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