The Sound Of Freedom Must Start At Home

Content Warning: this article includes information and statistics about child sexual abuse, exploitation and slavery worldwide.

"I thought child sex crimes would be fifteen-year-olds, sixteen-year-olds. My brain couldn't comprehend something more evil than abusing that age. The very first case I worked in 2002, the very first image I saw um... were um..."

There's a pause as Tim Ballard's eyes shift to the side, his jaw clenches for a second and he swallows hard, his blue eyes downcast with sadness. The micro-movements of his face flash through the screen in seconds, but still long enough to give the viewer a small glimpse of the toll this kind of work has had on him over the years. His eyes shift back to the camera, and to his interviewer, Jordan Peterson, as he pushes on.

"There were three little boys that were probably seven, five, and three. They looked like my children.

They had blonde hair and blue eyes and they were being raped, these three little boys by this pedophile. I was so shocked I fell to my knees. I dry-heaved, thinking I was going to throw up into the waste basket.

I jumped into my car, I drove to my children's school, I checked them out, I can still see in my mind, 'dentist, dentist, dentist appointment' I wrote, and I grabbed them, I took them home and I sobbed on the floor. My wife came in and I just wouldn't let my kids go... that was my very first experience with PTSD... those kinds of videos have increased in the past couple of years by 5,000%."

Tim Ballard is the CEO and Founder of Operation Underground Railroad, the movement behind the box office hit: Sound Of Freedom.

Major news publications and online forums have tried to discredit the film based on Tim Ballard's story, "Sound of Freedom," citing "white savior syndrome" and ties to conspiracy theories. Unfortunately for those publications, Tim Ballard openly says in this interview with Jordan Peterson, that those claims are lies.

"I would go so far as to say that some of the people who don't want this known are responsible for some of the conspiracy theories in order to discredit the movement, and they go too far into things."

"Sound of Freedom" was ready for release five years ago, but Disney Studios decided against its release. It took one year for the producer to regain the rights to the film, and on July 4th, it generated $11.5 million, followed by another $2.6 million gross (thanks to the Pay It Forward Program), bringing its total up to $14.2 million, making it America's #1 film despite the fact that it only played in 2,600 theatres.

So, why are so many people so set against this film?

The short answer? Even if you're not directly connected to crimes against children, if you're an average person in the United States, you don't want to believe that such horrific crimes are happening every day.

Slavery is very much alive.

"You avoid things that stand in your way and frighten you at your great peril. If you cower from them in silence, or you turn away, seeking security, even sensible security, you violate the principle of your own strength, and if you violate the principle of your own strength, you become weak. And if you're weak, there is no security." -Jordan Peterson

I became aware of Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) after watching two documentaries put out by them: "The Abolitionists (2016)" and "Operation Toussaint (2018)."

I knew that child abuse was a huge problem, I'd seen glimpses of its ugliness in my 10 years of working in child care and volunteering in children's ministry. The very first time it came knocking was after I became aware that one of my Sunday School students was raped by someone close to their family. The little girl, no older than seven at the time, is one I will never forget, and whose face I've never been able to erase from my mind despite the fact that I never saw her again. My heart broke when I heard what had happened to her.

This year, a teenager close to my family was missing for some time and was rescued from a sex-trafficking ring just a few miles away from my home. Suffice it to say, when a problem of the proportion of child abuse comes knocking at your own back door, it's no longer someone else's problem. It becomes yours.

If 2 million children are in the child-sex abuse trade worldwide, don't think for a second, that the degenerates behind it fall into any small number. They are the ones providing the demand.

"What happens in some sense is that these people who are nursing these terrible fantasies, want to stay on the edge of novelty. Their fantasies get darker and darker and darker as they progress down that road."

-Jordan Peterson

I wrote an article about how "Barely Legal" Pornography is one of those dark steps down the road that leads an ordinary person to commit such horrific crimes against children. Read It Here.

The sad reality we must face as the human race is that the people behind the enslavement of children worldwide are as diverse as the rest of us. Abusers can be doctors, lawyers, politicians, parents, grandparents, and seemingly normal friends. These people create the demand by consuming the type of material that leads a child to be kidnapped and abused for years. Much of this abuse is happening right now as tens of thousands of migrant children are displaced throughout the country. Learn more about it here.

Sex buyers who have had enough of fantasizing and want to move on to abuse children physically overseas are often times American.

In the documentary: "Operation Toussaint" we watch as Tim Ballard and the O.U.R. team infiltrate a fake orphanage and rescue the children being sold out of it. Thanks to the heroic efforts of Operation Underground Railroad, over 6,000 survivors have been recovered, over 4,000 predators have been arrested, and the fight has only just begun.

•Human trafficking is the 2nd largest illicit industry in the U.S.,

2nd only to the drug trade(UNICEF, nd)

•There are 40.3 million trafficked persons globally today and

25% of them are children(Liberate Children, International

Labour Organization) Forms of Child Trafficking include forced

marriage, begging, sweatshops, pornography, migrant farming

domestic labor, sextourism, armed groups (commonly known

as child soldiers) (Unicef)

•Sex trafficking is the most common type of trafficking in the

US. In North America 72% of detected survivors were trafficked

for sexual exploitation. (UNODC, HTIP report 2020)

•70 million CSAM files are estimated in 2019. 78% of this file are

children under the age of 12(Thorn)

•The extent of family involvement in child trafficking 4x higher

than in cases of adult trafficking(CTDC)

•53% of all male victims trafficked into sexual exploitation are

children. (CTDC)

•Child sex trafficking has been reported in all 50 U.S. States.

(NCMEC)

•A higher percentage of identified children are trafficked for

sexual exploitation than for forced labor(UNODC)

It was Monday, July 3rd, and a nearby theatre was playing "Sound Of Freedom," I rounded up a couple of friends and we made our way over in time for the 6:45 PM screening.

I held back tears as I watched the story of Rocio, dubbed "Princess" by her captors, and her little brother Miguel, "Teddy Bear" unfold. It was a story of unspeakable horrors but with an unforgettable message and hope. I was grateful for the way the story unfolded, making its point while also protecting the hearts and minds of its viewers.

It is my hope that many more people will watch this film. Be it in theatres or from the comfort of their own home. Beyond that, I hope that as people awaken to the horrors of this multi-billion-dollar industry, they will not stop until child trafficking is eradicated from the face of the earth. May we join O.U.R. in its mission, and may loving families rise up to bring these children home.

To learn more about the real heroes portrayed in the film Sound Of Freedom, and to find out ways in which you can join the cause, head to https://ourrescue.org

Thank you.

-D.S. Fisichella