Comemorating National Missing Children's Day
To All the Victims of Sexual Trafficking. For a Better Day
I don’t usually commemorate any special day but this one got my attention, least of all because I have been contemplating sharing some of my heavier and more personal writing. A fair amount of it has been published elsewhere and such posts will be for paid subscribers, including this one.
I am incredibly grateful for the support I have received on substack from all of you. I have been writing for two decades but I felt like I lost my voice in 2021 in so many ways. There is no way for a conversation to evolve when you’re talking to a wall. Thank you!
The subject matter of sexual trafficking is very close to my heart, because I was a victim of it. Now I’ll admit that I don’t know exactly what they had planned for me. But what happened was almost certainly organized and coordinated.
As BlueApples writes:
It's been said that the way we treat the most vulnerable of us is the barometer by which we should judge out society. As far as that litmus test goes, I'd say we are failing pretty badly considering the amount of children that go missing each year, falling victim to human trafficking, institutionalized sexual abuse, etc. However, the indefatigable efforts of those who works selflessly to remedy one of the most terminal our our social ills far outshines the despair that is inextricably tied to this issue.
Today is National Missing Children's Day. I get that there's a national everything day and it sounds trite to make a holiday out of something like this but it's a problem worth examining each and everyday. However, that's a daunting task which will inevitably have a deleterious effect on one's mental health and well-being. As such, I believe it's worth observing this holiday in the interest of advancing the cause behind it.
I wrote all of what is paywalled in 2010. I often worried that my tone was too heavy, but there is no way to mke it less so. It is simply what happened, and what shouldn’t have happened. More than anything it made me who I am today. That’s not the same as presuming that living through a horrific car crash, say, means that you should strap your own children in and try to recreate it.
For a better day
The rest of my story is presented below without any more comment.
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