In Texas?????

As most of you know, I've been involved with the organization International Justice Mission for a couple years now. Therefore I'm pretty aware of what is going on in the "sex trafficking" industry.

When I read stories about the thievery of girls' souls in Cambodia, I am sobered, disgusted, and pained instantly. But sadly, I am not surprised.

Well of course I have also "heard" that human and sex trafficking occurs here in the U.S.
But when I "hear" about it, what goes through my mind is something a long the lines of: "They must be referring to the instances when people pick up Mexicans, throw them in vans, bring them over to Texas and other border states, give them illegal work, and treat them horribly."

Well that is definitely happening. But the thing is, there's much more.

First off, my dear friend Emily (whom I should just write a whole other post about soon), has opened my eyes to the very "third world" type sex trafficking that is going on in Washington D.C. . . .and of course in many other parts of the U.S. I say "third world" simply because you don't expect things kinds of things to be happening in incredible cities like Washington D.C. or our very own Houston, Texas. You expect to hear about these things in Cambodia and the like but. . .here? Where we prize human dignity so much?? Here? Land of the free?? Here? Where sex sells and sex controls way more than we can imagine? Oh right.
Here.

Well anyways, check this article out. Right here in Houston. Straight from the Texas Monthly magazine. (yes it is long, but even someone like me who has read many articles about this stuff, found this extremely compelling and insightful, yet simple to understand.)

I really like how it captures what is happening in the heads of these women:

"While you are in this state—dizzy, disoriented—your boss takes you to a place that isn’t a restaurant or a factory and tells you to unpack your few belongings in a dingy back room. He tells you that this is where you will work to pay off your debt. You will be a prostitute, he explains, and by the way, you will be charged for room and board while you are paying off that $30,000. When you protest, he beats you, starves you, or keeps you awake for days on end. Then, just to make himself clear, he holds up a picture of your son or your parents or your sister and tears it in half. Or maybe he just says, “We hear your father has a bad heart.”

At that point, your predicament becomes very clear. You do not speak or read the language. You do not have a cent to your name. You have no idea where you are in this vast country, and you have no way of finding out because no one lets you go anywhere alone. What do you do? Most likely, you do what you are told."

Well shoot. What do you do when you find out this stuff is happening in our wealthy cities who "prize" the dignity of people. . .right here under our noses. . . .down our streets. . . .a whole new world juxtaposed against our country of equality, freedom, law, order, dignity.