I recently watched the movie Lincoln by Steven Spielberg – 2 times. It was sold out at both of the days that I attended. I was so inspired and hopeful by the interest in and the success of this movie.
One of the main themes is a very interesting view of the discussions and politics surrounding the passage of the 13th Amendment. Those for and against it gave their arguments. I must point out that many of them sound so familiar to the myths and misunderstanding I hear today. Especially when discussing commercial sex and sexually oriented businesses. There are many who think that money or as I call it “praying to the money god” trumps most all decisions. The Houston Mayor wrote to a non profit and explained how the city would not focus on the buyers who provide the demand but instead on the landlords who were benefiting from the prostitution of minors. All I could think of is how I hope this of acceptance of prostituted children is just as ancient and horrible a thing to condone as historical slavery. I am hopeful we can see what this horrible and prolific crime –modern slavery- is doing to our families, individuals, women, children and communities. We are at a time where there is almost no place that commercial sex (stripping. pornography, and prostitution) are not touching most families. I get calls from parents of missing children and wives who are facing life ending illnesses due to their husbands purchasing of sex without their knowledge. This is the horrible tragedy of out times.
In the movie Lincoln, the issue was whether all people should be treated as equal under the law. All in the back drop of the civil war and the fight to treat some people as property and the use of state’s rights to recognize them as such.
When combating modern slavery, I often look to history for themes, quotes and encouragement. When viewing this film I saw something that inspired me. ‘ all people should be treated equal under the law’-
That made me able to put words to what I have been fighting in order to protect the victims' freedom.
They are treated more harshly, incarcerated more, sentenced more, and even institutionalized in mental hospitals more than the people who are the criminals. I often say if we could get as many traffickers and johns arrested as we see victims arrested then we might be making progress.
In addition, there is no federal law against prostitution so the commercial sex businesses are operating under state and city laws and are providing quite a large economic boost to some local governments.
Recently, a Houston strip club donated money to the county sheriff’s association and the club’s attorneys openly donated money to the county district attorney whose office has a criminal nuisance suit filed against the club.
After watching Lincoln I came away wishing I could speak directly to Thaddeus Stevens. I wish I could ask for his advice now-I so appreciate his direct approach and urgent nature. I wish we could kick some hornets nests together.
Are we treating all humans the same under the law in 2012? When working to assist victims I often see that we are not- they are most often arrested, prosecuted, shunned within society, and even placed in mental institutions against their will for nothing more than being victims of a crime that most professionals do not understand or are even trained to recognize.
I do not believe that we recognize the rights of people who have been forced into commercial sex- this seems to put labels and stigmas on the victims that intrudes upon their lives forever. We should do more to protect them, not fail them so miserably.
Until we treat the demand for commercial sex and cheap labor as the crime the laws calls for- we are truly violating the spirit of the 13 and 14th amendments as well as so many other laws.
Just recently it was reported that Lawrence Taylor prevailed in the civil suit brought against him by a minor who was prostituted to him. She was not treated the same under the law, in Houston a 13 year old was prosecuted all the way to the Texas Supreme Court for being prostituted, The man who sold her and the men who bought her were never even interviewed. Under the Trafficking laws (both state and federal) any minor who is in any commercial sex is a victim of human trafficking and should not be treated as a criminal.
It seems that we have some of the same excuses and myths that were alive and well in the times of historical slavery- blaming the victims, fettering them because freeing them as too much trouble, or holding them is in their best interest, and on and on.
If it were you or your child how long should freedom wait? And what excuse would suffice to excuse your enslavement? And how much punishment/detention in addition to your enslavement would you want to accept?
