Back in The Saddle Again!

Hello everyone.

I’d like to thank all of you who have been sending prayer and love our way for our sweet baby. Just to update you, we have been actively pursuing medical experts who are hot on the trail of finding the source of her seizures. Even though i’ve been to many hospitals and told them about what’s been reported to me about the seizures, I had never seen it myself until about a week ago. It was so shocking and I was seriously unprepared for the feeling of helplessness that I experienced. We have had numerous tests and likely more to come, but she is a fighter and is just loving life (except for when she stops breathing and looks like she’s got a foot in the grave - yikes! )

I’m thrilled to report that my trip to England was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget for as long as I live. Once I got my head around shifting with the left hand, steering from the right side, and driving on the left side of the road, i made it to Hull with on ly on e flat tire along the way! With the help of the great Bill Moore, I opened the Freedom stage at Hull’s Freedom Festival and met some of the greatest people in the world…both planned and unplanned. We are currently reviewing ideas and deciding the best way to move forward with the Run next year in England.

After the places we’ve traveled and the wonderful people I’ve met and the natural organic education that comes from an adventure like these last few months have been, I have to share that I feel that the greatest cure in the world for the fight against trafficking takes me further up the polluted stream than the organized crime we would naturally first think of. It takes me right into the pages of the book "Strong Fathers Strong Daughters" by Meg Meeker, M.D. where she laments the tragedy of organized exploitation of today’s youth selling them hyper sexualized marketing to make huge profits.

This is the type of organized crime by which we prey upon the innocence of youth and youthfulness and the outlflow of lust and abuse the we culturally pay is staggering. We have a vacuum of respect for the sacred and in that vacuum we are priming a massive next generation of sex addicts for whom today’s trends of depravity and objectification will seem a vague dream of a prudish past.

Not only does this sexualization feed the demand which necessitates the supply of human trafficking, it primes next year’s or next decade’s victims and perpetrators. With pornography of every variation and sort from images, to music, to the printed page, the trafficking rings delight to  legally pump the most potent marketing  directly into the homes, bookshelves, magazines, and ipods of the unsuspecting public…

Sorry this is so heavy, but I just can’t shake the thought that we work so hard on the symptoms sometimes because we have no idea how to tackle the actual ailments. Not to say that the symptoms don’t need treated, because I applaud those who are working on the varied manifestations of modern day slavery. I’m not claiming that this is the end-all solution, but it is a vital key element that often gets under-examined.

If you want to do something today to help end modern slavery, I recommend you start with a few simple things.

1. Go through your music, books, videos, and magazines (and those of your kids- with them of course!) print out the lyrics and get rid of whatever portrays sex as nothing more than animal variety playtime.
2. Be a connected parent…go play with your kids in some way today.
3. Email me through my contacts page and join me in planning the next great push which will  create a cultural change around the concept of manhood/fatherhood. (With 80% of modern slaves being women and 80% of modern slavery being sexual slavery, I am led to believe that men have a big need to clean up our act of being MEN!
4. Bring modern day slavery and exploitation up in regular conversation with someone you talk with today. Maye you could even send my new video out to your friends on facebook or through email!

I know it doesn’t seem like much, but though I feel that the grandiose has its place, it doesn’t really hold much of a candle against the consistent patient efforts of those who day in and day out conduct their lives with a dignity that spreads light in this dark world and prepares and inspires the leaders of the next generation to see more clearly. This is wher the quote on the back of my business card comes in.

"Each time a man strikes out against injustice, he sends out a tiny ripple of hope … and crossing eachother from a million different centers of energy, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of opression and resistance!" Robert F. Kennedy

Not all officers are ignorant of Human Trafficking!

Hi Guys,

Thanks to my friend Jeremy Bailey who sent the news link my way! This is a short article from FOX , but it clearly describes what we’re talking about with modern slavery.

HOUSTON —  A sex trade ring in which young girls were allegedly pistol-whipped and forced from their homes into sexual slavery was broken up in Houston this week and several suspects are in custody.

Five people, including a former Houston police officer, were arrested in the largest sex trafficking case in Texas’ southern district, MyFOXHouston.com reported. A sixth remains on the run.

John Butler, 47, William Hornbeak, 34, Jamine Lake, 27, Andre McDaniels, 39, and Kristen Land, 28, all of Houston, as well as Tulsa, Okla., resident Ronnie Presley, 35, are named as suspects in the case.

All are charged with conspiracy to traffic women and children for the purposes of commercialized sex; sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; and other offenses, according to the station.

The five Houston residents were arrested Monday and Tuesday; Presley is still at large, MyFOXHouston.com reported.

Butler was a Houston police officer for a brief period in the 1980s, sources told the station.

The sting was the result of a joint investigation by local and federal authorities.

“It is a horrible reflection on our society when adults prey on the vulnerabilities of children and reduce them to indentured sex slaves,” U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson said in a prepared statement.

The suspects allegedly used businesses like massage parlors, modeling studios and health spas to disguise their sex trade business, according to the 16-count indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

Women and teens as young as 16 were among the victims allegedly coerced into prostitution and regularly beaten and threatened, according to the U.S. attorney’s statement.

other article and video here

Where in the World is Eric?

This has been the popular question for the past week both here through the site and on my facebook as I seemed in both places to fall into abrupt inactivity. Let me fill you in.

After the amazing rally in N.Y. on the 16th, We spent a LONG day in the van struggling to keep our little van train together (and our kids alive) on the spaghetti highways back to D.C (Baltimore actually). However there was way too much to be done for any educational field trips the next day!

Instead we got the arduous half-day task of trying to get everything to fit back into their original suitcases along with the extra diapers, car magnets and whatever else we picked up along the way while my amazing father-in-law Dennis Mckay headed back to DC to return the other van. While Dennis cabbed it back to the BWI airport, Rebecca and I  took the hotel shuttle with our 5 daughters, 14 bags, 3 carseats, and 2 strollers… 3 hours early!

By the time the night was over, we had left Dennis behind in Houston (In a fluke of misunderstanding, the attendant at the desk booked him to Victoria Texas instead of Victoria, BC Canada) and we had been driven from the airport in Seattle to Bremerton, Washington (2 hours out of the way) instead of Burlington, Washington in a linguistic misunderstanding between Rebecca and our East Indian shuttle driver.

By 4:00 in the morning we finally made our way to bed at the right destination!

I know you’re thinking this is great and entertaining, but still wondering where we are. This is where the levity ends and things get serious.

Upon arriving in Canada, we set to work getting Emma Jane the tests we need to find out what’s happening as well as get the tests to find out to what extent I’ve injured my right foot. Not long after getting here, Emma had another seizure. When I say that, it conjures up images, but let me tell you why it’s even more distressing than it sounds.

These are not regular seizures.

These are episodes where she falls limp as though dead, her eyes roll back in her head, she stops breathing, her lips go blue, and her face goes pale. It seems as though she dies for a minute before coming back to animation all confused and disoriented. It breaks our heart to see and wonder what’s next, but we are so grateful for the competent pediatricians and neurologists here in Canada who will help us get it sorted out.

I WANT IT UNDERSTOOD that this is NOT the end of the run!

We are committed to finishing the next half and need as much faith, prayers and support as ever to keep moving forward in spite of postponement of continuation.  When we know more about our next start date and so forth, we’ll post it here.

If you can help us leap forward in getting press, funding, or any other of the millions of things we need to get human trafficking in the public spotlight, please email me through my contact form.

Thanks to all of you who have helped us reach so much success this far. Keep spreading the word of this cause and help Stop Child Trafficking Now!

Your strip club conversation will get no sympathy from me

Today we drove from Newark, NJ to Washington DC with lots of interesting twists and turns in between (some intentional - some not!)

Here it is 11:35 at night and I’m fighting to stay awake long enough to tell you about my most recent anti-trafficking adventure. I didn’t even get to tell you about yesterday’s awesome rally yet, but rest assured I will. I just think today’s story is shorter and powerfully relevant, so hold on for that awesome post I’ve promised!

Tonight I got into the Holiday Inn at about 10:00 and carried my sleeping girls up to bed before hurrying down to find some food to fill the empty stomachs of those for whome food means more than sleep.

While waiting for my food, I overheard some guys in a conversation about strip clubs in the area and it sounded like they knew enough to compare the options. I was especially disgusted when the first guy mentioned being away from the wife and kids.

After a few minutes of listening to their talk, I had this pit in my stomach, the one that comes from knowing you have to do something you don’t want to but that you know you have to.  I mean if I run 250 miles in chains, surely I can muster up enough courage to  approach  a group of all-American, macho guys who by this late hour had been watching "the game" (whichever sport/team that may be) and could probably sweat beer and testosterone - I had to approach them and fill them in on some of the realities of modern day slavery. Like the fact that 80% of modern slavery is sexual slavery and that many of the girls in strip clubs all across America are not there to make a quick buck - they are held against their desires as slaves - to help fill the demand of lusty guys for whom sex has lost the meaning of love. These girls are kept imprisoned by fear, beatings, rape, and other sadistic devices to make sure their owners turn a profit in this burgeoning business of the lust market.

I can’t think of a more oxymoronic statement than "Gentleman’s Club" in reference to strip clubs. I’ve seen so many on this Run 4 The Rescue - they make me sick.

"Hey Guys" I broke in with a smile as I tried to cross the entire length of the restaurant trying to act natural. I was met with complete silence and a circle of stares from the unbelieving group, it got even worse after  I pulled out some info sheets on modern day slavery and started handing them out.

In the end we  (I) had a great discussion about strip clubs and what it really means to support them. One of the group then admitted that he was actually in town for a conference on human trafficking. Unbelievable!

I am glad that I swallowed my pride, and glad that they were polite enough to listen!

U.S. Run Complete! A Day in New York

These last two days have been so exciting. These were days and experiences where I felt the power of teamwork expand the work and make it so much more than any one person could do.

Friday night I tried to go to Linden, NJ so I could run from there to New York, however there were extenuating circumstances that stood in the way - the only road with a suitable shoulder was a turnpike and the state troopers didn’t take kindly to my presence there on the shoulder as a runner.  I knew people couldn’t hitch-hike on turnpikes, but I never heard about a law against walking. I guess the cops had…or they enforced a law which would someday be in effect….

I was counseled to consider my US portion of the run finished and just go to the Stop Child Trafficking Rally in NY as the capping point. It was soooo tempting. There was no clear way to run from point A to point B. We had tried to get police help as an escort (that way it would be safer and maybe I could overcome my new found anxiety of flashing police lights) but the logistics of such an endeavor were too much to overcome for each jurisdiction upon the route. In all this we had lost a precious day, I was 30 miles behind from finishing on Saturday and time was running out.

There was only one thing to do - besides cry - we prayed.

I simply could not let it be over. Many of you had put your faith in us and helped us financially for this hour and defeat was not an option. The sweet answer came to our sincere prayer and we decided to move forward.

We decided to work as a team to finish this off in a more spectacular way than I had even imagined.

On Saturday morning we drove to Central Park in New York City (scary!) and met with a friend of mine from NY, and together with my kids, the drivers, and the rest of our team we marched through the park. When I say walk, it wasn’t just a leisurely stroll through central park - I was dressed in my chains and they all wore their chain necklaces and we trekked through the park in 97 degree weather and handed out fliers to help get people informed and engaged in this cause of ending modern slavery.

People took them so much more readily from my kids than they ever did from me with my shackles on!

We then went to times square to see what was going on with Amber Ready as they unveiled their awesome program to help protect kids from the sick people who abduct over 1 million kids every year and streamline the work of mobilizing the police force in recovering those precious innocents. It really is a great program

By the end of the day, we had handed out more than 300 fliers and cards. This route took our team 7 miles (even my 5 year old contributed by sitting on my shoulders for most of the trip!) in this way they added their sacrificed effort to my miles and we ended up with more than 40 miles combined for the day.

My heart is full of thanks to all those who walked with me - and all those of you who contributed your time and talents and were walking "in spirit" through central park with us.

Next blog I’ll outline some of what has taken place around this run so you can feel the powerful change this team effort has Made.

Good Night!

Trading a day on the run for a Day in the hospital…(bad deal for us)!

I didn’t blog last night or the night before because I was busy in the emergency center in New Jersey. Instead of reliving all the details, I’ll just copy a letter my wife sent out to our friends….

Hello friends,
As many of you already know baby Proffitt had a series of concerning seizures yesterday. Eric had just finished running his first 200 miles and we were sleeping in New Jersey.  After being surrounded by state police, accused of escaping from the state penitentiary and threatened to be impounded and jailed just because he was running in chains down the road in Philadelphia, we have already had our fair share of scares and "bumps" in the road. This proved to be yet another frustrating but serious distraction.

After the third seizure I told Eric to book us emergency flights home to Canada where I knew that all medical would be covered. As the night progressed the more I thought about leaving in the morning the worse I felt.   I didn’t feel good abandoning Eric before the big rally in NYC and the ending of the US portion of the run. I also wasn’t confident that baby would make it safely on such a long flight. I opted to bring her into the New Jersey ER center where we got to bed after numerous tests at 4:30am.

Eric had to cancel his run for the day and stay with the other 4 girls as I took the baby from test to test. After a long night and day, blood tests, countless nurses,  doctors, neorologists, & pediatricians as well as a CAT scan and EEG test the doc told us they couldn’t find any indication of why she was having the seizures. He felt confident that it was safe to complete the run with Eric and fly home in four days where she will have an MRI and some additional testing while Eric continues onto London alone.

As I sat there watching the entourage of doctors coming in and out testing baby this way and that, ensuring her comfort and safety, and willingly offering every option of recovery, health,pain medication etc.. I was struck by the irony of the situation.

Here we are in 2009 living in a  civilized, & educated country. We have dedicated everything that we have financially, emotionally and physically in an attempt to awaken the world to an awareness of the incomprehensible suffering of hundreds of thousands of children in Canada and America who are experiencing emergencies on a scale much grander than my young daughter, and we are met with silence and denial.  But this one child, whose worth is equal to any other, has unknowingly solicited the care and protection of a dozen trained medical professionals. What if we could provide that for every suffering child? What if we, like elephants and rhinos would circle together and in strength and unity protect our young. Imagine the power we could have to provide freedom to every generation of children.

May God give us the strength to be the change we wish to see in the world.

Rebecca

Making History -or does history make us….

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.

Thanks to Sannia and Dustin!

With grateful hearts for the valiant service he has rendered, we bid farewell to our chase car driver as he has family responsibilities that have called him back home. We are likewise grateful for the willingness of our new driver Dustin to come and join our crew of doers who are working to shed light on this very dark subject. Due to the re-shuffling we have had to re-structure our route for tomorrow. If you are trying to meet with me and join me on the run, just email me through the contact page and we will make sure you are not left out!

it was hot today at 95 degrees Fahrenheit! It’s supposed to be a real scorcher out there tomorrow as well, so I’m getting geared up for a longer duration/less energetic run (walk) tomorrow with lots of fluids so as not to have any injury or heat stroke.

Thanks for all your faith and support in this cause. The miraculous answers to your prayers have been so evident to me…

About The Next Day’s Run

August 12, is the date of the next run

Eric will be running along Highway 1 from Princeton, NJ to New Haven, NJ.

Start: 8:30 AM

End: 1:00PM

“The cops…doing what’s best for america!”

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!

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