MiddleClassHero

This month, Florida becomes a pioneer in the battle against the complex and difficult issue of human trafficking. Last week Gov. Rick Scott signed House Bill 99, The Safe Harbor Act, which provides services to help victims who have been sexually exploited.

In addition, Scott also signed House Bill 7049, which gives prosecutors the ability to better fight this despicable crime by imposing tougher penalties.

The words “human trafficking” conjure up images of women being brought to this country illegally to be sexually exploited, and that is a very brutal reality.

However, there is another reality that we at the Florida Department of Children and Families battle every single day.

Across America, almost 300,000 youth are at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation. They are being trafficked in our own communities.

Children are being exploited for sex across this state, and in many cases we cannot even tell who they are. They are entrenched in a life of sexual exploitation and live in constant fear.

The sex trafficking trade is thriving in U.S. Midwest

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 02:20:05 -0400

The sex trafficking trade is thriving in U.S. Midwest:

force4compassion:

U.S. Midwest in crosshairs of child sex trafficking fight

By Deborah Feyerick & Sheila Steffen, CNN

Tamara Vandermoon is barely recognizable in the photo she holds up; her face is swollen and bruised, her eyes nearly battered shut. She was 19 at the time. “My pimp had beaten me and stomped my face,” she says. “I was black and blue.”

The Minnesota woman has seen a lot in her relatively short life. Abandoned by her father and angry at her mother, she ran away when she was 12, the same age she turned her first trick trading sex for money and gifts.

“I just wanted to be accepted and loved. I was told how beautiful I was and if you do this I’ll get you this … and I’ll make you my girlfriend.” Before she knew it she was prostituting herself up to 50 times a night, the money going to her pimp or to feed the drug habit she developed, she says, to “numb the pain” of her life.

Her eyes fill with tears as she remembers: “I was just a baby. I was 12 and they preyed on me. What would a grown man want with a twelve-year-old child?!” Now 31, she is finally getting out after nearly two decades in the sex-trade.

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Mon, 09 Jul 2012 02:19:48 -0400

"I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become."

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 02:19:44 -0400

“I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.”

- Oprah Winfrey (via leilockheart)

rachelstewartjewelry: Rachel Stewart Jewelry

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:10:43 -0400

rachelstewartjewelry:

Rachel Stewart Jewelry

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Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:09:39 -0400

earthandanimals: “Mom.. can we not.”

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:09:34 -0400

earthandanimals:

“Mom.. can we not.”

1ntrepid: highlightsofmylife: elementofcrime: NEED this is...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:09:30 -0400

1ntrepid:

highlightsofmylife:

elementofcrime:

NEED

this is perfect

(via imgTumble)

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Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:09:20 -0400

lejolicoeur: lacethekiddo: Golden Retriever/Siberian Husky...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:09:14 -0400

lejolicoeur:

lacethekiddo:

Golden Retriever/Siberian Husky mix

My goodness. What a pretty puppy.

roarslionfiles: “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:09:04 -0400

roarslionfiles:

“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters over darker people in the world. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.” - 1967

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Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:08:53 -0400

thomas-tea: Robert Pattinson:“If you find a girl who reads,...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:08:48 -0400

thomas-tea:

Robert Pattinson:“If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are. Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.”

Brandon Hall:“The reason girls cant find a good guy is because they look in the wrong places, go to a library. Guys at party are just looking for the next girl to fuck.”

PREACH

blackfashion: www.xelaphotography.tumblr.com/ I need these...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:08:40 -0400

blackfashion:

www.xelaphotography.tumblr.com/

I need these braids in my life