The local
CBS affiliate shared this story during Monday’s late night newscast. Please watch this NOW then read how this
story just rocks me:
- “The Strip” = 14th
& K Streets, NW: I used to work in the vicinity of this intersection
of DC. Amidst the office buildings
in this area of downtown DC, there’s a “gentleman’s club”; of
course, I’d never seen anyone enter or exit this place when I passed by during
the broad daylight of lunchtime. “Bianca” had been in bondage for three years, which
actually overlaps with the time I still had been working in DC; I kinda don’t want to fathom what goes on and has been going on when the sun sets and the business district transforms into a red-light district… - Bianca came from a two-parent
home. All it took was one moment of
being vulnerable for her to be preyed upon. How much more at risk are youth from the
DC area who come from broken families?! - Her pimp, Shelby Lewis, had
her and other victims live in his home with his children?! How lost and in the dark he must’ve
been…I am just utterly dumbfounded. This doesn’t compute in my head. How can a parent do that to another parent’s child?
“People think slavery is over, but it’s not.
It’s just slavery in a whole ‘nother way. Without the chains and the
shackles.”
- The reporter, Andrea McCarren, wrote, “Human trafficking cases
are very difficult to prosecute. The victims are often young, vulnerable
and reluctant to testify. In a twisted way, the pimps have shown them
love, comfort and the structure that these lost children crave.” Isn’t that what perversion is – simply put,
it is a twisting, per the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, “to divert to
a wrong end or purpose”.
I am
aware that human trafficking is a huge problem abroad and here. This story, however, has set me on edge,
makes me angry and breaks my heart. The
more I see, the more responsibility I bear; so, to be quite honest, I don’t want to learn and know more. I feel
like my increased awareness isn’t leading to more meaningful action.
Yet the question I’m faced with isn’t, “Should I do something about this?” Friends, how
should I respond? Between
being a full-time support raising missions mobilizer, and serving in several
capacities at church, what am I to do?
