Help foster a community intolerant of human trafficking

As we observe Human Trafficking Awareness Month throughout January, it’s essential to underscore the vital role of community involvement in combating this heinous crime. Human trafficking, a severe violation of human rights, affects millions globally and is alarmingly prevalent.

According to the Polaris Project, a leader in the global fight against human trafficking, this crime impacts an estimated 25 million people worldwide, including in our own communities.

Law enforcement agencies, crucial in this battle, often encounter victims first. They work diligently to investigate and prosecute traffickers and rescue victims. However, their resources are limited, and their role isn’t designed for long-term victim support. This limitation underscores the importance of community involvement. By collaborating with law enforcement, communities can provide essential information and resources, facilitating the identification and rescue of victims.

At The Open Door Network, we provide a crucial link to survivors, offering an array of confidential services, including shelter, housing, therapy and employment support, independent of law enforcement involvement. Our approach is built on trust, reassuring survivors they are not alone and have a supportive network on their healing journey.

Human trafficking, often hidden, targets society’s vulnerable and marginalized. Addressing this complex issue requires a multifaceted approach, central to which is creating a supportive environment for survivors. We, as a community, need to acknowledge the critical role of nonprofits in providing these necessary services. Supporting them through volunteering, donations and advocacy empowers their work, extending their reach and enhancing their impact, thereby strengthening the safety net for trafficking survivors.

Besides aiding victims and organizations, raising awareness within our communities and homes is crucial. Though challenging, these conversations are necessary. Preventing human trafficking starts with preparing ourselves and our youth. Educational and awareness initiatives can equip community members to recognize trafficking signs and understand effective reporting methods. A culture of awareness and vigilance can thwart human trafficking and help intervene when individuals are at risk.

As we mark Human Trafficking Awareness Month, let’s reaffirm our commitment to standing with survivors, law enforcement, human services and organizations like The Open Door Network. Together, we can foster a community intolerant of human trafficking, one that robustly supports survivors and collaborates across sectors to eliminate this crime. United against human trafficking, we can forge a safer, more resilient society for all.

— Lauren Skidmore, CEO of The Open Door Network, a victim and homeless services

nonprofit in Kern County

GOOD FOR NADA AND HER BRAVERY!

I so admire all of Nada Nuanez Byrum’s letters and Community Voices. Good for her for no longer making excuses, I admire her at her age, and I being extremely close to it, she took the bull by the horns and made her New Year’s Eve a truly remarkable one, bravery as well.

Hope she found her appetizer recipes; if not, I have several.

— Joanne Shepard, Bakersfield

I WON’T DARKEN DEVELOPMENT’S DOORSTEP

In the Jan. 4 paper, there was an article about the commercial development to be sited at Coffee Road and Rosedale Highway. The developer is based in Newport Beach and has a view to deliver a “transformative retail destination, elevating the Bakersfield community’s quality of life ...”

It is so offensive to read that an out-ofarea company thinks that Bakersfield is so backward that we need a life-enhancing commercial spot. This is one resident that will never darken the door of any shop in this development.

— Sandra Goins, Bakersfield

KNOW YOUR BIRDS

I hope to be the first of many birder readers who would certainly state their consternation at the serious misidentification of a resident bird in Tehachapi on the Jan. 9 front page.

Wrongly labeled as a “blue jay” in the caption, this was most definitely a California Scrub-jay, one of the seven species now named for our unique state. Blue jays are from back East.

— Gary Merrill, Bakersfield

STOP THE HOLOCAUST INVERSIONS

I would like to add an addendum to my Opinion piece “I am Israel and Israel is me” (Jan. 4) concerning differentiating legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism.

One of the cruelest forms of anti-Israel criticism is Holocaust inversion. Holocaust inversion is the perverse use of the Holocaust as a stick to beat “the Jews.” (Lesley Klaff) What has been called “Holocaust inversion” involves an inversion of reality, and an inversion of morality (the Holocaust is presented as a moral lesson for or even a moral indictment of “the Jews”).

Using Holocaust imagery or terminology and accusing Israel of behaving in such ways is its own form of Holocaust denial and whitewashing the actual horrors of the Holocaust.

I’d like to point out the following Holocaust inversions used against Israel.

Gaza is a “concentration camp.” A concentration camp is a prison facility where the core aim is to systematically work prisoners to death. The concentration camps in Nazi Germany were vehicles of mass murder on an industrial scale.

Gaza is not a concentration camp. It’s just not. Whatever was going on in Gaza is not equivalent to a concentration camp. They are not prisoners to Israel; they are governed by their own elected officials (Hamas) and could have taken the billions of dollars of aid given to them and built up their economy and infrastructure and created a beautiful place to live. They didn’t do that. That is not on Israel and that doesn’t equate on any level to a concentration camp.

Comparing what is happening to the Gazans and Hamas terrorists to the Holocaust and accusing Israel of committing genocide is wrong and is a form of Holocaust inversion. The Palestinians are not experiencing a holocaust. When making this comparison, you are completely denying and delegitimizing the actual Holocaust, which was the systematic hunting, gathering and killing of every Jew in Europe.

Palestinians are not being gathered, hunted and systemically murdered for being Palestinian. Israel is fighting a war brought upon them by genocidal maniacs hiding among civilians; using schools, hospitals, homes and playgrounds as bases for their terrorists’ activities. They began an urban war and urban wars are hard to fight. Casualties of war are devastating and heartbreaking, but they do not consist of a Holocaust.

Using these inversions demonizes Israel and gives legitimacy to its destruction.

I urge community members, teachers, educators and all well-meaning folks to pay a visit to The Central Valley Holocaust Memorial, located at the Chabad Jewish Community Center. Since the opening of the memorial, we have welcomed thousands of local students. We have created workshops that include engaging in discussion, learning and understanding what the Holocaust was and bringing awareness of what blatant antisemitism looks like and how we can stop it in the future. For more information on bringing groups or students to the memorial, please reach out to the Chabad Jewish Community Center at 661-834-1512 or email at info@chabadofbakersfied.com.

— Esther Schlanger, Bakersfield

TRUE LOVE REQUIRES PROTECTING LOVED ONES

In rebuttal of Richard Thesken’s rebuttal that condemnation of Israel isn’t antisemitic, the attribution of atrocities, genocide and war crimes to Israel happened before Israel invaded Gaza. It is an obscene political inversion used by Hamas to disguise its intention to wage jihad until every inch of Israel belongs to Islam. I call that antisemitism.

Their charter rejects any negotiation for territory. The Israelis left Gaza in 2005 with an intact infrastructure including agriculture. What happened to it? Hamas, elected by Gazans, instead turned it into an armed camp from which it attacks Israel. It is the intention of Hamas to have maximum casualties in Gaza because it delegitimizes Israel’s right to defend itself in the media.

Civilian casualties of so-called innocents (who are taught Jew hatred from childhood) are Hamas’ doing, as are the embargo, the creation of a security zone, and the theft of millions if not billions of dollars intended to improve Gaza but stolen by Hamas leadership to build tunnels and procure armaments. Who really is oppressing whom?

The prosecution of the war has been planned by Israel’s unity government and cannot be laid at Netanyahu’s feet. Finally, true love requires that one does anything in their power to protect their loved ones. That is what Israel is doing despite world opinion and those of useful idiots.

— Steven R. Jacobs, Bakersfield

TRUMP MADE OUR COUNTRY THRIVE

I can’t tell you how many ignorant people that we have in this country. Before Barack Obama was in office, we didn’t have this homeless problem. Since Obama, we have a big problem with homelessness. This goes to Joe Mathews and Craig Jenkins. Can you tell me: When Trump was in office, what did he do to ruin this country? Absolutely nothing. Gas prices were going down. He fixed the VA hospitals; that was on Obama’s watch.

He basically had to start from scratch to get this country back to a superpower. This president that we have now should be impeached and no longer be in office. Trump flipped this country upside down and turned it in to a country that was thriving. Trump didn’t take us to war, did he? Only president that didn’t put us into a war.

The current president is giving billions of dollars to Ukraine. Will we get our money back? Absolutely not. That money could have gone to our veterans. Or health care or even to our citizens. But we the taxpayers are the ones who are footing the bill for Ukraine. This government has treated Trump absolutely horribly. Look at Hillary Clinton; she didn’t even get a slap on the wrist for all the things she did. So I guess you want this country to go to the illegal immigrants.

— David Stiner, Bakersfield

AUSTIN’S MIA IS UNACCEPTABLE

Here we go again with more incompetence popping up its ugly head in the Biden administration. This time, it is Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who inexplicably went missing in action for days and broke the critical civilian-military chain of command and endangered our national security.

He did not tell Biden while being hospitalized twice and unable to perform his duties, did not tell his second in command (who was on vacation in Puerto Rico!), and lied when he said he was working from home to cover up for his absence.

This behavior at this level of government is unacceptable and dangerous. He said he would try to do better in the future, but is it worth risking this behavior in the future? I think not because the most valuable asset for people at the highest level in any organization is good judgment and transparency. Austin demonstrated neither and should be canned immediately.

And I hope that Biden will pick the most competent person for Austin’s replacement and not just one that suits his divisive agenda politics. America deserves nothing less.

— Wilbur Wells, Tehachapi