How NOT to Combat Human Trafficking

 

People have previously believed that combating prostitution is the same as combating human trafficking.  It isn’t.

  For example, a small group of people in Washington D.C. noticed a brothel disguised as a spa had opened up in their neighborhood.  By occasionally catching glimpses of the girls, they came to suspect that the young women in question might have been victims of human trafficking.  They were morally outraged, so they filed a petition at Change.org to force the business to yank up its roots from their neighborhood, close their doors and go somewhere else.

  What did this group of people accomplish?  Well, they made it so their husbands would have to drive a little further to pay for sex.  They repaired the reputation of their presumably pure and noble neighborhood. 

  Did they do anything that helped the girls and/or women they suspected were being held against their will in order to be repeatedly sold into sexual bondage?

  No.  They did nothing that could be considered helping those women victimized by human trafficking.

  Visibility creates accountability.  Letting potential traffickers know that they were being targeted for suspicion of human trafficking doesn’t mean that they’re going to close up shop and never do business again.  It means they’re going to go further underground to sell their wares without attracting suspicion from a nosy neighborhood.

  If those women were slaves, they may never be seen again.  An opportunity to help them has been lost.

  It’s too bad Change.org doesn’t have a Wall of Shame. 

  This situation highlights how important it is to know how to approach a situation where human trafficking is suspected.  If someone truly wants to help, it is important for them to know how best to help the people involved, and that usually starts by contacting organizations that specifically deal with the issue, such as the Polaris Project.  If you or anyone you know has suspicions about a potential human trafficking situation, or if you yourself are or have been a victim of human trafficking, call the Polaris Project Hotline at 1-888-3737-888.

A Message from an Autonomous Individual Regarding the Legality of Marijuana

This is a message from an Autonomous Individual to the President, members of the federal government and state governments.

  I find this bickering over whether it will be federal “authority” or state “authority” that will decide whether the people may use marijuana to be both ridiculous and insulting.

  Let me clarify this issue for you, since the issue itself seems to be lost in ego-posturing.  The people who have the ultimate authority to decide whether the people smoke, ingest or grow marijuana are the people themselves.  This is an individual choice, not a state or federal choice.  I find it both ironic and suspicious that president Obama would claim to understand and uphold the personal health choices of women over their own bodies and yet somehow not do the same for all citizens.

  I’m going to make this even clearer for you.  Whether I partake in marijuana is my own choice.  I personally have taken this choice out of your hands as you’ve proven to be unfit to make it.  The people are not in your hearts if you’ve chosen so blatantly to ignore their wishes.  Many others have taken this choice out of your hands, but you have chosen not to hear them.  You have chosen to lock them up as if your own opinions on the subject were somehow more important than their lives, families and freedoms.

  To add insult to injury, it seems that your friends in the United Nations are trying to convince you to continue your unlawful persecution of farmers and peaceful participants.  If you would promptly tell them that the individual people here are none of their concern unless we the individual people actually ask for their opinions, I for one would greatly appreciate it.

  I am going to let you in on something that I don’t keep a secret, anyway.

  I partake in marijuana.  I am going to continue to partake in marijuana.  I am going to bake it into cookies and brownies when I have enough.  I am going to brew it into tea.  I am going to occasionally smoke it with my friends, though I try not to smoke too much.  I may even grow it.  And if I don’t grow it, I will certainly buy it. 

  It is my hope that I and others like me can buy so much of it, that we can support the market to the point that for every cultivator you lock away, three hundred more can take their place until you each finally realize who these choices belong to and until you finally realize that no one is going to put up with your posturing on the issue any longer.

Sincerely,

  An Autonomous Individual who no longer consents to be governed by ego-centric, power-hungry strangers.