A Capitol Proposition

A casual observation at the State Capitol on this International Day of Women, later became a chilling realization that makes me very sad about where we are in the evolution of human beings. In the very place where our laws are made by the people who we as voters have sent there to represent us, I witnessed an appalling site that is probably representative of a number of tragedies; however, I am focusing on only one of them in this piece.


There on the mall between the Old Capitol, the Senate and the House were two single-file lines of visiting students, a commonality at the capitol. They caught my eye when they were being directed to place their hands on top of their heads-something often seen in groups of prisoners of war.

I have fond memories of taking similar field trips. I usually had a relative working around there somewhere and got to go off on a side venture, which always made it fun. The sight of these kids did not evoke that nostalgia, however.

At the risk of sounding like an old person, I was completely appalled by the attire of these children. A large percentage of the girls were dressed in very short jean shorts. Although in my day this mode of dress was reserved for the beach or park, even then we would not be allowed to leave the house in such things for any event at the tender age of these children.

I took a poll of the veteran people watchers and we determined these kids were 5th or 6th grade. I was not alone in my amazement that, besides the fact that this means of dressing was completely inappropriate for any field trip, much less one to the statehouse, the parents of these kids would even let them go to school like that. I was equally offended by the chubby girl who was wearing hot pink baggy basketball shorts with the MICHIGAN sweatshirt-a top I would obviously have an affinity for having sent so much of the funds I have toiled so long at that same building to earn to that fine institution.

Just a couple of hours later I attended a presentation by the Protected Innocence Initiative. Shared Hope International is a non-profit started in 1998 by a former Congresswoman, Linda Smith, to rescue and restore women and children in crisis through a worldwide effort to prevent and eradicate sex trafficking and slavery through education and public awareness. Through the Initiative, Shared Hope rates the various states on their efforts to attack the problem of sex trafficking. http://www.sharedhope.org/Home.aspx

Needless to say, after the introduction by the ever glib Pat McMahon, local TV/Radio host and emcee extraordinaire, Smith related some horrifying stories of young girls who are essentially kidnapped and placed into service by “pimps” who sell to men looking to do it with very young girls. Linda talked about a particular 14 year old girl who was eventually rescued from her confinement here in Phoenix and is not in a safe house. She was followed by a local prosecutor who has achieved nearly 100 convictions, only 5 of which were of customers. Then, a former child-victim spoke about her thoughts having emerged from the nightmare to now put together a pretty normal semblance of a life.



The whole time I was sitting there all I could think about was how those children just out front in the short-shorts were prime targets for this horrifying thing, which apparently occurs with much greater frequency than normal folks like me can even conjure.



I feel bad for those children because what is very clear to me is that their parents are complete buffoons. But should that be any surprise? In a culture that hangs on every word of a complete degenerate like Charlie Sheen while barely paying any attention to the massive budget crisis that is about to impact their very ability to fund the cable TV that feeds their entertainment obsession, how can we expect that these parents would have any insight whatsoever into what is appropriate dress for 5th grade students. What they are clueless about is how that puts them at risk of becoming the sad statistics that cause people to come together on the International Day of Women to bring attention to these barbaric human interactions that are occurring in our very own backyards.

A pretty lousy way to “celebrate” if you ask me.

Post script:  I just came across this article that says the extent of the human trafficking problem in our country is probably overstated. http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-03-03/news/super-bowl-prostitution-100-000-hookers-didn-t-show-but-america-s-latest-political-scam-did/
If even one child ends up in this nightmare it is horrific; at the same time if the numbers in this story are correct a cost/benefit analysis may be in order when it comes to using public money to fight the problem.