bcmatson
The personal weblog of Bradley C. Matson.Sunday, November 09, 2008 Welcome to the Not For Sale Campaign
We need to shift to a paradigm that recognizes the possibility of slavery in order to be able to identify it. When the paradigm shifts, a new wave of activists will respond in creative ways. That being the case, the pioneer generation of activists against human trafficking must re-evaluate how we communicate the issue to our networks.
Communication with young people brings to light that the new abolitionists can be very sophisticated. Youths are using their own expertise in creative ways to raise awareness and fight slavery, which in turn inspires their peers to do the same. Their initiatives tend to be organic to their peers’ passion, skills, and purpose in life.
For example, Pattie, an artist who lives in Atlanta, GA, recently hosted a house party to inform her friends about modern-day slavery. She showed a movie, served wine and cheese, produced a painting for the party, and delivered a power point presentation featuring her city’s Modern-day slavery statistics. She even had the guests paint their hands on her wall, declaring that they are now involved, identifying with those whose identities have been stolen.
‘Orange’ awareness events, soccer tournaments, class presentations, mapping slavery projects, benefit concerts, video productions, are among the activities that colleges, high schools, companies, churches, artists, and individuals organize to shift the paradigm that slavery does not exist toward a paradigm of awareness.
We cannot act solo if we want to make an impact; to be part of a network of activists generates social power. The pioneer generation needs to enable people’s natural connection toward collaboration, exchanging ideas, learning from one another, and learning to trust one another in new and different ways.
The greatest of challenges demand the boldest and most creative initiatives. Ending slavery in our lifetime depends on open source activism. We cannot control it, only enable it. Our own inputs and energies transform the path of the campaign. We can’t predict the path that we are going to follow, but because modern-day slavery is touching the deepest places of conscience, we are uniting to end it." more at Not For Sale Campaign
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