ideology.

My heart is full of anger, then sadness.
Doing SCWK reading... came across:

"The Herald Sun strongly opposed any liberalisation of street prostitution laws, and favoured a narrow law-and-order solution. Street prostitution was defined as an immoral and illegal activity that should be eradicated, and the complex social and structural factors underlying street sex work were ignored.

This position was presented via the following themes:

- The state has no right to use taxpayer's money (allegedly $600,000 a year) to fund brothels. Prostitution is an immoral activity that undermines traditional family values, and should not be sanctioned by government.

- There are no suitable areas for street sex in the suburb of St Kilda. Tolerance zones will only lower property values, threaten the safety of children, and undermine local businesses.

- Tolerance zones are based on the same misplaced harm minimisation philosophy advocated by naive welfare workers and bureaucrats that has led to the endorsement of supervised injecting facilities for drug users, and supervised chroming for young people in care.

- Tolerance zones and street worker centres mean the legalisation of street prostitution, which will not help existing street workers, but only lead to an increase in the number of prostitutes. The policy solution is tougher policing. Street workers should be prosecuted, and male gutter crawlers publicly named and shamed."
(Mendes 2008: 228)

To use political rhetoric is to adapt to the language of how social change seems to happen in this world. I can throw around terms: cycles of poverty, substance abuse, lack of education and employment opportunities, sexual abuse, illicit drug use, mental illness in contrast to this neo-liberalist position... but really I just want a response that is more than emotional.

Prostitution told her she was worth only as much as the next man's payment of her. It told her this was the best option for an income, and what kills me, is that she will take years if not her whole life, to regain her sense of self-worth, dignity, and self-respect after God rescues her back into His arms.