"The Long Night"

Guest post from Christine Gilge

Please come and join me and bring your colleagues, secretary, sister–and whomever that is interested– with you to the new documentary, “The Long Night,” being shown on April 6th at The Grand Cinema at 6:30 PM.  I am working with the Washington Women’s Network and Washington Engage to look at long term solutions to effect change in the area of human trafficking, and I’d love to have you at this movie as my guest. Thank you for all that you do to change the culture and tide of evil in our community.

While we often envision slavery as being a past or even distant reality in other countries, this movie serves to remind us of the immense slavery problem we are currently facing in Washington State.  Though seemingly less overt than in days of old, hundreds of Seattle and Tacoma underage girls are being marketed for sex on the internet and on our streets every day. The average sex trafficking victim’s age of entry into this vile trade is thirteen years old. In addition, 83% of these children are born in the U.S, making this a current and local problem.

As bad as that news is, the great news is that we are not powerless to fight this atrocity. The Pierce County Coalition Against Trafficking (a division of Washington Engage), along with many other community partners, believes we can make a difference by successfully developing and advocating for changes in our state and local laws.  As we do this, it makes it less attractive for buyers and sellers of sex with children to do business here in our state. Through grassroots community organizations, Washington Engage partners with schools, local police forces, and other community groups such as the Washington Women’s Network to give everyone the tools to make potential victims less vulnerable and to encourage law enforcement to implement our top rated human trafficking laws.

Please join me on Monday, April 6th at 6:30 PM (Registration at 6:00 P.M.) to view this powerful documentary, which was filmed here in Washington State.  Seats are very limited, so please RSVP to cgilge21@yahoo.com by April 1st so I can be sure to save you a seat.

There will be a dynamic panel discussion following the viewing and an opportunity for questions about how we can implement better strategies to forever eradicate slavery – starting here in our own state.

Thank you in advance for considering!!  I hope to see you there!

Let Justice Roll Down,

Christine Gilge

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