Making History -or does history make us….
August 11, 2009 by admin
Filed under Eric's Blog
Eric running in New Jersey
This has been such an amazing trip from a historic standpoint. I’ve learned things I never knew before. We stopped the other day in the middle of Philadelphia to show the kids where history was made (like they cared…but we really did try to help them get it!) We showed them first of all the liberty bell.
Did you know that it was the bell that used to ring from the top of the Independence Hal l where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were signed?(back when it was a ringing kind of bell) Well, you might have known that, but did you know that the name "Liberty Bell" wasn’t given to the bell until it was already famous - that was the name applied by the abolitionists who used it as a symbol in the quest for true "liberty and justice for all". The other thing about this Liberty Bell that I thought odd is that it now rests across the street from the hall in a house where President George Washington used to house his slaves.
Today I crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey which is the famous river George Washington crossed when going to fight the British and the Hessian armies in Trenton and Princeton in 1776/77 which was the tipping point in galvanizing the colonial Americans to dig in and the allies to come to their aid to win the Revolution.
We are standing here where history turned!
Today as I was running down the road just after crossing the Delaware into new jersey (I had to hop into the car to cross the bridge) we pulled over to find that we were being followed. I tried to get out to run, but the shoulder of the road disappeared so I hopped back in and went a bit further down the road. This mysterious white car trailed us and pulled off when we did too. It turns out that he was a photographer with the newspapers and news stations who thought what we were doing was awesome. He called out news people and helped us get some good press.
After experiencing our own successes here, I’m thinking that General Washington must have felt on top of the world to see the cause of freedom moving forward after so much sacrifice.
“The cops…doing what’s best for america!”
August 8, 2009 by admin
Filed under Eric's Blog
I started today with the thought that great things were coming my way today. We had acceptance from ABC and CBS to come and cover this 500 mile run. Again we started a little late, which meant I had to push myself really hard to run more and walk less.
We took the walking route outlined by google maps, which again took me through some of the most depressed suburbs of Philadelphia. I am so grateful for the reception I have had in these poor and evidently dangerous parts of town (there was a triple shooting today in wilmington where I ran through yesterday) and have felt so very blessed and oddly enough…safe.
Once I made it through and onto highway 13, I thought we were home clear to run straight on to Philadelphia. Boy was I wrong. After a few miles, Sannie pulled up along side me and said he had to go take a little pit stop. In order to keep moving ahead since I was a bit behind schedule, I just kept on running.
Finally, Sannie came back and I was able to fill up my water pack and get a little salt. Just a few minutes later, we heard sirens off in the distance and before we knew it they pulled up…right where we were. Not one…but two!
As I hopped out to hand out my cards and tell them about the run 4 the rescue, more cops showed up and it was obvious that this was unlike any police encounter I’ve had thus far. The first cops weren’t quite sure what to do and deferred to the police that were still on their way. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by ten police cars and at least that many police. As it turns out, I was about 3 miles away from state correctional facility and the cops had received about 9 calls about a guy running away in shackles.
They were acting all high and mighty and trying to intimidate me that they should just lock me up for disorderly conduct and impound the car. They were quite upset that we had all raised this ruckus “just because I wanted to act like an idiot!” Finally the head honcho came and finally gave me the ultimatum to “take the chains off right that instant or they would put some of their own on me!”
I couldn’t believe what was happening. A guy tries to do something great to help end the second most profitable illegal activity in the world and the COPS are there threating to make an arrest. The other thing I couldn’t believe is that with ten cops, not one had any kind of clear understanding about human trafficking - until we said sex work and then they cite a recent arrest covered by the news media in Virginia or something. No wonder modern day slavery is blossoming across america…even many of the cops and border guards don’t know what to look for!
Emancipation Day
August 1, 2009 by admin
Filed under Eric's Blog
Exactly 175 years ago today, all the slaves in the british colonies were liberated marking the beginning of an annual celebration which would cross over boundaries of nations and cultures - Emancipation Day it was called. Even in America which still held over 4 million slaves, this celebration, charged with the yearning of the millions of slaves and abolitionists, was a spark of light in the push for America to TRULY be the land of the free. Finally the emancipation was signed by Abraham Lincoln which marked the first step toward American freedom from slavery which wasn’t fully realized until the signing of the 13th amendment 3 years later.
Today I started the Run 4 The Rescue in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, with an amazing line up of people who have dedicated their lives to bring freedom to people around the world.
Kenneth Morris- great, great, great, grandson of Frederick Douglass and founder of the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation.
Marcia Dyson - Hailed as one of Americas most formost spiritual writers and a human rights activists whose compassion spans the globe in causes from Modern day slavery to the environment.
Carmen Morris - The visionary leader who founded the Sanctuary of Moses to bring educational opportunities to the children of Benin, Africa and help them ecape the risks that would make them prime targets for human trafficking.
here are my 5 lessons for the day:
- This was told to me by one of the gangster looking guys in a rough part of town - "Be safe"
- You’re welcome to look away in embarrassment from me while I run in chains(of course that’s for those who think I’m crazy or something), but I’m embarrassed for all those who look away from the cause of modern slavery.
- switching gear at the last minute can lead to some uncomfortable situations…
- While two guys I met were arguing about Booker T Washington and FRederick Douglass having diametrically opposite beliefs in some aspects of the best future for Black america, I couldn’t help but chuckle that this didn’t stop their offspring from finding common ground enough to get married and bring about the fabulous life known as Kenneth B Morris Jr. The point is that celebrating unity is way more wonderful than squabbling over differences.
- Thank People. I feel such gratitude for all those who have or are helping me, praying for me, and supporting me in this labor or love. Thanks to all of you!
Eric
Singer’s daughters inspired anti-slavery campaign
By Joanne Hatherly, and Ann Hui, Times Colonist
A Saltspring Island man will run more than 800 kilometres in chains this summer to raise awareness of human trafficking, a problem one B.C. law professor says is closer to home than most people think.
Eric Proffitt, a singer-songwriter, said he first became aware of how people are threatened or coerced into slavery and prostitution when he performed at a United Nations forum on human trafficking in Vienna, Austria. There, he learned that as many as 1.8 million children a year are sold internationally as slaves to work in the sex trade.
That galvanized the 31-year-old, who has five daughters, aged 11 months to nine. “When we learned that those victims are in every major city in the world, including Victoria, I saw the faces of my five daughters, looked into their eyes and saw that I could not do nothing,” Proffitt said.
He decided to run with eight kilograms of chains wrapped around his arms, neck and ankles to increase awareness of the problem, and raise funds for anti-trafficking organizations. He admits running with chains will be painful, but says, “I see it as a very real metaphor in what we have to do as a public to end human trafficking.”
He will begin Aug. 1, first running in the U.S. — from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., to the Statue of Liberty in New York — and then in Britain — from London to Kingston-Upon Hull.
Proffitt said the idea was received enthusiastically in the U.S., which is why he decided to begin his run there. He chose the British route to coincide with the 250th birthday celebration for William Wilberforce, a British politician whose lobbying in the late 18th and early 19th centuries helped to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire.
Proffitt estimates that if he averages about 29 kilometres a day, the run will take him about 44 days (including days set aside for rest and travelling between the two continents).
Many think human trafficking is only a problem for undeveloped nations, but Benjamin Perrin, a law professor at the University of B.C., says Canadian girls, some as young as 12, are being recruited and trafficked. He is co-authoring a three-year study on human trafficking that he expects to complete next year.
“We’ve confirmed [domestic trafficking] is a nationwide problem,” said Perrin, noting human trafficking is controlled by a complex network of independent criminals and organized-crime groups.
B.C. is not exempt, said Perrin, who cites a recent case in which a 22-year-old man was charged with trafficking a 14-year-old girl. The man was charged in December 2008 with luring the girl over the Internet from the Interior to Victoria, where he forced her to work as a prostitute. Although the trafficking charge was ultimately dropped, the man did plead guilty to other charges.
The problem of human trafficking has been well documented internationally.
In 2006, the United Nations’ Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking found human trafficking activities in 111 countries, with more than 21,400 victims worldwide.
Here in Canada, records on human trafficking are harder to come by.
Since the offence was entered into Canada’s Criminal Code in 2005, only five cases have resulted in conviction.
Sgt. Grant Hamilton, spokesman for the Victoria police, says there has never been a human-trafficking conviction here.
Both Perrin and Proffitt point to a lack of awareness by the public and law enforcement as reasons. “People apply different names to human trafficking: abuse, prostitution. They don’t recognize it for what it is, which is slavery,” Proffitt said.
Perrin agreed, saying law-enforcement officials need to be more proactive in raising awareness and prosecuting human-trafficking cases.
Manitoba MP Joy Smith, who has a private member’s bill headed for third reading in the House of Commons that would impose a minimum six-year sentence on those convicted of trafficking children, argues sentencing has been too light and a stronger deterrent is needed because the payoff for trafficking is huge.
“The trafficking of minors is a very lucrative business,” Smith says.
Indeed, Canada’s first convicted trafficker, Imani Nakpangi, is reported to have earned more than $360,000 over the course of 30 months in 2007 and 2008 by selling a 15-year-old girl for sex in Brampton, Ont.
He controlled the girl, whose name is protected, by assaulting and threatening her, and by threatening to kidnap her brother.
jhatherly@tc.canwest.com
ahui@tc.canwest.com
YES! - the chains are REAL!
July 14, 2009 by admin
Filed under Eric's Blog
I just thought you’d like to see how the chains killed my awesome shirt.
The Reel of HISTORY is rolling…
July 14, 2009 by admin
Filed under Eric's Blog
To begin with let me share with you a little blade of grass I met while running today. Isn’t it awesome?
Now here’s my cool thought for the day.
When I started this run, I was clueless to how well it aligns to historic dates, but let me share a few details:
Let me make it clear at the outset of this email that even though I feel that this was an inspired Idea, but I’m not suggesting that God cares one bit about the dates. I do know that dates matter to humanity and as such this looks like the perfect time to get more people interested in the cause of freedom from slavery!
I am well aware of the difficulties the timing places on me and all those who are interested in helping move this run forward, however I invite you all to join me in focusing on all the possibilities instead of the things that seem impossible. (remember my little green friend above)
1. Significance of August 1, 2009
- On August 1, 1834 the Slavery Abolition Act passed the year before went into effect - emancipating slaves throughout the British colonies. Though I established August 1 for the start date of the run months before, I only found out two weeks ago from the Director of the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime for East Asia and the Pacific (thanks Gary!) last week about the significance of August 1 as emancipation day and it’s significance as a holiday in pushing for freedom in countries around the world. I only realized this morning that it was 175 years ago to the day from the start of the run!
2. Significance of the year
-Last week while talking with Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie,P.H.D. ( The assistant Professor of History at Howard University who wrote the book on Emancipation Day) he asked me if I was aware that Abraham Lincoln (the U.S. President who signed the Emancipation Proclaimation - to free the 4 million american slaves) was born 200 years ago this year. No I wasn’t aware…
-From the first time I told people I was going to run across the UK to help end modern slavery, they’ve asked this question first - "Why the UK?" - I didn’t have a very good answer until I found out that William Wilberforce (the Great British Parliamentarian and abolitionist who was the point man in getting slavery abolished in the British empire) was born 250 years ago this year. I will be running my send day through the UK on his birthday.
3. This is all happening the same year as the inauguration of the first black president of the United States…Mr. Barack Obama.
4. We are also starting at the same place as martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech 45 years ago to the month.
Let’s make this year another historic year in the fight for freedom from slavery!
What’s with the CHAINS??
July 9, 2009 by admin
Filed under Eric's Blog
Just as I rounded the corner into town today, I clanked toward an intersection of policemen visiting our island for the day from the next island over. I don’t know what was up, but they were in the street hard at work backing up traffic.
As I got closer to the intersection, one of the interested (interesting?) pedestrians, asked (while I was too far back to really answer) “What’s with the chains?” When I didn’t answer, I guess he thought I was an escaped convict and started trying to get the police’s attention to help them catch this man on the run (how literally true that is!) All the while I kept running peacefully toward toward him kind of hoping for a funny police story again ( see here ).
Finally he calmed down a bit and I took the time to answer him and talk about this run. He’d already heard about it in the paper, but for some reason neither he, nor the woman next to him (who had also read about the run) had made the connection between me running in chains and the full color close-up picture of the guy running in chains from the newspaper. I find it a bit disturbing and wonder how badly I’ll shake up spectators from D.C to New York and London to Hull?
Feel free to share your stories now!
If you are an escaped convict though, just don’t take notes from these guys:
Gearing up for success
July 9, 2009 by admin
Filed under Eric's Blog
This last week has been so awesome as we’ve been seeing miracles every day. We have some really exciting additions to our team who are wanting us to wait until things are a bit more ironed out before letting all be known, but as you can imagine, I want so badly to spill the beans!
I can however send a thank you out to the guys at the Running Room who have sponsored me with some gear that is making a big difference in my preparations for the run. One of the funnest little additions to my training is the Garmin Forerunner 405 watch (think swiss army watch!) which helps me track my route, distance, heart rate, pace and more. It makes following my training routine way more do-able.
Bruce at West Coast Orthotics (who is helping me modify some of my other gear as well doing the orthotics) chided me the other day for some of my training choices related to gear. He finally convinced me to buy the 19.00 pair of socks “like runners wear” to help remove moisture and reduce friction/blistering. It took a while to get through my objections, but when I was too tired of thrashing about , he finally reeled me in and said, “Eric, runners do the things they do for good reasons. That may be hard to believe, but just try it and see for yourself.”
Today I wore these “magic socks” with some friction reducer (body glide) on my run and I was thrilled to see that he was right! I was running in the rain for 10 miles and found that my “usual” problems never showed up. I was impressed and amazed. Time to get more socks I guess and keep listening to the pros.
Singing In The Rain
June 25, 2009 by admin
Filed under Eric's Blog
I woke up this morning thrilled for a fantastic day…after all awesome things are happening every day and I never know what might be flying right toward my open grateful arms!
Before I had much of a chance to even start getting my plan of attack together for the day, my wife noticed what was up - literally - and announced to me that it looked like a bad day for running - a virtual downpour at times. I had two choices - grumble, or embrace it! I chose the latter.
I figure we’re likely in a for lots of rainy days along the run. It’s time to see what wetness brings to the run - and surprisingly it was. kinda fun.
Aside from the manly feeling you get when water pours off of you in torrents ( I can imagine it’s the sweat of rigorous labor! ) the cool rain kept my core temperature down and for the first half of the run, it was great! then the wet factor hit my feet. That’s no big deal normally, but when doing a lot of running, it tended to make my feet more susceptible to blisters. Not too fun, so now I get to research how to take the rain’s benefit, but avoid the extra burden!
The AMAZING video night!
June 20, 2009 by admin
Filed under Eric's Blog
I had a wonderful experience this past week - besides celebrating my 10th wedding anniversary with my sweet lovely wife! On Wednesday night I had the opportunity to speak to my friends an neighbors here in Salt Spring Island and further spread the news about Human Trafficking at an Amazing Grace video presentation.
Over the last few weeks of training, I’ve noticed that most reactions to my extremely hard-to-ignore bling while jogging fall into 3 categories.
1. Those who are amazed
2. Those who are amused
3. Those who think I’m absolutely wacko!
This wonderful crowd was so rewarding because these people got it! they got up off their couches, dusted off the potato chips (Oh wait, this isn’t oklahoma, this is Salt spring - they put down their organic carrot sticks and goat cheese) and came to find out more about the most underfunded human rights catastrophe of our time. Thank you SO much to Sandy Oliver who organized the night and thank as well to all of you who are putting your money where your hearts are to run 4 the rescue of those victims who deserve the freedoms we take so much for granted.
