Sound the Alarm!

Sound the Alarm!i

Do you wake up to an alarm clock? I do and when it goes off, I waste no time in waking up just to make that awful sound cease.  It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard. I hate it.  There’ve been times I’ve heard that obnoxious sound in a radio or television commercial and I almost have to leave the room, because I can’t stand to hear it.

If I had the radio come on softly to wake me up, I’d never wake up. I’d probably assimilate the music into my dreams, if I heard it at all. Thus the piercing beep, beep, beep of my alarm clock gets my attention and forces me into action. I wake up.

America, it is time to sound the alarm!

As a nation we need to wake up and recognize our attention is needed. Our children are being lured and/or taken by force right before our very eyes. They are being bought and sold for one man’s pleasure and another man’s financial gain, while we’re asleep on the job. Called the crime hidden in plain site, sex trafficking takes place all across our country and the average American doesn’t even know it exists.

Just this week, there were two different television television specials on the issue. They went from one side of our nation to the other to point out sex trafficking taking place within our borders.

These are American children being bought and sold by American men in America.

MSNBC aired a documentary Sunday night called Teen Sex Slaves in America, where they used hidden cameras to reveal the reality of domestic sex trafficking in Oakland, California.  They filmed police officers going undercover as both johns, those who buy sex, and hos or prostitutes, those who are forced to sell their bodies.  Last night, OWN Network aired 3 AM Girls  on Our America where  Lisa Ling went undercover in Washington D.C. with Tina Frundt, the founder of Courtney’s House to show what happens night after night for many young girls forced on the street just blocks from the White House.  It was followed by  A Predator in the Clubhouse where Lisa Ling went inside the Red Sox’s clubhouse and revealed abuse that never made the headlines.

The media is beginning to take notice and draw attention to the horror of sex trafficking in America; however, more is needed.  YOU are needed.  The media airing specials and documentaries at 10 p.m. at night is like waking up to soft music instead of a beeping alarm.  It’s being absorbed into our many media options and it isn’t waking our nation up and forcing us into action. You can make a difference. You can raise your voice, sound your alarm and cause those in your sphere of influence to pay attention. How?

  • Write to your elected officials and tell them you demand action on their part to protect our children.  Today, at 10 a.m. the Georgia state Congress will vote on HB 141 which would require the posting of the National Hotline Number in areas where victims are likely to visit.  Those of you living in Georgia need to send emails and make phone calls this morning urging your elected officials to vote YES for HB 141.  
  • Sign up with organizations fighting this issue on the front lines so they will keep you aware of new legislation pending a vote, so you can use your social media to get the word out and rally the troops. If you don’t know where to start, click here.
  • Read whatever you can to educate yourself on the issue.  Books like Rescuing Hope and The White Umbrella will educate you on what is taking place right here in America.
  • Share what you know. You don’t have to host a formal gathering to share information, although that would be awesome. You can share over coffee with a friend.  Post articles about the issue on your social media.  Don’t know where to find those articles? Follow me on Twitter @SusanCNorris or like me on Facebook at Susan Norris Author.  I’m always posting the most recent articles I can find on the issue.  All you have to do is share or retweet them.

There are so many ways to sound the alarm to wake our nation up to this issue, but the media cannot and will not do it alone.  We need you!

In Genesis 4, God begins to ask Cain about his brother, Abel. Cain responds in Genesis 4:9,

Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The answer to Cain’s question was “yes” and the same can be said for us. We’re called to watch out for one another [Matthew 25:45].  To do anything less makes us part of the problem instead of part of the solution.

The clock is ticking. This evil is taking place twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred sixty-five days a year and it has to stop.  It has to stop! Sound the alarm. Wake America up.

Raise your voice for hope!