Guest column: Saint Patrick’s day thoughts

About 1,500 years ago, pirates forced a teenage boy from his home in Britain and enslaved him in pagan Ireland. He lived there six years, toiling at the whim of his masters. His name was Patrick.

Patrick’s masters believed they had the right to demand his labor and services whether he agreed or not. He was their slave. But Patrick rebelled against the injustice of bondage, escaping and completing a perilous journey back to his home.

Years later, he answered a call to the clergy and nobly returned to the land of his enslavement—on a mission to spread Christianity. His preaching and life example were so powerful that, by popular approval, he came to be regarded as the patron saint of Ireland. That regard and tradition continue to this day.

It was not until 1833 that Saint Patrick’s homeland declared slavery to be illegal. Three decades afterward, following a bloody civil war, the United States followed suit. Slowly, nation after nation around the world has recognized that slavery is a shameful injustice and has outlawed that despicable practice.

Nonetheless, in various forms, the institution of slavery continues under our very noses. As recently as five years ago, the U.S. State Department estimated that nearly 17,500 slaves are smuggled into the United States every year.

These unfortunates are forced to work as prostitutes, farm workers, or domestic servants in socially isolated situations. Frequently, they are uneducated and do not speak adequate English.

According to some human rights organizations, cases are difficult to take to court. It can be very tough to prove force or legal coercion. Often, unfortunately, victims may not cooperate with efforts to prosecute their enslavers.

These victims may fear personal consequences. Revenge. Perhaps more pitifully, they may be terrified of returning to a homeland where death from rival political, religious, or drug gang factions awaits them. Or they may be afraid of retribution on their families.

There are other reasons as well. Poverty-stricken living conditions at their origins may be even worse than those of their enslavement. Indeed, for some, starvation is a very real potential eventuality of emancipation and return home.

Euphemisms for slavery abound. Some names associated with chattel slavery (the traditional meaning of slavery) are bonded labor, trafficking, forced labor, and forced marriage. Regardless of the label, the institution remains as wicked as it ever was.

It is hypocrisy to demand “reparations” for the slavery of 175 years ago when active slavery, with all its brutality and inequity, goes on within our borders and around the world.  The most heart-wrenching victims of this horrid institution are children and adolescents deceitfully taken from their families. These youngsters are forced into prostitution and hard labor—then callously discarded when their bodies become too diseased and broken to yield a profit.

How can this horrible evil exist in the modern age?  Unfortunately, the answer is as condemning as it is simple. As Edmund Burke noted centuries ago, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

The time for action is now!  We can defeat this evil if each of us will do just a few meaningful things to combat slavery.  Get educated about the problem.   Support organizations that fight slavery as well as bonafide rescue organizations—with money and other resources.  Report to authorities any abusive situations you become aware of.

Through churches and other charitable organizations, help care for those escaping slavery. Publicly stand with those who condemn the modern-day plague of slavery. Equally important, publicly denounce those who condone, ignore, or make any excuses for, this contemptible activity.