Consumer.

We are American.

Our very definition gives us the title as a consumer. I am not taking this opportunity to say whether that is bad or good... It is simple a fact.

The bad comes in when we realize we are ignorant consumers.

Do we know... DO I KNOW... where the clothes I am coming from were made? Could I be supporting the mistreatment of children of God, by what I choose to wear?

Merrick got the opportunity to hear Shane Claiborne speak a few weeks ago at Vanguard. He shared a story of a boy working at a clothes factory. This boy had a face disfigured by a large gash that went down his face. He told the story of how he got it: He had not been working fast enough so the boss had strucken him. When he began to bleed on the clothes, his boss got a match and burned the gash shut so that the bleeding would stop.

This story is sick. It sounds fake: made up for a shock factor. And yet it is the reality of many sweatshops that exist in the world today. Sweatshops that produce the clothes that we choose to put on every day. I am still trying to wrap my mind around what this means. Research which companies have fair trade. Find out about other conditions which are unfair and what I can do to have a part in change.

Here is a blog I found that reports current fair trade issues.

I have had no motivation to write a few papers this week... so my time has been spent here. It is a list of hundreds of sites of companies that only use fair trade and organic products.

There are even organizations that exist to organize boycotts and keep companies accountable.

We have probably heard about the wal-mart contreversy in their unfair wages and use of sweatshop clothes, but did we know that target is not much better? And Forever 21 as well?

I am not trying to spread bad things about these companies, I recognize that they are owned by people just as human as myself... and I am still trying to find the truth. It is so hard to sort through everything, but I am convinced that as a Christ Follower I cannot blindly support the injustice that is THRIVING in this industry.

I would love to hear your thoughts. This is a conversation that is only beginning