The Good Logger

I love sex. Not just for the reasons you may think, but because of what talking about sex reveals about our culture. This is one topic that we are often uncomfortable with. When I was a kid my friends would ask if my dad had had “the talk” with me. “The talk” was supposed to be the all-encompassing talk about sex and sexuality. Many dads never had “the talk” with them. Many dads were uncomfortable talking about sex unless they were making a joke. I have learned that talking a

#TeamMitchellBoys is raising awareness this month and also fund for Peoria Home. Peoria Home is just one place where we can put our deepening understanding to practice. CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT US!!!! Sexual abuse is a training ground for sex trafficking. When sexual abuse is not reported, or the victim is not believed it exacerbates the issue. Covering up sexual abuse is something that has been done by parents, relatives, pastors, teachers, counselors and family friends. There

#TeamMitchellBoys is raising awareness this month and also fund for Peoria Home. Peoria Home is just one place where we can put our deepening understanding to practice. CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT US!!!! If you’ve read this far, I hope that you know more about sex trafficking than you did before. There is power in knowledge and if we can turn knowledge into action, then we are using wisdom. I hope that you are not discouraged or overwhelmed by the problems that surround the local s

#TeamMitchellBoys is raising awareness this month and also fund for Peoria Home. Peoria Home is just one place where we can put our deepening understanding to practice. CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT US!!!! It takes a woman an average of seven attempts before she can escape the life. She needs to be ready to leave. The window in which a woman is ready to leave is small and needs to be taken advantage of right away. There need to be recovery services ready for her. But once she does, s

#TeamMitchellBoys is raising awareness this month and also fund for Peoria Home. Peoria Home is just one place where we can put our deepening understanding to practice. CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT US!!!! It is a difficult thing to find out that a loved one is in the life. If it is your child, it is even tougher. If your loved one is a minor there is more that you can do legally. Call your local law enforcement and stay attentive to what they are doing to investigate. If you don’t k

#TeamMitchellBoys is raising awareness this month and also fund for Peoria Home. Peoria Home is just one place where we can put our deepening understanding to practice. CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT US!!!! We are working on preventing sexual exploitation. I have given some tools that will help us see if young girls are vulnerable. Even though we may be attentive and kind, there are still some girls that will be introduced to the life. Force, fraud and coercion takes on many faces and

Once isolation is successful, the transition to the life is all but complete. Now the girls are turned out, meaning that they have started to perform sexual acts in exchange for money. The pimp is getting their way: the girl is turned into a commodity, no longer treated as a human. They really are property under the control of their pimp. This is the dark reality of sexual exploitation. Our best estimates are that there are 200 girls sold every night in Snohomish County. Thes

Pimps and groomers are seeking one thing; to isolate the victim. If they can isolate in body and mind, they can effectively control them. Once control is in place the personhood of the victim is gone and they become property. Property that exists to make the owner some money. The pimps don’t want family or friends coming after their property and they don’t want the girl to run away from them. Isolation takes these options out of the picture. Pimps do all sorts of things to is

Groomers use proven tactics to win over their victims. They use healthy behaviors that have evil intentions behind them. Many of these behaviors are ways a normal person might treat a new friend. Women don’t always get pulled into sex trafficking by kidnapping or force. Kidnapping is a larger crime that most pimps won’t want to be involved with. Instead they lure the girls in with friendship, using fraud to ensnare their victims. Friendship can be one of the most beautiful th

Who are these pimps that groom? What do they look like? These are good questions. Often times we won’t see them, and we won’t see the grooming process. Those who groom don’t want to get found out. They want to keep it between them and their targets. Even though these people might not be seen they are lurking in our community as a real threat. I was shocked to learn that both men and women participate in the grooming process, but this is true. Men and women have different role

There are common risk factors for grooming about which we need to be educated. These are the signs that make the children of our community appear vulnerable. As we learn these signs, we can become serious about prevention. These are the nuts and bolts of ending sex trafficking. We get to keep our eyes and ears open, looking and listening for the signs and stepping in, where we can, with action. We show kindness and love to the girls who display these warning signs. These are

A pimp knows how to groom a girl to get her ready for the life, how to take a girl from her square world and into the life. A square world is a “normal” world, not the life. “Groom” in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is a verb that means “to get into readiness for a specific object.” The object that pimps groom toward is prostitution and a life of making him/her money. This is a life of slavery and abuse. We need to take a good, hard look at the grooming process if we’d like

If I say the word criminal what is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it a positive or negative image? Often times the word criminal or felony has a massive stigma attached to it. An image search in google will show men with mean faces and classic bank robber look, one with a mask and gun. Our society doesn’t really know how to think or deal with those who have lived a life of crime. We put them into categories, setting them aside, not knowing what to do with them. As we

Understanding johns, the buyers of sex, is important in understanding why sex slavery and prostitution exist. I’ve heard it said countless times, “If men didn’t buy sex there would be no need for prostitution.” This is true from a supply and demand standpoint and something I hope for, but it doesn’t get us closer to understanding these men. Johns are not always men, but most are, and I will refer to johns as men. But men are not the problem; we can play a huge part of the sol

When trying to understand someone who is different than you it is not good to make assumptions. When it comes to pimps, we need to set aside our preconceived notions of what a pimp is or does. This is hard because so many of us want to demonize the pimp. We have to do the work of humanizing a pimp. In doing so, it is better if you can read or learn from one or more people who’ve lived the life you want to examine. We should read books about the lives of folks who are proud p

I am hoping that we can rethink addiction. Growing up I was told that an addict was someone who had no self-control; that an addict was someone who was not worth associating with because bad company corrupts good morals. I have grown and learned since hearing these statements. It is important if we want to understand someone who is battling addiction, care for them and not condemn, we get to have our minds shifted. I’ve come to believe that we are all addicted to something. S

Slavery does not look like what it used to. It is often difficult to spot or recognize. One reason this is true is because the victim might not realize they are a victim. We have in our minds what slavery looks like, when it actually looks much different. There are no more plantations or slave markets yet this evil still exist in our communities. Plus all that we’ve been taught about slavery teaches us that they would escape if they had the chance, but that too is often not t

Too many times I’ve heard others talk down to people in poverty. Asking questions like, “Why don’t they just get or keep a job?” or, “Why are they smoking if they can’t afford rent?” or, “If I didn’t have any money there is no way I would do what they are doing.” These words may never be said around the people in poverty, but those individuals still feel the judgment and shame that is being heaped upon them. There is a massive lack of understanding toward the poor that needs

There are many things that happen to us all before we turn 18 that we have no control over. So much of what we go through in our tender years can impact the rest of our life. These are not my thoughts; there have been many studies done on Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs and how they impact us for life. It was started by Kaiser Permanente in the mid 1990’s and used by the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). It is a simple test of 10 questions that once answe

One of my favorite authors grew up on a farm and around horses. He has seen, worked with and written about his fair share of horses. His love for these animals comes out in his writing. He was asked once if he knows how to train horses. I expected him to give a lecture on how to train since I assume he knows a lot about this topic. His response is perhaps one reason he is my favorite author; he replied, “Which horse did you have in mind?” He knows a lot about horses in gene