Ah, Labor Day. I love not having to go to work on Monday. That also means that only four more days until the weekend. (I like my job, I'm not complaining. I just really love my weekends.) This weekend, my best friend was in town. Lots of laughs and working out and a bit more laughs. Yesterday, we stayed at my house and just watched movies all day long. We talked more than we watched. Brainstorming ideas for our futures, what we want to do with our lives and fitness/body image woes.
Two of the movies we watched yesterday were Pearl Jam 20 and Foo Fighters: Back and Forth. I know that several of you probably have your opinions about these bands. I, however, love both of them. Say what you want about Eddie Vedder, he is brilliant. They are nostalgic bands for me, I remember listening to them as a youngin' and falling back to them as an adult. Mostly what I love about both of the bands is their risk-taking behavior and creativity. And I don't mean risk-taking, like drugs/rock-n-roll lifestyle, I mean not knowing the result of a decision and just taking the step.
Most of you know that I have been a big advocate for the anti-slavery movement since mid-2006. Moreso, in 2008 when I went to India for the first time. I started Resc\You (rescyou.tumblr.com) when I came back in August 2009. I haven't been doing a lot with it until the last six months. Mostly because graduate school took over my life and then a real job. I've been working with End Slavery TN utilizing my therapeutic knowledge to run groups for at-risk girls and working with a survivor. Hoping that this can snowball into making Resc\You fulltime. I'm researching grant opportunities and going to make this happen.
Mostly, I want to get people talking. Researching companies that people use and their slavery footprint. I don't want to cause boycotts, because boycotts don't work. I want to start conversation. Write emails, letters, FB status', tweets, encouraging the places you love to eat/shop/play, use humanitarian practices. I'd eventually like to see companies refusing to use farmers/factories/products that have been touched by slavery.
I want to research the sex industry. Interview "Johns" to see the appeal and the frequency as well as the sex workers to see what got them to that place. If it's a choice, that's their choice, I'm not here to judge. If someone is putting them in that position, there are opportunities for help.
Slavery doesn't need to happen. It's become a lot bigger than I think people realize. It's ILLEGAL, everywhere. It's happening in our own backyard. You can do something about. Let me show you how. Let's band together and do something about it.