I submitted the following to our local paper as a possible "guest column" for this weekend. Apparently they decided not to run it, at least not for now. But for all the rest of you, here it goes:
Ah, Saint Patrick’s Day! The Wearin’ o’ the Green, the Drinkin’ o’ the Beer, the Shamrocks for Muscular Dystrophy, and everyone pretending to be Irish even without a single drop of Irish blood, to be sure, to be sure. But what’s a little harmless fun, eh? For the adults there’ll be the pub crawlin’, and for the kids there might be Lucky Charms for breakfast and a Shamrock Shake in the afternoon. When everyone gets home in the evening The Quiet Man may be on television, or Darby O’Gill and the Little People on the Disney Channel. Along the way we all may learn that Saint Patrick chased the snakes out of Ireland, used a shamrock to teach about the Trinity, and maybe even that he persuaded the Irish kings that the death of Jesus was enough for them to stop human sacrifices (whew!).
But somehow we never learned in school (I wonder if they teach it these days) that Saint Patrick spent six years as a slave. He was actually born in Roman Britain and grew up there until he was 16, when he was captured by raiders and sold into slavery in Ireland. There he worked herding sheep for his master until he escaped and returned to Britain. After he became a priest, he returned to Ireland to preach the Gospel, but never forgot his life as a slave – at one point Bishop Patrick excommunicated one of the Irish kings because he had sold some of Patrick’s Christian converts into slavery.
I’m going down this road for Saint Patrick’s Day because slavery is alive and kicking these days – and not just in some third-world, poverty-stricken country either. Right now, as you’re reading these words, modern day slave-traders are trafficking illegal immigrants into the USA not so they can have a chance at a better life, but so they can be beaten down, abused, degraded and ensnared by their masters in farms and in fields. Right now, as you’re reading these words, there may be a teenage girl who spends her days “working” for a family in your neighborhood, but she never goes out, she has no friends, she has no contact with her family – she’s their slave. Right now, as you’re reading these words, there may be another teenager – boy or girl – who goes to the same school as your kids, does their homework, participates in sports – and leaves the house several nights a week when their pimp shows up to force them to “work.” Right now, as you’re reading these words, pimps and traffickers of all descriptions are gearing up to transport their “workers” to the cities where the NCAA March Madness tournaments are taking place, because where there are tournaments there are also crowds and money to be made.
And if you are getting uncomfortable as you read these words, please don’t just turn the page too quickly. Instead, take a little time to find out more about slavery in our day, and the 21st century abolition movement. Go to the Internet and look at the A21 Campaign, an international effort to abolish slavery around the world within the 21st Century. Look at the work of Shared Hope International, which is working to end sex trafficking of women and girls. Look for Polaris Project and other efforts to change laws to protect trafficking victims.
Read the reports on their websites. Follow their Facebook posts, on all kinds of anti-slavery victories from arrests and convictions of traffickers to the passage of legislation on victims’ rights and assistance. Then do something with that information – share it with a friend or neighbor – sign up for one of those email newsletters – join one of those campaigns – even, maybe, set aside a little of that money you were saving for some of that Saint Patrick’s Day celebration and instead make a donation to abolish slavery – in Patrick’s memory.
