Diana Scimone

"We heard her screaming but we didn't do anything..."

One of the lines we heard at the undercover investigation I participated in a few months ago is still ringing in my head.

A hotel manager told us about some guests who checked out of the hotel one morning and told him they heard a young girl being beaten all night long. She was in the room right next to theirs. They heard her screams but DID NOTHING. Didn't call the desk. Didn't call 911. Didn't do a thing. Except complain to the desk the next morning as they checked out.

What in the world? The girl was undoubtedly being trafficked, beaten, raped for profit, terrorized.

"We heard her screaming but we didn't do anything..."

But...but...but...

A few days ago I was driving by a popular mall in Orlando. There standing in the median strip was a teenage girl with a cardboard sign begging for money.

Red flags went up as I realized she was probably a runaway and her sign might as well have said, "Attention all traffickers: I'm homeless and penniless. Take me in for the night."

Or a lifetime.

I called the National Human Trafficking Hotline: 888-3737-888. (I have it in my phone and you should, too.)

They told me to call 911 to report what I saw, get a case number, then call back the hotline to let them know what happened. And then call the local police department during the week to follow up (which I will do).

I could have driven by...it was an evening where I was rushing to go somewhere...

But...but...but...

Dawn Hawkins could have looked the other way too. She was on a Delta flight recently when the man in front of her was openly watching child porn on his iPad.

Violent horrible images of children being abused and beaten.

She asked him to stop. He wouldn't. She asked the Delta flight attendants to do something. They wouldn't.

Finally a woman a few rows in front of her stood up and told Dawn to stop making such a fuss because "no one cares."

No one cares that children are being trafficked and this guy paid money to watch? I care. And I hope you do, too.

He picked the wrong person to sit in front of because Dawn is director of Porn Harms. As soon as the plane landed, she reported him to airport security who followed him to his connecting flight.

Meanwhile she recorded the video below and is already working to make sure that Delta and every other airline does not allow passengers to openly view child porn. (Like we even need to put that into law?)

But...but...but...

I heard her screaming but...I wanted to pick up the phone but...I saw the violent images but...

The dream is still alive

"Administer justice every morning and deliver the person who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor" (Jeremiah 21:12).

Today is a national holiday in the US to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I wrote this post a few years ago about how he inspired me in my fight to stop child trafficking.

* * *

Five decades ago, my sisters and I set up a little store in the playroom of our house in New York. When we invited our parents to come and shop (i.e. to spend their money), they were aghast to see the sign we had hung in our store:

"We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone."

My parents explained to us the meaning of this sign, which we must have seen in a real store, and why it was wrong--that it was racial discrimination designed to keep out blacks. (As Italian-Americans, my parents had their own encounters with injustice and discrimination, particularly my father.)

I had no clue. I went through the 1950s and, I regret to say, the 60s and still had no clue.

What was happening in the south didn't seem to affect me--Little Rock, Birmingham, Memphis, the March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr. It was all something on the pages of newspapers, but didn't really involve me.

When I was 17, I moved to Washington to attend college during the years when race riots scarred the streets. The events of the day began to get a little closer to home.

A decade later, I moved to Alabama and met people personally affected by injustice. The struggle for justice got closer.

Then I moved to central Florida, where one morning I looked out my window and saw five men cloaked in white sheets protesting outside the Jewish Community Center across the street, claiming the Holocaust was all a myth. Now the struggle for justice was just outside my front door.

Yet another decade later, I was co-writing a book called The Dream Is Alive about the struggle for racial justice within the Christian church. The title, of course, refers to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. While researching information for the book, I read his speech on the internet and listened to scratchy on-line recordings of many of his other speeches--and they powerfully impacted me. Now the struggle was right at the tip of my fingers.

Today, five decades after taking down that sign, I think I'm finally getting it. Injustice has many forms and faces, and they're all ugly. In my travels, I've seen the injustice of child trafficking face to face--girls in cages, boys sold on streets, and more. As I took down that sign 50 years ago, now I'm working to take down a different form of injustice through The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

Dr. King's struggle in the face of overwhelming odds, along with his profound words that documented it, are part of the inspiration that has propelled me.

Here are some of his words from his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail." I hope they inspire you the way they inspire me.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

"Justice too long delayed is justice denied."

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed."

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right."

"Was not [the biblical prophet] Amos an extremist for justice? 'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream' [Amos 5:24] . . . So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?"

--excerpts from "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

To read and hear more:

• "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963 (audio clips)
• "I Have a Dream" speech, August 28, 1963 (text and audio versions)
• "I've Been to the Mountain Top" speech, April 3, 1968, the night before Dr. King was killed (text and audio versions)
• The King Center

 * * *

A few more great quotes (hat tip @charlestlee):

“A minister cannot preach the glories of heaven while ignoring social conditions in his own community that cause [people] an earthly hell.”

“This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. The saving of our world from pending doom will come not from the actions of a conforming majority but from the creative maladjustment of a transformed minority.”

 

 

"Sometimes we must interfere."

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. May we never forget.

Here are the words of survivor Elie Wiesel at his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1986. As you read them, think how they apply to the attrocity of child trafficking. I don't know if the boy he is talking about is himself or another child, but it doesn't matter. Weisel's words are as provoking and moving in 2011 as they were in 1986.

"[The boy] asked his father: 'Can this be true? This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?'

"And now the boy is turning to me. 'Tell me,' he asks, 'what have you done with my future, what have you done with your life?' And I tell him that I have tried. That I have tried to keep memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.

"And then I explain to him how naïve we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

"Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must--at that moment--become the center of the universe...

"What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs...

"Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately."

Sometimes we must interfere. Child trafficking is a very good place to do that.

 

Negotiating the sale of a 3 year old

A colleague who is a filmmaker recently returned from Pattaya, Thailand, where child sex trafficking is not only rampant but often right in the open. She was there to take secret video footage of wanted pedophiles and report them to Interpol. 

Pattaya, Thailand

Now I don’t recommend that just anyone does this on a day off while visiting Asia. Child trafficking is organized crime and confronting traffickers is extremely dangerous. But I wanted you to read what she wrote so you can understand the depths of what is happening and feel her emotions at what she saw:

* * *

“Diana Scimone had introduced me to a world of atrocities through her experiences fighting child trafficking. Her stories kept me second guessing. Honestly, I couldn't fathom that this “trafficking” business truly existed. How could humans be capable of such detestable behavior? While preparing for my trip, I purchased a hidden camera to film what I would see. My goal was to locate and report any “wanted” pedophiles and report them to Interpol.

Map of Pattaya

“At first I was worried that I wouldn’t find any possible traffickers or pedophiles to film, but it was quite the opposite. There was an abundance of sex tourists. With such a tiny camera, it seemed impossible to film them all. Amidst all the Caucasian men, I quickly realized that, being the only Caucasian woman, just my presence was a threat to them. In fact, later as I reviewed my film, I realized some of them had even followed me.

“After filming for many days, I took a night off to go to a festival with some friends. The trafficking scene was far from my mind. As I was walking back from a fun, carefree night, I passed a dark parking lot adjacent to an abandoned building where two men were talking. With them was a small girl, possibly European and no older than 3 years old.

"The men looked European as well and they fearfully glanced my way. At a time when I least expected, I found myself witnessing firsthand the negotiation and sale of this innocent little girl. I couldn't help but wonder how she got here and who could be looking for her. How did she get into these dangerous hands?

“While the men’s eyes followed me closely as I walked on, the toddler suddenly ran free. My heart was hopeful as she seemed so desperate to escape from them and was making her getaway. But her legs betrayed her and she ran in zig zags. I knew she had been drugged. The men quickly caught her and stole her away into the darkness. There was nothing I could do. My heart broke as this helpless child's freedom was cut short.

“From behind the street light, I searched for her but the parking lot was dark, quiet, and empty. I never saw her again...but I couldn't forget her if I tried. My heart was officially wrecked. This is exactly what Diana had told me about. Children like these who are at the mercy at those strangers who buy them.

“Quickly I ran to my hotel. Once in my room, I fell to the floor against the door and wept uncontrollably. My doubts were no more. None of what I saw that night made it on film, but it is engraved permanently in my mind. Since that night, I feel haunted by the sick memory of greed that would ravage something so innocent as a means of profit.

“Child trafficking is real. It does exist. It happens everyday...every single day...and it needs to end...NOW.”

—An abolitionist

* * *

Remember, what this abolitionist filmmaker saw is not relegated to Thailand, nor just in Asia, but it is happening all over the world, including throughout the United States.

If you don’t believe me, look at the trailer for the documentary Playground about the child trafficking trade in Atlanta: www.playgroundproject.com.

Is there justice for these children?

Can one person make a difference? (Yes.)

A few months ago Jon Swanson (@jnswanson) told his sister Jill Burton-Carr (@NicKicks2010) about the Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

Jill has shops on Etsy and Artfire.com where she sells her beautiful hand-crafted creations to raise funds for various charities--a neighbor battling leukemia, a friend who adopted a little girl from China who needed several surgeries, and more.

When Jill learned about Born2Fly, she wrote me, "I am horrified by the plight of children all over the world (including the US) who are victimized by power and greed and sin and humanity at its worst" -- and she came up with a way to help.

Jill created 3 beautiful pieces of jewelry to sell on her Etsy site and is donating all the proceeds (minus a little for expenses) to Born2Fly.

 

You can learn more about -- and purchase -- Jill's beautiful jewelry at www.Etsy.com/shop/NicKicks and at Artfire.com.

Jill took what she knew how to do and turned it into something that will help stop the traffic.

What do you already know how to do that can do the same?

 

The greatest generation

This is a great example of how the next generation is taking up the fight to stop human trafficking--a video produced by a group of high school kids:

I'm convinced their generation will be the ones to stop the horror of human trafficking. I know we refer to the World War 2 generation as "the greatest" generation, but I believe these young kids and many like them all over the world will also bear that title.

Hat tip to Jon Swanson (@jnswanson) for letting me know about this video and the young people who produced it. If you know of other kids working to stop the traffic in creative ways, please leave a comment to let the rest of us know about them.

* * *

UPDATE: They raised more than $1,000! The funds will help Tiny Hands International rescue children being trafficked across the border between Nepal and India. You can see the video here. Great job!

The dream is still alive.

Today is a national holiday in the US to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I wrote this a few years ago about how he inspired me in the fight to stop child trafficking.

* * *

Five decades ago, my sisters and I set up a little store in the playroom of our house in New York.  When we invited our parents to come and shop (i.e. to spend their money), they were aghast to see the sign we had hung in our store:

"We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone."

My parents explained to us the meaning of this sign, which we must have seen in a real store, and why it was wrong--that it was racial discrimination designed to keep out blacks.  (As Italian-Americans, my parents had their own encounters with injustice and discrimination, particularly my father.)

I had no clue.  I went through the 1950s and, I regret to say, the 60s and still had no clue.

What was happening in the south didn't seem to affect me--Little Rock, Birmingham, Memphis, the March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr.  It was all something on the pages of newspapers, but didn't really involve me.

When I was 17, I moved to Washington to attend college during the years when race riots scarred the streets.  The events of the day began to get a little closer to home.

A decade later, I moved to Alabama and met people personally affected by injustice.  The struggle for justice got closer.

Then I moved to central Florida, where one morning I looked out my window and saw five men cloaked in white sheets protesting outside the Jewish community center across the street, claiming the Holocaust was all a myth.  Now the struggle for justice was just outside my front door.

Yet another decade later, I was co-writing a book called The Dream Is Alive about the struggle for racial justice within the Christian church.  The title, of course, refers to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.  While researching information for the book, I read his speech on the internet and listened to scratchy on-line recordings of many of his other speeches--and they powerfully impacted me.  Now the struggle was right at the tip of my fingers.

Today, five decades after taking down that sign, I think I'm finally getting it.  Injustice has many forms and faces, and they're all ugly.  In my travels, I've seen the injustice of child trafficking face to face--girls in cages, boys sold on streets, and more.  As I took down that sign 50 years ago, now I'm working to take down a different form of injustice through The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

Dr. King's struggle in the face of overwhelming odds, along with his profound words that documented it, are part of the inspiration that has propelled me.

Here are some of his words from his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail." I hope they inspire you the way they inspire me.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

"Justice too long delayed is justice denied."

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor.  It must be demanded by the oppressed."

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.  Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.  We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right."

"Was not [the biblical prophet] Amos an extremist for justice?  'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream' [Amos 5:24] . . . So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.  Will we be extremists for hate or for love?  Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?"

--excerpts from "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

To read and hear more:

"Letter From a Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963 (audio clips)

"I Have a Dream" speech, August 28, 1963 (text and audio versions)

"I've Been to the Mountain Top" speech, April 3, 1968, the night before he was killed (text and audio versions)

The King Center

* * *

A few more great quotes (hat tip @charlestlee):

“A minister cannot preach the glories of heaven while ignoring social conditions in his own community that cause [people] an earthly hell.”

“This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. The saving of our world from pending doom will come not from the actions of a conforming majority but from the creative maladjustment of a transformed minority.”

You + 1 phone call = help for victims of child trafficking

What happens when a child is rescued from human trafficking in the US? 

If they're foreign, there's funding to help them and places for them to heal.

If they're US citizens, however, there's almost nowhere for them to go and no money to help them.  In fact, in the entire US there are only 80 beds available for domestic minor sex trafficking victims.

Each year in the US at least 100,000 children are victims of commercial sex exploitation--some as young as 5.

You have an opportunity to help these children today with a simple phone call.  Today is the National Call-In Day to urge Congress to pass the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking and Victims Support Act (H.R. 5575). It would provide child victims of human trafficking access to services and shelters, and also provide grants to train law enforcement and increase investigations.

Here's how you can help:

1. Go to www.house.gov and find your congressional representative; just type your zip code in the top left “Find Your Representative” section.

2. Call the House switchboard TODAY to support the bill at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected with your representative's office. Once connected, tell them you'd like to urge your congressional rep to support H.R. 5575.  Here's an example of what you can say, courtesy of the Polaris Project:

"Hi, my name is________ , and I am a constituent living in [town/city]. I'm calling to urge Congress(woman/man)______ to co-sponsor and support H.R.5575, a bi-partisan bill that seeks to combat and address the sex trafficking of children in America.  I'm very concerned about this issue because children are being trafficked across the U.S. by the thousands each day and there are only a handful of beds and shelters in the country to serve their many needs as survivors of such a heinous crime. It's time for Congress to act. Will the Congress(woman/man) co-sponsor and support this important legislation?"

I called my congressman, and sadly I must have been the first because the person I talked to was not aware of this legislation--although as he put it, who could be against it?

It took about 5 minutes. Even if you read this after the call-in date, your phone call will still be effective. Please call today.

Twitter helps rescue 2 girls from sex slavery

This is why I love Twitter. (Please take note, people who think all we tweet about is what we eat.)

A few days after the earthquake in Haiti last January, I saw a tweet from someone standing outside an orphanage in Haiti where traffickers were soliciting orphans. The person was desperately tweeting for someone to send law enforcement or media to stop what was happening.

I knew my colleague Pat Bradley, prez of International Crisis Aid, was already on the ground in Haiti.  Pat has rescued kids from slavery in many countries; you may remember what I wrote about him in Begging last year. 

As soon as I saw that tweet, I retweeted it (forwarded it) to Pat in Haiti and he got back to me within moments.  His team was understandably overwhelmed at the orphanage where they were already helping kids--and sadly could not get to this one.

Side note: Someone did get some international media attention on what was happening at the original orphanage--all thanks to Twitter.

Flash forward to this week. Here's what Pat emailed me:

Hey Diana

Since you sent me an email in Jan regarding trafficking in Haiti it never left my mind. Please read below, you are responsible for this happening.

Bless you
Pat

Well I'm not sure if I'm responsible, but here's what happened:

Dear all

Dennis and I just found a red light district that is as bad as Addis [Ethiopia], if not worse. We saw several small girls also.

The place is located on the road to the orphanage in Leogane, Haiti.

Girls are paid $1.00 for services, there are several hundred girls. To say these are horrible conditions is a gross understatement.

Not sure what we will do about it yet because we just now left the place BUT WE WILL DO SOMETHING.

The experience was like I had in Ethiopia. I felt led to ask about sex trafficking/prostitution and we found ourselves right in the middle of it.

Pray for wisdom that we know what to do and resources to do it.

Bless you
Pat

Then the next day:

Dear all

We went back to the red-light district yesterday and gave out the gift packs to about 200 girls. They told us it was the first time anyone did something nice with no strings attached. It went very good.

Today we returned with a group from Trinity Fellowship from Amarillo Texas. While walking around I felt God point 2 different girls out to rescue.

We are going to set them up with a roadside kiosk selling a variety of different products. We explained that if they are successful it will make it possible for us to rescue others from this horrible situation. I also explained to them that God picked them out specifically to be the first ones that He is rescuing. We explained that His heart breaks for them and all the other girls and He wants them to be set free to live His plan for their lives.

So all that to say we now have a Safe Campaign in Haiti. I had no plans to do this but God saw differently.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this possible.

Pat

Pretty amazing, huh? You can read more here:

ICA's blog
Follow Pat on Twitter: @IntlCrisisAid
Follow me on Twitter: @DianaScimone
Learn how Born to Fly International works to reach kids before the traffickers do: www.born2fly.org

"You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so people can no longer terrify them" (Psalm 10:18).

You = you. And me. Thank you for making stories like this possible.

Demi Moore: "It's like the dirty little secret."

"It's not a popular [issue]," said actress Demi Moore. "There isn’t anyone who disagrees that it's unacceptable [but] people don't treat it like a top priority. In general, it's like the dirty little secret."

Moore was talking about child trafficking — "the dirty little secret." 

She spoke yesterday in Washington DC at a panel discussion at the US Capitol and said sex trafficking of US children is a domestic issue that should be viewed with a greater sense of urgency.

When she said, "We are focusing on the effect and not the cause," I wanted to cheer.  Yes, we need to rescue kids who are already trafficked — absolutely. But at the same time we need to stop the pipeline that feeds it.

That's what The Born2Fly Project does. Our goal is to reach kids before the traffickers do. 

In January, Moore and her husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, launched the Demi and Ashton Foundation to bring attention to the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

"We've bought into the myths," Moore said, "I think, collectively as a society that the girl is choosing it, she likes it, she's making a lot of money. And, I tell you, you go into a room of 13-year-old girls and ask them to raise their hands if they want to be a prostitute and then tell me if they're gonna choose it, and I guarantee you that none of them will be raising their hands."

The panel discussion was organized by the DNA Foundation and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights.

The Dream Is Alive

Today is a national holiday in the US to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I wrote this a few years ago about how he inspired me in the fight to stop child trafficking.

* * *

Five decades ago, my sisters and I set up a little store in the playroom of our house in New York.  When we invited our parents to come and shop (i.e. to spend their money), they were aghast to see the sign we had hung in our store:

    "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone."

My parents explained to us the meaning of this sign, which we must have seen in a real store, and why it was wrong--that it was racial discrimination designed to keep out blacks.  (As Italian-Americans, my parents had their own encounters with injustice and discrimination, particularly my father.)

I had no clue.  I went through the 1950s and, I regret to say, the 60s and still had no clue.

What was happening in the south didn't seem to affect me--Little Rock, Birmingham, Memphis, the March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr.  It was all something on the pages of newspapers, but didn't really involve me.

When I was 17, I moved to Washington to attend college during the years when race riots scarred the streets.  The events of the day began to get a little closer to home.

A decade later, I moved to Alabama, and met people personally affected by injustice.  The struggle for justice got closer.

Then I moved to central Florida, where one morning I looked out my window and saw five men cloaked in white sheets protesting outside the Jewish community center across the street, claiming the Holocaust was all a myth.  Now the struggle for justice was just outside my front door.

Yet another decade later, I was co-writing a book called The Dream Is Alive about the struggle for racial justice within the Christian church.  The title, of course, refers to Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.  While researching information for the book, I read his speech on the internet and listened to scratchy on-line recordings of many of his other speeches--and they powerfully impacted me.  Now the struggle was right at the tip of my fingers.

Today, five decades after taking down that sign, I think I'm finally getting it.  Injustice has many forms and faces, and they're all ugly.  In my travels, I've seen the injustice of child trafficking face to face--girls in cages, boys sold on streets, and more.  As I took down that sign 50 years ago, now I'm working to take down a different form of injustice through The Born2Fly Project to stop child trafficking.

Dr. King's struggle in the face of overwhelming odds, along with his profound words that documented it, are part of the inspiration that has propelled me.

Here are some of his words from his "Letter From a Birmingham Jail." I hope they inspire you the way they inspire me.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

"Justice too long delayed is justice denied."

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor.  It must be demanded by the oppressed."

 "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.  Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.  We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right."

"Was not [the biblical prophet] Amos an extremist for justice?  'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream' [Amos 5:24] . . . So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.  Will we be extremists for hate or for love?  Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?"

--excerpts from "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

To read and hear more:

"Letter From a Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963 (audio clips)

"I Have a Dream" speech, August 28, 1963 (text and audio versions)

"I've Been to the Mountain Top" speech, April 3, 1968, the night before he was killed (text and audio versions)

The King Center

* * *

A few more great quotes (hat tip @charlestlee):

“A minister cannot preach the glories of heaven while ignoring social conditions in his own community that cause [people] an earthly hell.”

“This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. The saving of our world from pending doom will come not from the actions of a conforming majority but from the creative maladjustment of a transformed minority.”

One Person: Art and the Fight to Stop Child Trafficking

Can the beauty of art destroy the ugliness of child trafficking? Can one person--one artist--make a difference to help stop this global crime?

Oh yeah. 

In fact, beautiful artwork is at the center of the Born to Fly Project to stop child trafficking:  a wordless book with delightful illustrations by artist/illustrator Leah Wiedemer. 

Thanks to Leah's wonderful illustrations, anyone anywhere in the world will be able to "read" the book--no matter what their language, age, or culture. 

Called Born to Fly, the book is an allegory about learning to follow your dreams in a safe and secure manner.  Picture by picture, Leah's artwork warns parents about the ploys that traffickers use, and tells kids of all ages, "You were born to fly; don't settle for less."

Social (He)Art, the artists blog, just did a great profile on Leah. Read what Leah says about using her art to fight for social justice. It's inspiring.

Leah and I have collaborated on other children's projects, including the Adventures With PawPaw children's book series, which Leah illustrated and I wrote. You can see more of Leah's work (including her portraits from old family photos) on her blog, website, and CafePress store, and you can follow her on Twitter at @RoamingArtist

Very soon you'll get a sneak preview right here of Leah's illustrations for our wordless book.  We're keeping them undercover for now...but watch this space for the grand unveiling!

One Person: PUSH Concert to Stop Child Trafficking

I "met" Stefanie Hamilton after I left a comment on her blog, Nowhere to Hide, where she writes about issues of justice.  Stefanie is helping to organize a PUSH concert on May 28 at the Crofoot in Pontiac, Michigan--PUSH as in "push ourselves out of apathy and into action." 100% of proceeds from ticket sales and donations for CDs go to International Justice Mission to help stop child trafficking.

Now, isn't that a great idea--and something that anyone can do? Stefanie is a perfect example of how one person can make a difference.

I get emails from people all the time saying, "I'm horrified by the stories of kids being trafficked. What can I do to stop it?"

I usually refer them to the list of 43 ideas on this blog (see the list on the left, or go to www.dianascimone.com if you're reading this by email) -- but I suspect most people don't think they're really doing much just by holding a car wash or hanging up a poster about what to do if you spot a trafficked person.

We all want to rescue kids, and somehow a car wash seems so, well, so unglamorous. But car washes and concerts DO help because they provide funds for organizations that are working to stop the traffic--like IJM (which rescues kids) and Born to Fly International (which works to keep them from getting trafficked in the first place).

So if you're near Pontiac, Michigan, buy a ticket to the PUSH concert.  You'll hear great music from singer/songwriter Carol Clayton, Silent Violet, and Wurfel--and you'll know more about human trafficking when you leave than when you entered.  Tickets are just $10 and 100% of proceeds go to help stop child trafficking.

Want more ideas of how to make a difference?  Click on the category "One Person Can Make a Difference" on the right.  And if you're doing something to stop child trafficking, leave a comment and tell us about it. You, like Stefanie, are making a difference and we'd all like to know about it.

One Person: Drink Some Tea, Help Us Out

Actually that headline should read, "Help us out and you can drink some tea." Some wonderfully exotic and absolutely free tea.

Remember I promised to post stories about how one person can make a difference? Meet George Constance, CEO of Indonique Tea and Chai. 

Indonique gives a portion of their proceeds to organizations around the world that help children.

When George found out what Born to Fly is doing to stop child trafficking, he offered to send some of Indonique's wonderful imported teas to B2F donors.

So the first person who reads this and donates $20 gets a box of Indonique's lovely Assam Breakfast tea.

And the first one to donate $100 gets a box of fragrant Makaibari Estate Darjeeling Green tea.

So have a cuppa and help stop child trafficking at the same time. Just go to www.born2fly.org and click on the donate page. 

First $20 and $100 donors get the prizes! (Thanks, George!)

One Person: Buy a Flip Video. Rescue a Trafficked Child.

You know how you reeeealllly want a Flip Video? You know how I always say that you (yes, you) can help stop child trafficking? Here's how you can do both.

First let me introduce you to artist Leah Wiedemer, who did the adorable illustrations in my children's book series, Adventures With PawPaw.  Right now Leah is busy illustrating the wordless picture book for the Born to Fly project to stop child trafficking. 

The other day she came up with an idea to help raise funds to get the B2F materials printed and into the hands of kids around the world.  She uploaded onto CafePress some of the illustrations from the Adventures With PawPaw books--and she's donating 100% of the proceeds to Born to Fly. Pretty cool, huh? 

If you've never seen CafePress, check it out.  Leah has 50 different items with adorable PawPaw illustrations on them -- everything from baby onesies to mouse pads to (you guessed it) Flip Videos.  Really cool stuff.  Here are some samples and you can find more on CafePress:

 

 

So, about that Flip Video you've been wanting?  Why not order it with a cute PawPaw illustration on it?  (Leah can customize it for you with any of the illustrations you see; just leave me a comment and I'll get it to her.)  Whatever you order--whether it's a Flip Video or a magnet--Leah is donating 100% of her proceeds to stop child trafficking.

In the coming week, I'm going to post more examples of people like Leah making a difference. (If you know one, leave a comment here.)