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"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil
is that good men do nothing."

Edmund Burke

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Facts

• After drug dealing, human trafficking (both sex trafficking and trafficking for forced labor) is tied with the illegal arms industry as the second largest criminal industry in the world today, and it is the fastest growing. (U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services)
• Worldwide, there are nearly two million children in the commercial sex trade. (UNICEF)
• There are an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 children, women and men trafficked across international borders annually. (U.S. Department of State)
• Approximately 80 percent of human trafficking victims are women and girls, and up to 50 percent are minors. (U.S. Department of State)
• The total market value of illicit human trafficking is estimated to be in excess of $32 billion. (U.N.)
• Sex trafficking is an engine of the global AIDS epidemic. (U.S. Department of State) 
  
  
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• As of December 2012, the CyberTipline has received more than1.7 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation since it was launched in 1998. Suspected child sexual exploitation can be reported to the CyberTipline at www.cybertipline.com or 1-800-843-5678.
• As of December 2012, NCMEC’s Child Victim Identification Program has reviewed and analyzed more than 80 million child pornography images since it was created in 2002.

Statistics from The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

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Lamentations

HORIZONS

March/April 2010

"Every painting is a voyage into a sacred harbour."
Giotto di Bondone
1267-1337

Horizons, The Magazine For Presbyterian Women requested the use of one of my wife's paintings, I Am Not A Tourist Attraction, to be featured in the Mar/Apr issue. The focus of the issue is Human Trafficking, a crime against humanity that the United Nations Population Fund states could count as high as 4,000,000 souls.

When we lived in Memphis, Terri organized an art exhibit in a midtown gallery to raise awareness of human trafficking and to benefit the International Justice Mission. Shortly thereafter she was named Abolitionist of the Week by Not For Sale Campaign, another organization striving to end trafficking and human slavery. Some might ask, "Why use art?" Paul Gauguin said, "Art is either plagiarism or revolution." Webster defines revolution as a sudden, radical, or complete change. Art causes change. Good art can cause radical change. Images have a way of going deep. Some art has even caused revolution.

Captive

by Teresa West-Carter

I teach young people the history of art. The stories behind the paintings always intrigue me. Here is part of the story behind I Am Not A Tourist Attraction by Teresa West-Carter, my bride-
Several years ago while meditating on the book of Joel, Terri began a season of lament; she mourned the plight of the abused and the helpless. One day she envisioned a father holding a lifeless child, a picture of tragedy, surrounded by newspaper and magazine clippings of injustice and cruelty. As she collected actual clippings, one of the faces haunted her; the face of a little girl trapped in the sex slave trade stared back at her. The picture of that little girl caused a revolution in my wife's art.

Lamentations
The Death of Innocence

In the painting Lamentations, the father is supported by the hands of God. As Terri was looking at the painting, still on the easel, the Spirit of God said, "It's not finished. Paint My promises on My hands."

Lamentations
Detail

And so, a picture of a little girl led to a series of paintings- one of which is I Am Not A Tourist Attraction.

I Am Not A Tourist Attraction
available as a print from
Not For Sale Campaign
all proceeds go to Not For Sale