could very well be involved in the worst evil known to humankind.

Secondly, the police that responded to the missing persons registered surprise that so many people would be at the house.  It would seem that a native of Houston was the cause of uncovering the trafficking scheme, which should jar our conception--if we can read this blog and still hold this conception--that only non-Americans are trafficked.  But anyway, why are the police surprised?  I can imagine that any time you encounter a location of slavery you'd be dismayed beyond words.  And you or I, certainly, would be surprised.  But in 2012 86 people were found in a house in the Houston area.  Five years ago an equal or greater number of people were found in a house in the Houston area.  Clearly something is going on that you can't ignore.  Yet surprise suggests that it is being ignored, at least more than it should be.  I'm not trying to suggest that the enforcement agencies of Houston aren't aware of what's going on or aren't working hard to end human trafficking, but the tone of the article is wrong.  Rather than surprise, which suggests, "I can't believe this is still going on," the tone should be, "Man, we're working hard, but we should be working harder." 

We all need to work harder.  I can't possibly say that without also giving you the following link, which, after you click on it, fill out a few lines, will be your letter to your political representative to help end modern slavery.  The world will thank you.

Polaris Project