My Outrage at Human Trafficking and ACORN
September 16, 2009
by Senneth
|In the past few weeks I have been amazed and thoroughly disgusted to see videos all over the web which depict a young couple, posing as a prostitute and her pimp, at different ACORN offices applying for help in getting a house so they could have a place where they could engage in their “business.” The couple stated that they would be using several underage girls, from El Salvador, to “service” their clientele. These statements were not met with outrage or a quick call to a law enforcement agency by the employees 
of ACORN. No, instead the employees in these offices seemed inured to outrage and even seemed willing to be complicit in this venture, offering all sorts of help and points of information to facilitate the couple’s efforts. I was amazed and confounded by the employees’ complacency and “spirit of volunteerism” in this horrendous enterprise: the sex trafficking and enslavement of underage girls.
I am and have been a women’s rights activist most of my life and I know that human trafficking is wrong. You know that as well. And despite our sentiments and outrage, this trade continues and even seems to flourish.
In my community a few years ago a young woman disappeared abruptly. One moment she was there and just that quickly she was gone. Her purse and keys left behind in the parking lot with no other trace of her. She was an attractive young, blond, university student and very swiftly the police had cordoned off the area and our town. Many ideas pervaded the scene as to what had happened to her, one was that she had been taken as a sex slave. The fear and outrage in our town was incendiary. Volunteers combed all over the area looking for any clue of her for days and weeks which turned into months. Rewards were offered for information of her. Funds were set up to help the family defray expenses that were being incurred as they hired investigators to help the police look for her. The town came together in a joint effort to find this young woman, but she was never found.
I don’t know what the ACORN employees’ intentions truly were in these videos. However, if there is even the slightest chance that this organization is facilitating this sordid criminal behavior, the trafficking of underage girls, we, all of us, must demand that Congress do a full investigation into this organization immediately. And if it is found that this is in fact really happening around our nation in the various ACORN offices, we must move to end it. We cannot afford a delay – this kind of behavior cannot be allowed to either flourish or continue and we cannot be seen to condone it.
Thank you for this article.
The silence about this in the MSM has been shocking.
I can only conclude that ACORN employees were trained to game the system (and all taxpayers) by their supervisors and acted accordingly. But the overwhelming conclusion here is that the employees depicted are not at all fazed by the most scurrilous, hateful, and sadistic use of young girls. Despicable. Every member of Congress and the entire media should be insisting that this agency shut its doors. Instead, Congress and the MSM seem as unfazed as the ACORN employees about these events. What the hell is going on here?
They aren’t fazed by SLAVERY. Oh, but if it’s only chicks, then it’s not SLAVERY. It’s porn. And porn is EMPOWERING!!!!!!!!! Did you miss that memo?
@ Monarch,
Actually the Senate did vote 83 to 7 to de-fund ACORN.
Now I’m wondering what 7 senators voted against de-funding them.
It just hasn’t been picked up by most news organizations.
Link: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/n.....ding-acorn
I love the spin on the story “conservative activists” “employees gave a prostitute advice on buying a house”
No under-age sex slavery here.
Breakdown of the voting here:
http://senate.gov/legislative/.....vote=00275
thanks Senneth for your article. your picture is superb.
thanks for your personal story. and directing the spot light to modern day slavery.
the problem with ACORN is, if they are shut down they pop up with another name. some of their organization already use a new name CO (believe that stands for community organization).
and thanks Bella Donna for your checking the votes. the illinois and vermont senators voted nay – would have imagined. casey had gotten quite close to Obama and knows how Obama supported the organization. white house from RI don’t know that much about him. but I am really surprised that our senator Gillibrandt voted nay. was that another to be famous lack of control of the voting buttons? I think we need to remind her of trafficking and send her some Nicholas Krystoff articles like the one “the face behind the smile” from the Times a few months ago.
I am from Australia, and I can tell you that there are many so called ‘respectable’ pillars of the community, businessmen, professionals etc who are silent partners in even legal brothels where illegal practices which are abusive of women. This is big business. I don’t know much about ACORN, but human nature is human nature.
Janis,
I love your sarcasm! Its always right on point. Ya, slavery only counts when it is men who are enslaved.
Interesting Adele. The more I learn about human trafficking the more I learn that the women of the world need to come together to stop this. We are 52 percent of the population! We could stop human trafficking tomorrow, but many women are still manipulated by the patriarchy to keep quiet. It’s funny that the patriarchy in the United States likes to focus on racism, even invented racism. Racism IS an important issue and it is still thriving. But the patriarchy in the US never seems to have an intelligent conversation on it. Instead, they use (sometimes false) charges of racism to change the focus and many women are blindly following this routine.
We women need to come together, we need to come together, etc. This is the most important thing.
Thank you all for your comments. We do need to stop human slavery – but how to stop people from viewing those more vulnerable as simply commodities? We all do what we can in whatever way we can.
Mother Jones and scads of western woman took to the streets with brooms to sweep out the mess. What’s a similarly effective symbol of modern womanhood and will you take to the streets with it?
Good article.
Yes of course human trafficking is wrong but Acorn is a liberal org and this was only female human trafficking so of course the feelings of the male pimp and customers need to be considered before the life of the young girls is protected. I mean slavery is an empowering choice freely made by underage females right?
Alison, You are so right, there is no sexism in America because talking about sexism is taboo in liberal circles and media. Nice for them because Democrats and Media are some of the most raving misogynists and by making the subject taboo or a joke they never need to worry about getting called out on their behavior. I don’t know what is being taught in east coast universities but it sure isn’t how to think or the history of women.
They probably couldn’t wait to use the “service” themselves. At a discount
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