Who loves Anderson Cooper? I do!! He did this fantastic 1 hour program on human trafficking. Here is part of the transcript that I think will be good for this new post:
"This is a special edition of 360, Invisible Chains: Sex, Work and Slavery.

It's one of the world's ugliest truths, a story so shameful, it is, frankly, unforgivable. Slavery, if you think it no longer exists, you are wrong. Right now, tonight, the United Nations estimates there are more than 12 million people around the world bound by invisible chains.

We're talking about women, children, men, who, for all intents and purposes, are modern-day slaves, many in their own country. Others are far from home. Every year, according to the U.S. State Department, as many as 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders. Eighty percent of them are women and girls. And most of them are forced to work as sex slaves.

Others are sold to work in fields and sweatshops, even in private homes here in America. We realize the numbers are huge. And they can be hard to absorb. So, tonight, we're going to try to put faces on the numbers and the misery behind them.

From Cambodia to California, Uganda to Atlanta, you will see and you will hear what it means to be a modern-day slave.

Here's one of the people you will meet, a young woman forced into slavery right here in America.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHANTIQUE WALLACE, FORMER SEX SLAVE VICTIM: They tied me down to a bed. They told me that, if I ever got home, they would kill me, and, if it didn't happen that next day, that it would soon happen." - CNN
Abolition and Restoration

Tattoos... why do I feel compelled to blog about it? Well, I'm not a huge piercing/tattoo person but I have this concrete idea that I will get a tattoo of a thread either on my second or third chakra. The thread is to remind me that I am or never will be an island but will always be a treasured soul amoungst treasured souls. So, weather I like it or not I have a connection to everybody, seriously, everyone.
Then that gives me more power to forgive and to love. Also, to never forget that there is injustice and because of this connection I cannot stand idle. But, go forth in this life with abolition and restoration. Love always to the children trafficked. You have my heart and tug on my thread to teach me that God deems no one dispensible. I love you all with my whole heart. I pray for your freedom and a dove to spread its wings in your soul.

Poem from the perspective of a trafficked girl
Chains bind the heart
Waiting
They make me be something I am not
When night falls
And the neon light reflects upon the walls

I am lost in the flesh of a man
I force myself to think of home
Near the sea
My mother and father honored
By flowers with a fire inside
Floating...

My eyes open
The man is gone
And the aching enters

*The president of International Justice Mission rescuing trafficked children from a brothel.

"Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fenses, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope." - Maya Angelou

Have you ever felt worthless? Have you ever felt disconnected? Have you ever felt silenced? Have you ever felt objectified? Have you ever felt like you were dead? Has your body been abused? Has your soul been abused? Have you ever felt homesick? Have you ever felt depressed? Have you ever felt dominated? Have you ever felt alone?

That is how trafficked children feel every day.


Have you ever felt joy? Have you ever felt God? Have you ever felt love? Have you ever felt strength? Have you ever felt clean? Have you ever felt safe? Have you ever felt nourished? Have you ever felt calm? Have you ever felt laughter? Have you ever felt care? Have you ever felt saved?

That is how children who were trafficked and now in safehomes feel every day.