Slavery

 In the novel The Mountain in the Sea, the plight of characters Son and Eiko, slaves trapped on an AI run fishing ship, have deeply disturbed me. What novelist Ray Nayler has demonstrated in their story is that anyone, no matter race, nationality, or resources, can be abducted, isolated, and enslaved. The use of drugs in kidnapping and the use of technology to evade detection makes anyone vulnerable to being used as free labor in whatever the business. Son and Eiko remind me about human trafficking which happens all around us, under the radar. I'm reminded there are people silently suffering with no hope of rescue or escape. They also have no choice whatsoever in how to live and be. What helplessness they must feel. 

This leads me to think about the slavery of black people in America. I want to shelter my emotions from too much exposure to their afflictions. I would rather ignore how their suffering continues to impact our nation today. Yet I know I must choose to look directly at their affliction and imaginatively see and experience through their eyes. I'm making a commitment to myself to visit The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery within the next month. I know this will be a painful experience, but I do believe it is my calling to live out the character of my God who is afflicted as we are afflicted, who weeps with us in our suffering. There is nothing godlier I can do than to expose myself to the pain of other people's suffering.