Regarding Human Trafficking and Societal Implications—Is this Really our Fault?

Regarding human trafficking and societal implications—Is this really our fault?

In 2017 I went to my first lecture given by a local women’s organization about human trafficking. The panel consisted of two survivors, a detective, and an ER doctor. Each spoke for about twenty minutes. Questions from the audience were permitted at the end after all the speakers were finished. The two survivors were surprisingly stable and well organized. They spoke clearly about what happened to them.

One spoke of her first experience being at the age of four, passed around by her father in a church basement, and subsequently sold to other men all through her childhood by her father. How she was ever able to re-frame her experiences into something she could not only live with but thrive from is still a mystery to me.

The other survivor was romanced until she wanted out and then her life and her entire family’s life was threatened if she did not obey the rules. This is called the Romeo/Gorilla paradigm and is commonly used to traffic the young and innocent. She survived because she was picked up by a long distance trucker who wanted to save her. His Christian faith was the sustaining factor in taking her long distances across the country and placing her with families of a similar faith. She lucked out. But so many don’t. The detective had the stats of trafficking in our local community. I remember being surprised at how prevalent trafficking was, not only sex trafficking but labor trafficking and indentured servitude as well.

“In your neighborhood,” he’d say, “ever notice a strange van bringing people in at odd hours? Especially nice, well-kept neighborhoods where no one would think trafficking occurs. Four girls can be driven in for the night and bused out in the morning to another location. This keeps them in circulation and helps discourage any developing relationships.

 Ever notice a housekeeper who never seems to leave a house at the end of the day? Or a janitor who works all hours and never leaves the building? “

“If you see something, say something!”

That’s the mantra that surrounds the subject of human trafficking. You see it everywhere now, in airports, restaurants, nightclubs, hospitals. Speaking of hospitals the ER doctor had quite a bit to say about patients being brought in by a “somebody else.” It’s the somebody else that does all the talking she said and they don’t leave you alone with the patient. Often the symptoms described don’t match what is an obvious diagnosis. You’re left treading thin ice if you try and suggest a treatment they disagree with.

I left that lecture with my mouth hanging open and my heart pounding. I’ve often written about subjects that amaze me. I’ve often called it my passion for social justice issues but it’s more than that. In writing about the death penalty for example, I wanted to present it from all points of view and let the audience (in this case it was a play that I performed) talk about it afterward. I didn’t care what they thought as long as they were inspired to just think about it! Bringing awareness to a subject is what drives me. And bringing awareness to the carnage of human trafficking has fueled my thinking ever since I first heard that lecture seven years ago. Even after writing “The Cage…a human trafficking thriller,” and the newly released “Without Consent,” I haven’t been able to come close to answering the question, whose fault is it?

I know the quest for power, money and control has been a constant theme, an intrinsic part of the human condition from the beginning. Roman orgies, Medieval art (which in some cases is downright pornographic and endless examples of cruelty are a timeless addition to the human condition. I can thank Kurt Vonnegut for reminding me of the gut wrenching image of a monstrous Roman emperor Heliogabalus, who had a sculptor make a hollow life-size iron bull with a door on it. The door could be locked from the outside. The open mouth of the bull was the only opening. After putting a human being inside the bull through the door, the door was locked and a fire was started under the bull. Any sounds the human made would come out of the mouth of the bull. Then the emperor would invite guests in for dinner. The entertainment was…

Back to human trafficking being a by-product of the human condition. The utter disregard for another human being’s life just to gratify ours is a disgrace. We just can’t ignore it anymore. Time is running out. Obviously all of mankind is not engaging in human trafficking but collectively I feel that we are all in part responsible. Responsible for turning a blind eye to it, or just protecting our own. Saving our own skin is not good enough anymore. Maybe (hopefully) one of Heliogabalus’s guests was horrified at what they were witnessing. But they’d take the risk of being put through a similar situation if they spoke up. But it will be the slow existential death of all of us if we don’t say something now if we see it.

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Marion Scherer’s first career was in theater. After receiving an M. A. in Theater from Illinois State University, she returned to New York City, the place of her birth, as a finalist for Theater Communications Group which gave her the opportunity to be seen and interviewed by all of the repertory companies in America.

Marion began her professional acting career at La MaMa ETC. and toured with several shows throughout the country and the Caribbean.

Her Los Angeles acting career began with commercials, several TV Movies of the Week and numerous sit coms including: Nine to Five, Rhoda, Eight Is Enough, Little House on the Prairie and Day Time Dramas: The Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives. In 2002 she began writing and performing her own material. “If Only I Had More Time,” is about losing a loved one. “A Prison of the Mind” is a one-woman show about the Death Penalty supported by the ACLU and performed throughout California and American University in Washington D.C.

Her private life is filled with a wonderful husband and two loving animal companions, a Golden Retriever named Sasha and a Calico cat named Millie Peaches. Her upcoming book “Without Consent” is a sequel to “The Cage…a human trafficking thriller and is out now.

WITHOUT CONSENT

One year ago, an innocent teen girl escaped the sinister men who trafficked her for sex. Today, she found out the same men have recruited her little sister.

Suzanne DeMarco was once a squeaky clean fifteen year old dealing with dysfunctional alcoholic parents who don’t have time for her…the perfect prey for men who can make millions peddling flesh in the seedy underworld. Finally free of that life, she returns to her small Northern California hometown to restart her life.

When her younger sister Beth runs away, Suzanne goes looking, fearing the worse. The search takes her to a Caribbean island where vulnerable teen girls, recruited through modeling school ads, begin their “training” to be escorts for the rich and powerful.

The resort where the girls attend school and will work is nearly impregnable, though. Worse, once found, Beth doesn’t want to leave.

Can Suzanne save her sister from the same terrible fate she suffered?

BUY HERE

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Category: On Writing