Freedom Fair

During the past four weeks I've had my eyes opened a little more to the worldwide issue of human trafficking and slavery. As the father of two girls, ages 11 and 12, it particularly hit home in a very personal way.
The stats are staggering, so staggering that I think it's hard to wrap our minds around it. Two million children worldwide are trapped in sex trafficking. Children. Children who should be going to school and playing with dolls. Of course most of the are girls. Most slaves worldwide are female and most of them are minors. And we're not just talking about Nepal and Nigeria and Thailand and Cambodia. It's right here in the United States. In New Jersey.
We hear about it in odd little news clips here and there, but it seems so unimaginable and ridiculous that we can't wrap our minds around it. The problem is so mind-bogglingly huge and depressing and far-removed from us that we don't even want to take the time to learn about it.
I've decided to take some time to learn about it. This Saturday there's a Freedom Fair at the Holy Grounds Cafe' in Allandale, NJ, to bring about more public awareness. The woman who's running it has hands-on experience at a shelter in Thailand and is bringing a mountain of passion into it.
I'm contributing the above watercolor painting (19x24 on bristol) at the host's request. I'm still new to watercolors and I don't know whether it's crappy or not. Feel free to tell me, I can take it. But, right now, I guess I wanted to do something.
I'm not trying to preach about it and I don't pretend to be an authority. But here are a few links I've visited recently. Take a moment and try to wrap your brain around it. I'm still trying.
www.humantrafficking.org
www.polarisproject.org
www.jfci.org
This has been a public service announcement from MZJoe. We now return you to our regularly scheduled ramblings, already in progress.