Deadly Guyana School Fire A Bridge Too Far

Those naïve critics of Sound of Freedom ”overstating” the world’s child trafficking problem should be seen in light of recent school fire, padlocked at night to discourage predators, that resulted in 20 children being incinerated.

As the WSJ article reported, “Years ago, education officials in [a] remote mining town installed metal bars on the windows of the [live-in] high school’s dormitory partly to its keep girls & boys from being preyed upon in a town known for parties, nightclubs & brothels frequented by local gold miners. But the grates & padlocked doors meant to protect students instead helped seal their fate as fire tore through the girls’ facility one night in late May killing 20, mostly indigenous girls from far-flung hamlets served by the school. Their bodies were so badly incinerated that authorities in this impoverished South American nation had to send DNA samples to New York to identify the victims.”

But enough about this tragedy & let’s also obsess over the celebrity or culpability of Tim Ballard as some in the MSM have done when the movie he inspired became a surprise box office hit. Recall he’s the ex-DHS agent who resigned to fight child trafficking. But, in various interviews publicizing the movie, he repeated “the movie is NOT about me,” but drawing attention to the long-ignored problem. As it happens, Washington Post, CNN & Rolling Stone have most recently noted Ballard “quietly” resigned his leadership of “Operation Underground Railroad” he founded in 2010 amidst claims the organization exaggerates its child rescue efforts, and presumably as does the movie. We’re told he’s now CEO of the Nazarene Fund, OUR’s sister organization serving Christians & minorities fleeing persecution in the Middle East, while Fox News says he’s also now founded SPEAR Fund whose website claims it is a leading authority on sex trafficking & has raised big bucks. Does it matter? Does anyone really think cash-flushed BLM is the leading authority on black lives mattering? Isn’t the real message as well as issue in Sound of Freedom this: If one child in the world is abused let alone trafficked, it’s one too many?

Davd Soul