August 20, 2003
Slave Trade
Usually I don't start reading the new National Geographic until it has properly aged. Oh, I quickly skim the pictures, glance at the table of contents and then it gets put on the coffee table to acclimate itself. In a few weeks it has become comfortable and then I gather it in like an old friend and read it over the course of the next couple weeks. But not this time.
It hadn't even made it to the coffee table before Tegan suggested that we all read the first article in the current issue:
[The} Latest National Geographic (it has Zebras on the cover) has a haunting article that you should read. It's about slavery. Modern slavery. According to the contents page: "There are more slaves today then were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade." And don't think that it's happening only in third-world countries: "According to Kevin Bales, there are between 100,000 and 150,000 slaves in the U.S. today." Read it, and maybe wonder how people can do this to one another.You should all get this out and read the article. If dubya wants some terrorism to fight it sounds like there is plenty right here in his backyard. Posted by Steve on August 20, 2003
