“Every day we let this situation continue is an assault on our common humanity.”

- Andrew Forrest, founder, Walk Free Foundation

30 million human beings are caught in the grip of slavery around the world today.  This condition is much more than a number.  It is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions.  As a slave you cannot move about freely, or make choices about yourself or your future.  You are owned, bought and sold, forced to work long hours in servitude at hard labor; conscripted to fight in wars you know nothing about; you are raped and prostituted for somebody's pleasure or gain; you are denied an education, denied health care, denied any hope of freedom or human dignity.  And when you die, you are discarded like a piece of trash. 

Those who are caught up in this web of servitude and violence are trapped there against every standard of human conduct.  Their captors violate the law while most of the rest of us also participate by looking the other way as venues of servitude and disgrace operate everywhere.  The tentacles of slavery have no boundaries.

Change begins by acknowledging the problem. The map above reveals where slavery exists, and the scope of the problem.  It is massive.  Slavery transcends borders, and ideologies, and religious beliefs.  Its very existence compels us to unite, to speak out, and to join forces in actions to extinguish it.  What is more, you and I cannot hide from our responsibilities.  When we look the other way and do nothing, we are guilty of a conspiracy of silence, and we become de facto contributors to the problem.  It is more than a legal issue because it is not constrained by legal boundaries.  As citizens of the world we therefore have a moral obligation to challenge, to confront, and to act to defeat it.  If we do nothing, we risk being consumed by it while it grows and becomes ever more pervasive.  There is no neutral ground for moral sanctuary.

There is something we can do.  We can become part of an organization that is dedicated to eradicating slavery wherever it exists.  That organization is the Walk Free Foundation.  It already has 6 million members.  I urge every concerned reader to click on the link below and learn more about their activities and how you can become involved.  They need writers and poets and creative people who can synthesize their thoughts and ideas as well as your own.  Billionaire Richard Branson supports them.  So does Pope Francis, Grand Imam Mohamed Ahmed el-Tayeb, and Arch Bishop Justin Welby.  Oh, and so do I.  What about you?

www.walkfree.org