The cleaning man...and a book...

I got settled on the deck today after lunch, ready with a new book, sun shining brightly, gentle breeze blowing, leg up and resting and all is right with the world.

Then along came the cleaning man.  His truck pulled up, on went the huge vacuum machine and away he went to the top floor of the building to do some rug cleaning before the new tenant moves in next week.  That machine makes a honkin' loud noise, so needless to say, my reading was curtailed for a few hours. 

I'm reading a book by Victor Malarek entitled: "The Johns: Sex for Sale and the Men Who Buy It".  I would call this a serious read.  It is opening my eyes to the universal sex trade and the millions of men who brutalize, rape, and even murder women and girls...because they can.  The book is removing the blame for prostitution from the females and placing it rightly on the heads of men the world over....right where it should be.  There would not be prostitution if it weren't for the men who are willing to buy and use females for their own sexual gratification.

The cover of the book states: "...a first, crucial, long-overdue look at a global secret:  the identities of customers who make sex trafficking profitable.  Read it, weep, and begin to humanize the idea that 'masculinity' requires dominance and humiliation." (a quote by Gloria Steinem)

This book was one our daughter was reading in her university class last year. 

When it comes to prostitution, well, here in P.A. it's right on the street where I work.  Each morning some of the gals are already strolling and certainly after work around 5 p.m. P.A. begins it's night life and the men come out of their places and begin "looking".  The vans drive around, the trucks with their tinted glass, the little cars....all looking for some action and some cheap sex.  Most of the girls already are on drugs so they need their cash to get them through the day. 

There appears to be a great lack of self esteem with these gals.  If they learned their importance as women, as individuals, and human beings and really believed in themselves, these lifestyles wouldn't be sought out by them.  They would know there is so much more available for them than what has been dished out.  Probably no one has told them of their great value.  If someone had, perhaps their lives would have gone in a very different direction....and perhaps not.

Our children need so much to be told of their worth.  When we don't tell them, we are doing them a great dis-service.

So, I shall continue on with this book.  I know it will put me in a very melancholy mood but perhaps I need to be in order to fully understand the extent of the disgrace that men are putting on themselves.  Men, I believe, also need to know their value as men, as human beings, so they can begin to value others as well. Actually, we are all in the same boat, as far as our need to be valued is concerned.

There is, of course, something very raw about this topic, a topic that is not spoken of much at our supper tables!.  It's about men and their failures, after all.  Of course, we women are not without our failures, I certainly acknowledge that.  But since I'm reading this book, I have concentrated on the men.

Enjoy your night...and think about those millions of women and girls who are even this night, being bought and sold and used and brutalized all for the sake of sex.  It is a topic worth talking to God about and also with one another.  We need to begin to acknowledge the mess and to help get it cleaned up!!