[source: End Human Trafficking.com]
How do you kill eleven million people? This is the title of a book I recently read after a conversation came up in a monthly book club I attend. We started talking about how Hitler was so successful in convincing so many to follow his thinking. So many people followed, really, to their very deaths. How did he do it? The answer? Lie to them.
In the United States there are thousands of people trafficked into slavery every year. It happens because others lie to them. Hitler did this very well. Over eleven million people were killed in an institutionalized setting and much more before his days were done. Mothers, fathers, children, family, communities, neighborhoods, and nations were affected by Hitler’s lies. Less than 10% of the population supported his cause. Yet he was extremely successful in his mission. I’m astounded by the little human support he needed to control so many. Hitler was a decent looking, well respected, and an amazingly compelling speaker, who promised much and delivered little.
“How fortunate for leaders,” Hitler said to his inner circle, “that men do not think. Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”
This isn’t a new method to win one’s way in the world. Many leaders before and after Hitler have used a similar strategy to win people over. The difference in Hitler’s vast impact is that the people didn’t fight back united.
“Mothers and fathers held their voices, covered their eyes, and closed their ears. The vast majority of an educated population accepted their salaries and avoided the uncomfortable truth that lingered over them like a serpent waiting to strike. And when the Nazis came for their children, it was too late.”
Yes, there were few who did fight back. Many faced the consequences for such revolt, but ultimately it wasn’t enough. It was “too little too late”. The plan was already in place. The power was already his. The undoing would cost us all much more.
In the months I have been immersed in human trafficking research I have noticed patterns and parallels. There are few who see this evil as something that needs worldwide involvement to combat. There are many who would prefer turn a blind eye to it because it is a beast unknown to them, intimidating in its complexity and enormity. I have compassion for such feelings and I feel them too, but let this be a wake-up call. Human trafficking is real. It is affecting thousands and WE CAN CHANGE THIS. We can start a global movement to end human trafficking.
How? How do we save people from human trafficking? One way is we love them. This can be done in a multitude of ways. Parents and families can love their children and instill confidence that home is safe. Undoubtedly, many of you are already doing this. Keep doing it. Children who trust their families will not search elsewhere for acceptance. It might seem simple, but case after case shows that a huge source of success for traffickers is their offering of acceptance. They lie to them.
Another way we can help is by being engaged in the laws that convict traffickers and push the 545 leaders in Washington, D.C. to increase penalties. There are 316 million people in the United States alone and 545 national leaders in control of our national laws. We have the numbers to make a real difference. Contact your state and national leaders. (Minnesota State Legislature gives helpful guidelines how to successfully and respectfully do this.)
In 2011 the picture of US laws to combat human trafficking was vastly different than 2013:
This is largely in part to the awareness efforts being made by people like you, and the tireless hours of legislative leadership. We must continue to solidify these laws. One example is the effort being made to hold Backpage.com, an online advertising webpage, accountable to their policy that allows traffickers to advertise services that involve trafficked victims. Such online advertisements – prostitution services and the like – are said to generate 45 million a year. Backpage.com is believed to benefit from 82% of those profits.
It will take legislative efforts, like that of the office of United States Representative Ann Wagner of the Second District of Missouri. Her office is introducing the Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation (SAVE) Act this week.
If passed, the SAVE Act would criminalize the selling or promotion of commercial advertisement of prostitution services, aimed at online classified services like Backpage.com. If found in violation, websites would be charged with a federal crime.
“Online customers choose websites like Backpage and other advertisers to order an underage girl to their hotel room as easily as if they were ordering a delivery pizza,” said Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., “Now just think about that for a second. Close your eyes and picture your daughter, your niece, or any young girl that you care about being sold for exploitation to a complete stranger.”
Together, united, we can make a difference. We can stop believing the lie that human trafficking does not exist and start believing that it can be stopped in our lifetime. Join the Movement today!
- Be Aware of what human trafficking is and how to inform others
- Contact your local, state, and national legislative leaders to push for legislation that will prosecute those who are profiting from human trafficking. Contact those, like Rep. Wagner and her staff, that are making an effort and thank them!
- Empower your community with the tools from the EMPOWER Pack.
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