Mike Tomlin Authors Foreward For New Book Focusing On Fight Against Human Trafficking
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Mike Tomlin the coach is now Mike Tomlin the author. The Steelers head coach has written the foreword for a new book about the international problem of human trafficking.
Tomlin and author Tim Ballard, wearing a shirt with a Steelers logo, talked about the idea behind the book at a news conference at Steelers training camp on Friday.
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The two men met over lunch last summer and discovered they have something in common: a passion for children and making the world a better and safer place for them.
"We talked about this being a very divisive time in sport and society. We wanted to focus on things that weren't necessarily divisive things we could all agree on. The fight against child slavery is a significant one that we can all agree on," said Tomlin sitting with Ballard next to stacks of the new book titled, "Slave Stealers: True Accounts of Slave Rescues Then and Now."
The book was written by Ballard who quit his job in Homeland Security and the CIA a number of years ago to found Operation Underground Railroad, which rescues children forced into slavery in the US and 19 other countries.
"Modern day slavery is real. It's millions of people forced into all sorts of slavery. Sex slavery is what we focus on," Ballard told reporters.
Ballard's book tells the stories of some of the organization's slave rescues and draws parallels to American slavery.
"It wasn't a casual decision to call our organization Operation Underground Railroad," Ballard said. "I was highly inspired by people who saw a problem and the great thing about the Underground Railroad it was made up of all colors and creeds. And the original Underground Railroad, they came together and said there's human suffering, let's come together and do something about it. That's a similar movement we have to create today," to eradicate human trafficking, Ballard said.
Ballard and Tomlin hope the book will further galvanize people to get involved in stopping the slave trade, which O.U.R. says is a $150 billion a year business. Americans, he says, are the biggest consumers of the child sex trade.
"We can't sit back anymore and say that's thousands of miles from me. No, no, we are the problem," said Ballard, waving his hands to emphasize the point.
The two men also agree that there are powerful lessons to learn about combating modern slavery from the movement that eradicated American slavery decades ago.
"[Human trafficking] is not going away if we sit back like Americans did for hundreds of years during the 18th and 19th century. People have to get involved we have to be loud," said Ballard. "We have to create a movement and when everyone rises up and says, 'What part I can play?' That is the beginning of the end of modern day slavery."
The book "Slave Stealers: True Accounts of Slave Rescues Then and Now" will be available in book stores or online booksellers like Amazon starting Sept. 4.