Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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  In High School I struggled with slavery.  I often wondered what I would’ve done if I lived during the period before the Civil War.  I think it’s easy to say, I would’ve been an abolitionist, I would’ve been against it, I would have fought to end it.  But I have to be honest, and say I don’t know if I would’ve done that.  Whether we like it or not, even in the slightest, we are products of our environment.  Growing up in the South, there are still some strong racist cultural ties in many parts.  The first school I taught at was in a city called Denton, NC, which contained one of the biggest/strongest chapters of the KKK, and these ties are still evident.  Confederate flags were a staple on most kids clothing, and they didn’t wear it for “southern pride and tradition”.  I was teaching Algebra, but still had to take time out of many class periods to try to teach tolerance.  If I grew up in the South during the time of slavery, I don’t know what I would’ve done.  I probably would have been brought up learning that whites were superior, and that slavery is supported by scripture.  I hope I would’ve been able to see through the lies, and be against it.  But I also hope I wouldn’t have just been against slavery, said “that’s horrible”, and feel good about myself because I didn’t agree with the people that allowed slavery to exist.  I hope I would have tried to replace hate, with love and be a voice for those that couldn’t have their own, even though I could’ve endangered myself in the process.

      I say all of this because, slavery exists.  It doesn’t affect me, it doesn’t affect my family.  I could be content in researching, learning some of the warning signs, and bringing it up in conversations about how horrible it is.  But I feel like I have to do more than that.  There’s two different reasons people question why I’m wanting to be a part of this.  First of all, is why at all?  When I tell people I’m going overseas, they assume I’m teaching because that’s what I was doing before, or some people ask if I’m in the military.  When I told a former co-worker I was going to be working with human trafficking, his response was, “Why do you want to do that?” My initial reaction, and response to him was, “why not?” I realize, I could’ve and probably should’ve elaborated more, but when it all comes down to it, that’s the right answer, what reason do we not have for trying to fix this problem.  In America, it doesn’t make sense to do something that doesn’t benefit you.  It doesn’t make sense to leave a good job, good benefits, safety, and security, to go try to stop an issue that still a lot of people don’t know about, and which is providing Americans with cheap goods and services.  The bad thing about today, is people think if they’re a fan of a cause on facebook, or get e-mail reminders from the One Campaign, their making a difference.  This isn’t to say these aren’t good things, awareness is one of the keys to ending an atrocity; the reason the Holocaust was allowed to exist for so long was because people weren’t aware…..but we have to be more than just AWARE.  We have to become aware, and then DO SOMETHING.  
 In the movie “Hotel Rwanda”  Don Cheadle’s character, upon hearing that the genocide is being reported on, and going to be shown on American news channels, is elated because he believes it will bring an end to the genocide.  The American Colonel who is stationed in Rwanda discourages him though, when he says, “America doesn’t care about you, they will see this story, say, ‘that’s tragic’, and then turn back to their dinner and forget about you.”  I’m not trying to be anti-American here, I think the same could be said for a lot of Western civilized nations.  But this is what we are content with a lot of the time.  Let’s see a 2 minute soundbyte on a social injustice, feel bad about it, and then get on with our lives.  If it doesn’t directly affect us, we don’t want to get too fully involved.  But this is a terrible and misconstrued view to have on life.  If everyone said, “I’m not black, how does this affect me” the trans-atlantic slave trade would have existed a lot longer than it did in America.  If everyone said, “I’m not a Jew, how does this affect me” Hitler would’ve been a lot more successful in eradicating the Jewish population from Europe.  And if we say, “we’re not affected by human trafficking, what’s the point of getting involved” then this issue, which has already acheived staggering statistics, will only get worse, to the point where it may be impossible to stop it.  I’m not happy about human trafficking, but I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to be a part of ending it.  It gives me hope that, if I lived in the early 1800’s, that I would have said, what I and the rest of this squad are saying today, “I can’t sit idly by and let this continue…..I am an abolitionst.”