ONE Dress ONE Month: There's no place like home

"In the modest, Midwestern city of Toledo, Ohio, cousins and best friends Cara and Stacy went out one May afternoon for a frosty. It began to rain, and a woman driving a white Lincoln Continental pulled alongside the girls. The man in the passenger seat looked familiar; the girls thought he was a friend's father. The girls asked, and the man claimed he was who they thought, and offered them a ride.

Like many trusting teens, the girls had no thoughts that someone would be out do do them harm in their quite suburban neighborhood. Unfortunately, the man was not their friend's father, but a human trafficker named Derick Willoughby.

"Their 10 days in captivity amounted to a crash course in the business of forced sex. They were given clothes and fake identities, and were taken to hotels around Toledo and forced to perform sex acts. An adult always watched and collected payment. Cara and Stacy learned quickly not to cry or speak without permission. When one girl broke a rule, they told authorities, it was her cousin who took the beating."

Traffickers and pimps are master manipulators, and they understand what it takes to keep each girl in line. Sometimes it's promises of love, sometimes it's rape, and sometimes it's beating the girl's friend instead of her. It's the reality of trafficking of children in the U.S."

http://news.change.org/stories/a-crash-course-in-sex-cara-and-staceys-true-story-of-slavery

Reading stories like this I feel like my heart breaks just a little bit more. Why is a business that deals in the exploitation of children so overlooked? Why are people who treat children in such a deplorable manner not punished more harshly? Not only does my inability to answer these questions sadden me, it infuriates me.

When I first read something like this, I feel useless and sad. I think, "this is so terrible, especially because there's not much I can do." Then I feel angry, "Why does this happen? and, Emily, of course there's something you can do!"

Looking at stories like this, I find I look more at the "supply" for the "business." I read the stories, I tear up a little, I put on my dress, and I move on. I pity the "supply," I pity the girls.

But my question is: "Why is there a demand?" How can a person live with themselves knowing that they found pleasure in sexually forcing themselves upon a child?

Ah the joys of Toledo....

Speaking (or should I say "typing"?) of which... I am home for the weekend. My sisters are at their homecoming dance tonight. I, being the wonderful big sister that I am, came up from Athens for the occasion. Pictures to come tomorrow.

But here is the rest of my week in pictures....