A couple of months ago I was at a conference where Brandon McCormick was featured as an artist. He is currently in the city of Atlanta and using his talents as a film maker to fight the sex trafficking industry. Unfortunately, it not just an overseas problem, but it’s in our backyards. In Atlanta alone, nearly 500 girls are trafficked in monthly. As horrific as it may sound, Atlanta is a targeted city because it is an international hub that isn’t too far from the suburbs. Sure, the girls are brought in through a big city, but they are trafficked out of local neighborhoods.
There are tons of facts out there that are shocking and staggering, but they will just stay statistics in your mind until you allow them to become real. In Brandon’s short film, The Candy Shop, he presents an artistic spin that isn’t too far off from the real tactics to present this horrific problem. His film is about 30 minutes long, so make sure you have time and please watch. He’s in a film competition now, but this link isn’t about the votes. It’s about the movement. We have to make it real in our minds, or else these numbers (mothers, daughters, sisters, friends…) will just keep growing.
I heard an interesting perspective on justice and compassion not too long ago. Compassion is seeing people swept downstream by a rushing current and fighting to save as many as you can. Justice is using every bit of strength you have to work upstream and destroy whatever is throwing them in. We need both in this fight, so don’t let this just be another 30 minutes of entertainment…
