The Sound of Freedom delivers a heart-wrenching look into the child trafficking epidemic, and truckers may have the opportunity to intervene. As the movie tells us, human trafficking “is the fastest growing international crime network that the world has ever seen. It has already passed the illegal arms trade and soon it’s going to pass the drug trade.”
The 131-minute Angel Studios film tells the true story of Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard, who rescued 120 kidnapped and trafficked children in South and Central America. Initially tasked with tracking down and arresting pedophiles in the U.S., Ballard, played by Jim Caviezel, essentially goes rogue. He hands in his resignation when D.C. bureaucrats won’t back his crusade to rescue children.
“Imagine working into a room right now and seeing an empty bed, “ Ballard says to his wife. “What would we do?”
After reuniting a young boy with his father, Ballard is determined to find the kidnapped daughter as well. Using schemes that play on the deviant tendencies of pedophiles and child sex traffickers, Ballard manages to pull 55 children out of their clutches. He then travels deep into Colombia’s rebel territory to locate and extract the boy’s sister from militants. Although the film features classic elements of “the quest” and action, it’s a somber presentation of the horrors millions of children experience.
Of the reported more than 365,000 reported missing in the U.S. annually, an estimated 109,000 are trafficked. They are often forced to work in factories, farms, or as domestic helpers. In other cases, young children are drugged and sold into prostitution. An estimated 3.3 million minors are being held captive and trafficked in some form. Right now, there are more enslaved people than ever before, including when slavery was legal.
It’s crucial for CDL holders who support organizations such as Truckers Against Trafficking to remain alert and observant. As Sound of Freedom shows, children are being transported through the supply chain where truckers work. In one scene, the movie highlights how kidnapped children are loaded into a container and shipped overseas. At every port, truckers pick up and haul container cargo. Staying aware of your surroundings when picking up a load could save children’s lives.
“Over 2 million children are being sucked into the deepest recesses of hell,” Ballard says. “If we do nothing, some day, it’s going to reach the likes of you.”
In a monologue following the movie, Jim Caviezel asks us to pay it forward and raise awareness. Visit Sound of Freedom and Truckers Against Trafficking for more information.
Sources:
https://truckersagainsttrafficking.org/
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