One Million Daughters

I used to be the guy who could watch anything. The more gritty and realistic a movie or t.v. show was, the more I appreciated it. I will take the subtle Batman from The Dark Knight over the flamboyant ridiculousness of Batman Forever (the batsuit had nipples, for pete's sake). I say used to, because things changed when I had kids. Movies that I might have been able to watch and enjoy took on a new and different flavor when watched through the eyes of a father.

In college, I remember loving the Mel Gibson movie, Ransom, in which a millionaire's son is kidnapped for a huge ransom. Back then, the action and intensity just built and built to the incredible and inevitable reunion at the end of the film. The intrigue and plot twists had me hooked from beginning to end. But when I saw it on t.v. after my first daughter was born I felt sick to my stomach the entire time it was on. I turned it off because I couldn't watch it anymore. All I could see when I was watching it was my daughter in place of the fictional millionaire's son. I saw her bound in the back of a van and locked away in a dirty room, alone and scared. What was once an entertaining fiction became all to real for me (for the record, that's why I will always enjoy sci-fi movies because I am pretty confident that aliens will never get my children).

I recently had the opportunity to do some research on human trafficking in India, specifically sexual slavery. It is one of the darkest and vilest things to blight our world, and the more I read, the more sorrowful, sickened and angry I became. You see, I have two daughters, and when I read the plight of these innocent girls who are sold or kidnapped into sexual slavery I can't help but imagine how it would feel if they were my girls. I can't help but imagine what it would do to their pure hearts, precious dreams and their innocent expectation that they will always be protected and taken care of. The pressure behind my eyes builds every time I come face to face with the reality that this evil exists in our world because it is so hard to hold back the tears when confronted with it.

I have two daughters, but there are one million daughters out there who are trapped and alone, where man's lust and desire meet commerce in the darkest way imaginable. We cannot let this continue. We must not let it stand. We may not be overseas, but we can support those who are. There are too many daughters out there with no one to tell them how special and beautiful they are, no one to safely tuck them in at night and no one to protect them against the wickedest urges that bubble up from the darkest part of men's souls.

Project Rescue