I thought that returning from my IJM internship in India meant that i was leaving "the front lines" or "the field" of human trafficking activity. Now that i am 8 months post-India, i'm not so sure that is the case. While in India, i was in awe of the fact that i was meeting former slaves and i reveled in the realization that, in a small way, i helped put "former" in front of their title. I revel in that realization today and i will revel in it forever. But i'm beginning to understand that the freeing of slaves is not as other-worldly as i once imagined.
In the last few months, i have met several survivors of slavery right here in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. I wept as i listened to their stories spoken in my own language, no translator necessary. This was not a world away, these women were bought and sold a few blocks away. Under different circumstances, i could have been that girl forced onto a street corner; i could have been that woman chained in a brothel. Please understand that i'm not exaggerating. I'm not in the business of falsifying stories that are already too terrible to embellish.
I never left the front lines of slavery at all. There's no such thing as leaving the front lines of a crime that's blanketing the globe, suffocating it slowly. When I talk about working on the front lines or on the field, from now on i'm simply referring to Earth. So welcome to the field, folks; If you're alive, you're on it! We're all on the field of human trafficking because this horrible issue deeply affects every country and every culture. And for those of us who've had the good fortune to be born and raised in freedom, there aren't that many positions that we can play. You can be the offender (a perpetrator/slave owner). You can be the defender (an abolitionist). Or you can be the passive spectator (a silent bystander who is ignorant of slavery or who simply ignores it).
Which position will you be playing today?
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