When I bring up human trafficking, also called modern day
slavery, in a conversation, there are a few responses I typically get…
… “What’s that?”
… “That’s a huge problem but what can little-old-me do about
it?”
… “As long as humans exist, that’ll always be a problem.”
… “I don’t want to talk about it; it’s depressing.”
In these conversations, I normally take one of three routes…
… awareness.
… behavioral change.
… dreaming.
In the case of awareness, I find myself just telling stories
of the people who are trafficked and of those who rescue them. In the case of behavioral change, I
first mention the idea of purchasing products we know weren’t made by slaves
and secondly, spreading awareness to others. When someone doesn’t want to talk about it or is jaded
towards to topic, I remember a famous quotation from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
"If you want to build a ship,
don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and
work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
To change the world, we don’t start with collecting wood,
assigning tasks, or just putting our noses to the grindstones. First, our imaginations need to be
awakened to the possibilities of change.
These are the ideas behind Ethos and why we’ve asked
Traffick Free to partner with us for the first one. We hope to awaken dreamers, who will not just react to
emotional stories but will thoughtfully respond with world changing actions
that last a lifetime.
Maybe I’m an idealistic activist, maybe I believe in making
the impossible possible or maybe if there were more people like me and those
like me the world would be a different place.
Ethos
Concert with a Cause
Supporting… Traffick Free
Featuring… Mathien
and Fine Tuning
September 24, 2011
7pm
Purchase tickets at
www.daystarcenter.org/afterdark.
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