The Thirteenth Amendment

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” –13th Amendment to the Constitution that freed all slaves on December 6, 1865. Despite the fact slavery, in any and all forms, has been outlawed in the United States, it still continues on, over one-hundred and forty years later within the domestic borders. The CIA estimates that over fifty thousand slaves of all types are trafficked within and throughout the nation’s borders. Unfortunately, the nature of this atrocious crime makes it quite difficult know for sure how many really are affected. However, the United States government and its people should not be able to receive fifty thousand as an acceptable number. Anything and everything should be done to reduce this number until it is no more. These fifty thousand, they are not just a number, each and everyone is a human being who has had their life taken away from them. To contend that they are experiencing life is a fool’s lie. We have an opportunity to change this, to give life to those who have lost it, or never even known it. We have a chance to resurrect the life-deprived slaves who inhabit this planet, and open their eyes to this beautiful world. But to open their eyes, we first must open our own as well as the American people. We speak for those who cannot be heard. We are their only voice and their only desperate hope–to give hope to the hopeless. Please, listen to this human plea. “The moment we stop fighting for each other, that’s the moment we lose our humanity.” It is not human to let slavery exist, and that is simply the truth.

Holly

Holly is a 2007 film about an American stolen artifacts dealer who meets up with a twelve-year old Vietnamese girl in Cambodia. She has been sold by her family and smuggled across the border into prostitution. The American, Patrick, must go onto a journey to save this girl. This movie is part of the producers’ “K-11” project and with their non-profit organization, the Redlight Children Campaign, they are working to bring awareness to the “global child trafficking epidemic” to the rest of the world–to open their eyes to some of the horrible lives that must be lived by children who have no control of what happens to them, literally being born into slavery.

The Reality of Modern Day Children Slavery

“Over two million children are sold into the sex trade every year.” That means less than one percent of the world’s fifteen and younger children population is being sold into the trade, which can be viewed positively as this means the world is doing a relatively good job protecting them from the horrible life; nonetheless, two million is still not an acceptable figure. Everyone still needs to do their part to reduce that number as low as we can. No one will ever be able to stop all child abuse and slavery to the point where the number is zero, not now and not in four centuries, but that doesn’t mean you cannot act now to make that number diminish. Every child makes a difference.

Invisible Children

On March 5, 2012, modern day slavery in central Africa was made aware to millions of people across the globe by Jason Russell and Invisible Children, a non-profit organization originating in California that began its work in 2005 to spread awareness to the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) and its leader, Joseph Kony. The organization’s main goal is to bring an end to the atrocious activities of the LRA conflict which includes abductions and abuse of children as well as forcing them serve as soldiers. Invisible Children is operated by a forty-three full-time, permanent staff that works alongside hundreds of volunteers.

They have constantly requested the United States government to allow a military force into central Africa to subjugate the LRA, but they have denied to get involved. However, Invisible Children do support the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) and the Ugandan Army. While the organization cannot provide any military force of its own, they fight in the media, to bring awareness to those who can and will maybe one day bring an end to the conflict. In this fight for awareness, they swept through schools and colleges throughout the United States, delivering award-winning films. Their first release via YouTube is this film, Kony 2012. As of April 11, 2012, over eighty-seven million people have been brought to awareness by this film. “Do more than just watch.”