There is more slavery in the world today than back in the 1800's...

       
Recently I read the book, Half the Sky, which for those of you who haven’t read it, it’s a must!  This book is so compelling, so appalling, that’s its hard to put it down for a second.  One thing that I found truly disturbing, and trust me threes no lack of disturbing facts in this book, is that slavery today is more prevalent that it ever has been, with numbers reaming as high as 12 to 27 million people.  Interestingly enough, slavery is now outlawed in all countries.  I think what scared me the most about learning some of these hideous facts is that nothing is being done to stop it.  I can count on less than one hand the number of times I've seen a news station cover a story of modern day slavery.  I bet if you walked into most classrooms around the U.S and asked students if slavery still exists today, most of them would say no.  I mean how can we help stop slavery if people are unaware that it even still occurs. 
Scarier than that, when we look at the human trafficking component of modern day slavery, we as Americans think of human trafficking as something that happens to "those people," the people who live in third world countries and eat a small bowl of rice as a meal for the whole day.  But, we don’t think about the American women who are sex slaves right here in our own backyard.  Think about those women and girls you may see late at night on the streets in barely there outfits and spiked high heels, do you jump out of your car and help them, or do you just turn your head and drive away?  Many of those women on the streets are forced to be there.  Many of them were kidnapped by pimps as younger girls and forced into a life of sex and criminal activity.  On top of that, the women who are forced into these activities often make no money, because the pimp or person who "owns" them keeps it all. In 2005, the Department of Justice reported an estimated 150,000 sex slaves in the U.S.  In 2009, a study found that 300,000 youth in the U.S were at risk for being sexually exploited for commercial use.  These facts are from a few years back and continue to grow as I sit here blogging about it.  I hope that people read this and are inspired to get involved, or to at least educate themselves and others about the issue.