Peacekeeper Truth Serum Blog

Yesterday, Sunday November 11th, was Veterans Day. A few days earlier a story ran in the New York Times that shows that we need to do more for our veterans than have a day that honors them. “Surge Seen in Number of Homeless Veterans” highlighted not only how veterans of past make up a disproportionate amount of homeless people but veterans from the current war are becoming homeless faster than years past.

For men, much of the homelessness is due to spiraling-out-of-control behavior through substance abuse. Women are facing many of the same problems that male vets are yet there is another factor that affects women at a higher rate than men; sexual abuse in the military. The New York Times states that nearly 40% of the homeless female veterans report sexual assault at the hands of other service members.

No matter what your political affiliation or stance on the war is there are I know that you will agree that this must be addressed.

Here are some things that we can all do to bring attention to this issue.

-Volunteering your time or make donations to homeless shelters, sexual assault/domestic violence shelters and veterans organizations that are targeting these problems is a great place to start.
-Becoming familiar with the issues that service members face is another.
-Building a peaceful world where people are not sexually abused and do not need to turn to substances to numb them is a long term goal that we all can put some work into achieving.

There are veterans who need our help everyday, not just on November 11th.

And, as PeaceKeepers, we need to offer our help…!

Read the NYT article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/us/08vets.html

Peace,

Jen

Former SGT, US ARNG 2000-2005

This morning in the free papers I grab for my subway ride reading materials, I saw that a local campaign around ending sex trafficking by NOW-NYC has led to another small victory with New York Magazine pulling sex ads from the back of its pages. This is a great step towards opening up the conversation of what sex trafficking looks like and the steps that need to be taken to end it. While many women and girls are trafficked from countries other than the United States there is a large amount trafficked into the US. When we think of trafficking it often involves women in other countries; not women who are being held captive in our very own streets here in the US. While this is not unique to NYC it certainly is something I never thought about while growing up in a small town in North Carolina.

Many papers carry these types of ads and about 14 have agreed to stop carrying them as well. The sex ads generate money for the papers and magazines that carry them yet these publications do not attempt to screen these ads for trafficked women, which in effect translates into these publications making money from the sexual exploitation of women and girls. Many of these magazines could require a valid NY State Massage Therapy License as proof of a valid business but choose not to or just simply charge more to advertise a business that is not regulated.

Serena Torrey, a spokesperson for New York Magazine, said “It’s just the right the thing to do”. It is good to see these magazines take a step in removing themselves as the intermediaries of trafficked persons and those whose exchange money for sex but its going to take more than a lack of magazine ads to make sure human beings are valued for their humanity and not their capacity to be sexually used.

We at PeaceKeeper are grateful for the many organizations that are working to make real change in the lives of women and children who exploited. We encourage people to find ways to both learn more and get involved in ending sex slavery.

To learn more about sex slavery you can go to:
http://www.equalitynow.org/english/campaigns/sextourism-trafficking/sextourism-trafficking_en.html

To learn more about modern day slavery you can go to:
http://www.freetheslaves.net

One of the programs PeaceKeeper is taking part in is our Kiss Campaign where we encourage you to send a Kiss to someone you love and a dollar donation along with it. This dollar goes to the Peacekeeper Fund to support an education for a girl who has left indentured servitude or sex slavery. We envision a world where economic options don’t include women, children and men being sold into involuntary servitude and slavery. The Kiss Campaign is one small way we are working to achieve it.

You can visit http://www.iamapeacekeeper.com/kissmuseum.htm? to download a kiss and learn more.

Peace,
Jen