Virginia

Human Trafficking Victim Speaks Out:

This has become an important issue to me so I’m posting this at all four of my sites.

I am sure you have noticed that I haven’t posted in the past two days. On Thursday, I drove to Richmond, Virginia, and attended a screening of the film Call + Response. The screening was organized by the Richmond Justice Initiative and the International Justice Mission and held at Richmond’s Byrd Theatre. In attendance with me was Greg Collier the CEO of Geebo.com. The Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Janet Polarek, was also in the audience.

Before the film began, Ms. Polarek spoke out on the issue of human slavery and human trafficking. She stated that this is not a Republican or Democrat issue, but an issue we all need to be concerned about. Free craigscrimelist t-shirts were also given to the audience prior to the film’s commencement.

It was funny that as Greg and myself talked to people both before and after the movie, that they were completely unaware that craigslist and backpage were major sources of human trafficking in this country. For those who have never seen these sections i believe it will be an eye opener.

The movie itself was spectacular. The film was about a musician who wanted to bring other musicians together to raise awareness to the slavery still going on in the world today. It included music performances and interviews with politicians, journalists and activists.

Unfortunately, I was not moved by the film. It is likely because I have been writing about similar horrors for the past ten years. However, I am sure that most “normal” people would be my moved by the film’s message.

Following the movie, a Q&A session was held at a nearby restaurant. One thing that really stood out for me was a woman who stood and addressed the crowd. By looking at her you would have thought that she was a regular person that you would meet at an office or at the store. Her story, however, was anything but regular as she shared how she was enslaved in this very country as a prostitute.

After hearing her story about how many times she was nearly killed and had her freedom taken from her under the threat of extreme violence, I approached her, introduced myself with my real name and told her about craigscrimelist. I explained to her how I am using the site to call on sites like craigslist and backpage to end their facilitation of human trafficking and working with Geebo to show that it can be done. When I finished she did the most amazing thing. She thanked me. For the first time, in a really long time, I felt like what I was doing was helping.

This exchange tied in with a remark the movie’s producer, Justin Dillon, said in the movie. “If you want to help, find what you’re good at it and use it to bring awareness to the problem.” That is what I am doing. I hope I can call on you to find what you are good at and use to bring awareness too.