http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/...railroad-sex-trafficking/stories/201711020098
Mike Tomlin’s final off-week media session had nothing to do with football.
It involved something infinitely more important. And so unspeakably horrific that nobody really wants to look at it, which is precisely why we must, in all its horror.
This might not be why you open the sports page. Just know that the evil perpetrators in this situation thrive on our apathy.
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Tomlin began by introducing an organization called Operation Underground Railroad. Its mission had so moved him and his wife, Kiya, that Tomlin personally reached out several months ago and offered the Steelers’ help.
“A miracle call, out of the blue,” is how O.U.R. founder Tim Ballard described it.
These were Tomlin’s jarring words Wednesday, as he specified O.U.R.’s purpose from the spot where he usually specifies nagging player injuries or why, precisely, he called that late timeout.
“They rescue kids world-wide in the sex trafficking and child-slave industry,” he said.
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This is a cause worthy of our outrage. A team worth supporting. It’s an issue all of us can condemn and work to solve, regardless of political affiliation.
Of course, given the daily travesties that assault our senses, it’s easy to be numb to anything anymore. But these stories deserve to be heard.
O.U.R. comprises former law enforcement officers and Navy Seals, and one rescue mission described on its website (ourrescue.org) tells of the liberation of 36 victims, including “a 4-year-old that was being sold online for $7,000.”
That really happens. Ballard said government figures cite “millions of children” being sold for sex, including some 250,000 in the United States. O.U.R. is working in 15 countries and looking to expand.
Even as we speak, covert missions are underway.
“It really captured our attention,” Tomlin said. “Every man, to a man, easily got behind it.”
Tomlin spoke of the “blessings” of participating in professional sports and how his team “intends to utilize them for good.”
This is good. This is beyond good.
This is the work of hero saints like the 41-year-old Ballard, a former special agent and uncover operator for the Department of Homeland Security. He endured post-traumatic stress disorder as he continued to descend into the worst places imaginable — “Hell on earth,” he said — to rescue children.
Ballard’s words, upon Tomlin’s introduction, were so moving that I had to call him to follow up.
His visit came the morning after a particularly poignant Halloween, as I watched my daughter trick-or-treat. She is 9, so it kept occurring to me that the innocence soon will fade.
Something else keeps nagging me these days, as I watch her enjoy her care-free childhood, and it was palpable as I observed her happily traipsing from house to house in her costume: Why can’t every child have this?
Why are so many children suffering on account of adults? What is wrong with people?
I brought my Halloween story to Ballard after he landed back home in Salt Lake City. He jumped in before I could finish.
“I know exactly what you’re talking about, and that has been a source of trouble for me,” he said “I have seven kids, ages 1 to 16, and it’s been a blessing and a curse when it comes to my work. At the beginning of my career, I’d see these kids, a 7-year-old kid, and I’d superimpose my kid’s face on theirs, and it would just break me.
“But then I started to let it happen. I let my kids’ faces be superimposed because it takes the question — why can’t every kid have a [good life]? — to the next level: Why shouldn’t this kid be like my kid or even be my kid?
“We’re the closest thing they have to a parent that cares. No one else is even looking for them. So all of a sudden I’m able to reach down deeper and do my job even better when I think, ‘This kid is just as deserving of love — and of the opportunity of not being raped — as my kids.’
“When I associated it that closely with my kids, I’ll tell you what, there is little I won’t do for that kid. It injected me with a deeper purpose in my mission.”
There is so much more to talk about here. We could discuss the O.U.R.-sponsored after-care home in Latin America, where girls dream of becoming high-end restaurant chefs and achieve exactly that by way of specialized instruction.
Or about the “terror and beauty” mixed into a rescue operation — the terror looking into an 11-year-old’s face as she walks into a “birthday party” knowing she will lose her virginity there (virgins command a hefty price), the beauty looking into those same eyes when she realizes somebody is there to save her.
Or about how sickening it is to have to immerse oneself in such a perverse industry in order to bust the perpetrators.
You have to act like you’re their friend, Ballard said, and while “you want to reach out and tear the guy’s tongue out for the things he’s saying” you must hold back.
But let’s focus on the good news here. Ballard, who has moved into more of a CEO role at O.U.R., said the Steelers partnership is way more than symbolic. Visiting the team gives his exhausted workers a break, and the partnership lends his organization what it so desperately needs: visibility.
“Awareness is the biggest problem,” he said. “It’s not something you want to look at. It’s horrific. These are children. It’s easy to turn a blind eye to it, but so long as we do that, the problem is never going to go away.
“We need to get word out, and we can think of no one better than the Pittsburgh Steelers to help us do that.”
This is good. This is beyond good.
Mike Tomlin made a great call.
Joe Starkey: jstarkey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @joestarkey1. Joe Starkey can be heard on the “Starkey and Mueller” show weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
Mike Tomlin’s final off-week media session had nothing to do with football.
It involved something infinitely more important. And so unspeakably horrific that nobody really wants to look at it, which is precisely why we must, in all its horror.
This might not be why you open the sports page. Just know that the evil perpetrators in this situation thrive on our apathy.
ADVERTISEMENT
Tomlin began by introducing an organization called Operation Underground Railroad. Its mission had so moved him and his wife, Kiya, that Tomlin personally reached out several months ago and offered the Steelers’ help.
“A miracle call, out of the blue,” is how O.U.R. founder Tim Ballard described it.
These were Tomlin’s jarring words Wednesday, as he specified O.U.R.’s purpose from the spot where he usually specifies nagging player injuries or why, precisely, he called that late timeout.
“They rescue kids world-wide in the sex trafficking and child-slave industry,” he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
This is a cause worthy of our outrage. A team worth supporting. It’s an issue all of us can condemn and work to solve, regardless of political affiliation.
Of course, given the daily travesties that assault our senses, it’s easy to be numb to anything anymore. But these stories deserve to be heard.
O.U.R. comprises former law enforcement officers and Navy Seals, and one rescue mission described on its website (ourrescue.org) tells of the liberation of 36 victims, including “a 4-year-old that was being sold online for $7,000.”
That really happens. Ballard said government figures cite “millions of children” being sold for sex, including some 250,000 in the United States. O.U.R. is working in 15 countries and looking to expand.
Even as we speak, covert missions are underway.
“It really captured our attention,” Tomlin said. “Every man, to a man, easily got behind it.”
Tomlin spoke of the “blessings” of participating in professional sports and how his team “intends to utilize them for good.”
This is good. This is beyond good.
This is the work of hero saints like the 41-year-old Ballard, a former special agent and uncover operator for the Department of Homeland Security. He endured post-traumatic stress disorder as he continued to descend into the worst places imaginable — “Hell on earth,” he said — to rescue children.
Ballard’s words, upon Tomlin’s introduction, were so moving that I had to call him to follow up.
His visit came the morning after a particularly poignant Halloween, as I watched my daughter trick-or-treat. She is 9, so it kept occurring to me that the innocence soon will fade.
Something else keeps nagging me these days, as I watch her enjoy her care-free childhood, and it was palpable as I observed her happily traipsing from house to house in her costume: Why can’t every child have this?
Why are so many children suffering on account of adults? What is wrong with people?
I brought my Halloween story to Ballard after he landed back home in Salt Lake City. He jumped in before I could finish.
“I know exactly what you’re talking about, and that has been a source of trouble for me,” he said “I have seven kids, ages 1 to 16, and it’s been a blessing and a curse when it comes to my work. At the beginning of my career, I’d see these kids, a 7-year-old kid, and I’d superimpose my kid’s face on theirs, and it would just break me.
“But then I started to let it happen. I let my kids’ faces be superimposed because it takes the question — why can’t every kid have a [good life]? — to the next level: Why shouldn’t this kid be like my kid or even be my kid?
“We’re the closest thing they have to a parent that cares. No one else is even looking for them. So all of a sudden I’m able to reach down deeper and do my job even better when I think, ‘This kid is just as deserving of love — and of the opportunity of not being raped — as my kids.’
“When I associated it that closely with my kids, I’ll tell you what, there is little I won’t do for that kid. It injected me with a deeper purpose in my mission.”
There is so much more to talk about here. We could discuss the O.U.R.-sponsored after-care home in Latin America, where girls dream of becoming high-end restaurant chefs and achieve exactly that by way of specialized instruction.
Or about the “terror and beauty” mixed into a rescue operation — the terror looking into an 11-year-old’s face as she walks into a “birthday party” knowing she will lose her virginity there (virgins command a hefty price), the beauty looking into those same eyes when she realizes somebody is there to save her.
Or about how sickening it is to have to immerse oneself in such a perverse industry in order to bust the perpetrators.
You have to act like you’re their friend, Ballard said, and while “you want to reach out and tear the guy’s tongue out for the things he’s saying” you must hold back.
But let’s focus on the good news here. Ballard, who has moved into more of a CEO role at O.U.R., said the Steelers partnership is way more than symbolic. Visiting the team gives his exhausted workers a break, and the partnership lends his organization what it so desperately needs: visibility.
“Awareness is the biggest problem,” he said. “It’s not something you want to look at. It’s horrific. These are children. It’s easy to turn a blind eye to it, but so long as we do that, the problem is never going to go away.
“We need to get word out, and we can think of no one better than the Pittsburgh Steelers to help us do that.”
This is good. This is beyond good.
Mike Tomlin made a great call.
Joe Starkey: jstarkey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @joestarkey1. Joe Starkey can be heard on the “Starkey and Mueller” show weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
