(Your Full name)
(Your Mailing Address)
(Your phone number)
(Address and Zip code [Example: Topeka, KS 66612])
Dear Legislator (Full Name of Recipient),
I would like to present this letter to you to advocate on the issue of human trafficking, which also includes children as victims. This is basically meant for Diana, 12 years old and a close friend of mine, who I know is one of those exploited by the sex trafficking industry. Thus, I hereby request you to consider this issue and my suggestions for actions to address it.
Human trafficking is considered the world’s largest industry that exploits millions of people – including children – in almost every corner of the world. Trafficking is the modern form of slavery. Today, there is an estimated 29.8 million people who live in this modern slavery (“A World without Slavery”, WalkFree.org). These people are stripped of their worth and dignity, and become trapped to a lifelong abuse and remorse. Every society has the desire and the responsibility to put an end to any form of slavery. Thus, I deem this issue to be a serious one.
This issue became topical because of the association between sex trafficking and the Super Bowl at the onset of this year 2014. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reported that minors aging 13 to 17 were included in the rescue. Through this incident, we are able to see the “darkness” of sex trafficking. Clemmie Greenlee, one of the victims, said that she expected to sleep with 25 to 50 men in a day (Goldberg, “Super Bowl is Single Largest Human Trafficking Incident in the U.S.: Attorney General”). Having trafficked by 50 men in a day is said to be more than twice the usual traffic. If these women fail to make up that number of sex customers, they will receive severe rape and torture. Worst of all, one victim said, they are made to watch other girl tortured because of this failure (Goldberg, “Super Bowl”). One victim told Lori Cohen (the director of Sanctuary for Families) that many men during this event set up parties, watching football, drinking, and ordering prostitutes. When their team are losing, these men would get really drunk and awfully violent (Lopes, “45 Arrested, 16 Juveniles Rescued in Super Bowl Prostitution Bust”). All of these do not mean that Super Bowl is the only corner of the world where prostitution is heavy. However, since this event is prominent to the public, sex traffickers know that many prospect clients will come to watch it.
Others, particularly those who look out for victims in the public, wrongly think that these girls are taken forcibly as in the case of kidnaps. Rather, the whole process of sex trafficking can be deem as “professional”. A lot of these schemes are hidden in plain sight. Pimps would deceive these girls, promising them fulfilling jobs, freedom from debt, and so on. However, it is the pimps who hold the money, and they exercise power over these victims so that they do not get out of this slavery. In fact, these victims accompanying men into the hotels are not dragged on the floor as poor slaves. Rather, these girls are dressed up decently and walk with these men, with their faces numb and their minds conditioned already by their owners. Moreover, sex trafficked women are not abused only in the streets but also in spas and sauna shops, where they are employed and thus remain unnoticed.
The Super Bowl cannot be identified as the social problem needed to be addressed. It is simply the manifestation of the deeper problem. Many private and government organizations, agencies, and groups are glad to announce their efforts to the public. They showcase the reports given to the by the victims they attend to. This is definitely good. However, rescuing girls and women from prostitution is not the right and perfect way to deal with it. The fallacy of the Super Bowl incident seeks to confine the issue of prostitution in the name of merely helping victims. If the goal of the public is to directly address human trafficking, why is the law enforcement targeting those we consider as victims? (Mogulescu, “The Super Bowl and Sex Trafficking”). The blame should not be inflicted upon the Super Bowl or any big sport event in any country or state. Instead, we have to address the lack of right orientation of our knowledge regarding the issue. For what is happening is that we are not going after the demand, which are the men (Lopes, “45 Arrested”). Efforts should not be directed to the “products” of this sex slavery “production,” but to the production, the production sites, and its owners themselves. When the anti-human trafficking organizations and the government put an end to the demand, there will be no more sex trafficking. If there will be no one to buy, there will be no one to sell.
The concern of the issue on sex trafficking is the question: “Why it simply cannot be stopped?” Seeing all the efforts of various organizations against it, the industry still cannot be put to end. One of the problems here is that society has various definitions of sex, prostitution, sex trafficking, and so on. One group argues that prostitution is immoral, awful, and should be illegal, while the other group wants to legalize and regulate it. Others hold that sex trafficking is illegal while “sex work” is not. The law itself has regarded “sex work” as a fact of social lie, a profession like any other, freely chosen by adults who are responsible on their own, and requiring nothing more than a bit of regulation in order to the spread of diseases (Kay, “Barbara Kay: Supreme Court”). Prostitutes are accepted by many, as long as they undergo weekly STD tests. The problem is that people have lost and have discarded true definition of things. Since the later decades of the 20th century, governments have approached social issues in the “neutral” manner. The sense of absoluteness of truth is lost. In fact, this loss of truth or standard is the reason why there are so many disputes in society. It is the liberalization of society that brought these things about. Sex is available in the media, in the Internet, in the movies, in the billboards, in magazines, and so on. Sex is now viewed as something to be consumed, rather than to be respected. History attests to the fact that the present society has the highest records of premarital sex, abortion, and divorce. Most, if not all, of the cases of premarital sex is committed due to unrestricted desire for sex among young people. Most of the cases of abortion are results of unwanted pregnancies, which are also results of unrestricted sexual desire. Most of the cases of divorce are results of unfaithfulness, which is manifested in adulteries and other firms of illegitimate sex. Society wants to take aside the aspects of morality and ethics, but without these things there will be no foundation for balance in education, economy, war, religion, and other aspects of social life. No matter how people “sugar-coat” any illegitimate sex (that which is not between married couples), it is still wrong. Every religion holds that it is wrong. Sex education affirms that sex has its proper place. Organizations that help sex victims realize that such experience is damaging. Further, the fact that diseases result from illegitimate sex gives evidence that such activity is wrong, improper, unsafe, and unacceptable.
In human trafficking, clients seek for sex and nothing else. Thus, to deal with this issue is to change society’s perception and orientation of sex. Today, sex trafficking is mostly done in the Internet instead of in the streets. Services are offered online; the access to pornography is made easily available to the public. Like prostitution in brothels and human trafficking, these services condition the minds of the people, particularly the men, to think of women as commodities meant to be consumed according to their own pleasures. The government has the power to control the media, and they can put an end to this. When the government itself supports illegitimate sex sites, including the red light districts around the world, sex consumers’ “hunger” for sex will not stop. Also, sex education should not be about biology alone but also about the relation of sex in human relationships. Lastly, emphasis should be given to the value of family. Strong family bond and right counseling is needed since most of the girls being trafficked are runaways (Cloherty and Thomas, “Teens as Young as 13 Rescued”).
For any questions and response, please do not hesitate to call me. Thank you in advance for your consideration for this advocacy.
Sincerely,
(Your Full Name)
Works Cited
“A World without Slavery.” Walk Free. Hope for Children Organisation Australia Ltd., n.d. Web. 13 March 2014. <http://www.walkfree.org/a-world-without-slavery/>
Cloherty, Jack and Pierre Thomas. “Teens as Young as 13 Rescued From Super Bowl Sex Trafficking.” ABC News, 04 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 March 2014.
Goldberg, Eleanor. “Super Bowl is Single Largest Human Trafficking Incident in U.S.: Attorney General.” The Huffington Post, 03 Feb. 2014. Web. 13 March 2014.
Kay, Barbara. “Barbara Kay: Supreme Court Falls for Fairy Tale that Prostitutes are ‘Happy Hookers,’ not victims.” National Post, 20 Dec. 2013. Web. 13 March 2014.
Lopes, Marina. “45 Arrested, 16 Juveniles Rescued in Super Bowl Prostitution Bust.” Reuters, 4 Feb. 2014. Web. 13 March 2014.
Meng, Grace. “Hotel Industry Combats Sex Trafficking at Super Bowl.” The Huffington Post, 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 March 2014.
Mogulescu, Kate. “The Super Bowl and Sex Trafficking.” The New York Times, 31 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 March 2014.
NY State Anti-Trafficking Coalition. Not So Super. n.p., n.d. Web. 13 March 2014. <http://www.notsosuper.org>
