Preventing child tra cking is everyone’s fight

Irecently traveled to see some friends for a splendid weekend over the Fourth of July. My itinerary took me through the Salt Lake City airport for a nonstop ight to my destination. In the airport restroom, I was saddened to see a sign over the sink which instructed individuals how to recognize someone who was trafcking children, and more importantly what to do about it. It made me sad because there would not be such a sign unless something bad had happened to warrant law enforcement and airport authorities to post it.

When I returned to Denver, I was

JOE WEBB Columnist

invited by a friend to view the movie “ e Sound of Freedom” in a local theater. I confess that I had not heard of the lm beforehand and going into the theater I thought I was going to view a sad documentary. e lm is a drama about rescuing sexually exploited children. I will not divulge anything further about the lm except to mention the most memorable line in the lm: “God’s children are not for sale!” Because I think it is important to see this lm, I will also tell you that I “paid it forward.” ey have the potential to have that happen by choice once they become adults but as children they are sexually innocent. at innocence is something that is still largely respected and should always be respected. at is why there are age-of-consent laws and laws against the sexual abuse of children. Society views this as a serious matter as it should, none of us should want to live in a country or world where children are for sale like commodities.

If God’s children are not for sale, it is important to think of what it means when God’s children are for sale. It means that children are commodities to be bought and sold by the highest bidder for whatever purpose they need. If children are commodities, they can be traded like gold, silver and pork bellies. But what of the child who is having these things happen to them over and over again? Don’t they have a say in the matter? To state the painfully obvious comparison, slavery in all forms has been outlawed in this country for a long time.

Children are not sexual beings.

To prevent the sexual abuse of children via child tra cking and in other ways is everyone’s ght. It is one