Awareness is important

This past week I was able to have coffee with my niece in the Dallas area. The work that I do and experiences that I have had in life makes me a little more cautious (sometimes overly) and at times skeptical. This time, my tendencies worked in my favor. 

Have you ever met someone recruiting others to be trafficked? Would you even know if that was happening? I want to share my experience with you, so you can be aware and on alert if this were to happen to you. 

It was just a normal week day as we went to have coffee at the most known coffee shop to mankind, Starbucks. We were near I-20 in Dallas. In case you didn’t know, interstate 20 is the number one transport interstate in Texas for transporting trafficking victims. All we were doing was exchanging life with one another and enjoying our coffee. I remembered seeing this young lady in the corner of the store sitting on her phone. At the time, I really didn’t think any one was paying attention to us carrying on. Our conversation had become intense as we were talking about some drama happening within our family. When we decided to switch back to a lighter topic, this VERY NORMAL looking lady approached us and started making very kind and personable small talk with my niece.  She kept throwing so many compliments her way without even really knowing her. Don’t get me wrong. My niece was worthy of them all, but coming from someone who was not even close to a southerner, something didn’t add up. After she talked her up she started talking about how she had just gotten back to town from a trip to Las Vegas. She was meeting with her mentors because she was in a business that was making her six figures. She then went on to say that she flew back and forth from Texas, California and Las Vegas for her business. She had dropped out of college because the money was so good. 

I interrupted their interaction with one another and attempted to ask her what kind of association she was with and every time she danced around giving me exact answers. Knowing that California is the number one state for human trafficking in the States, I was on to this girls game and she began to fumble her words a lot. By the end of our conversation, she was very uncomfortable because when she asked me what I did for my job, I was very honest with her. 

My point is this, awareness is important. Texas is the number two state for trafficking. All of these stories about people experiencing shady stuff at Walmart or Target can and do happen. No, we don’t need to live in fear. We need to live in the present. When we are in the present we are ready and alert not from a place of anxiety, but of vigilance. 

Parents, please talk to your children. Research and teach them how to be aware of their surroundings. I recently talked with a student this week who said he didn’t believe there were slaves today and that was history. That is one of the biggest myths you could ever believe. 

We live in a time where we cannot afford to stay ignorant. I realize that you may want to stick your head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist, but that will only set the future generation up to be more at risk. 

If we can be proactive and not reactive, we will be in better shape.