Super Bowl Week

One of the lesser known facts, or at least one of the least published facts, about Super Bowl week is that it is the biggest human sex trafficking week of the year.  As many as 17,500 people are trafficked with-in the United States each year and it is a multi-billion dollar a year industry.

Human trafficking is not an area I ever had any intention of getting involved in, however my parish priest thought I would be a good addition to our Diocesan ad hoc Committee for Human Trafficking.  So I agreed.  With this agreement came the  responsibility of giving a talk every Super Bowl Sunday before our congregation.  So every year I go through the “new” statistics.  I say “new” because, one, they never seem to really change.  Second, because we really have no way of gathering accurate statistics.  Very frustrating!  But every year (this year being the 3rd year) I have the same argument with a specific member of my parish…How reliable are my statistics?…Am I educating the public or am I causing people to cast doubt in the wrong direction? (asking people to look for a problem where one doesn’t exist)…Do I realize that my talk borders on the lines of the “Pro-Choice” movement? (Because Capital Hill is using the ever increasing numbers of human trafficking victims to further the abortion agenda)….So forth and so on….

But the real reason I have committed myself to the human trafficking movement has a bit to do with survivors guilt.  Not that I have been a victim of human trafficking, but I do know, through interviews, documentaries, summit meetings and continued classes they have shown me that a large number of human trafficking victims are first victims of childhood sexual assault.  So I ask myself, “What makes me different?” “What makes me special?” “Why not me?”  I don’t know, but all I can say is “There but for the grace of God go I!”

William Wilberforce once said, “For (human) trafficking to end it doesn’t need interested observers it needs incurable fanatics.  You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

So I guess this categorizes me as an incurable fanatic!

Why do I continue to fight when I am so tired my brain refuses to go on?  So that one less person can see there is life after hell!

Blessings,
Stefanie Michele