San Bernardino, Calif. - David S. McCabe, a graduate of Cal State San Bernardino and the author of “Without Sin,” will lead a discussion on human trafficking and the moral obligation society has to curtail modern-day slavery.
McCabe, who earned his master’s degree in public administration at CSUSB, will speak at the Glen Avon Regional Library, 9244 Galena St., in Jurupa Valley, on Saturday, Aug. 31, from 10 a.m.-noon.
The discussion is timely given the recent news coverage of human trafficking (do a Google news search for “human trafficking” and see the long list of articles pop up), most notably, a nationwide crackdown in July by the FBI that led to 150 arrests and the rescue of 100 sexually exploited children, some as young as 13, according to news reports.
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Human trafficking, which also includes exploiting people for their labor, is a multi-million industry that is second only to drug trafficking, McCabe said.
Though “Without Sin” is literary fiction, it was inspired by the real-life events that took place in the early 2000s along the San Luis Rey River bed in Oceanside, a city in north San Diego County. It was in 2001 when U.S. immigration officers, the FBI and San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies shut down a sex trafficking ring that operated from a hidden river bed, near strawberry fields and a residential subdivision.
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Among those smuggled into the United States by those running the brothel was a 12-year-old girl, McCabe said.
“That was the thing that hit me,” said McCabe, who is the coordinator of the teacher preparation program at Pasadena City College. “Before I became a professor, I was an elementary school teacher and principal. And this was a baby, someone the age of the students I taught and supervised as an administrator.”As part of his research for the book – it was initially to be a non-fiction work chronicling the lives of undocumented students who came to the U.S. with their parents – McCabe visited the site in Oceanside, only to find that another brothel had taken its place hidden in the tall bamboo-like reeds in the riverbed.
What resulted from more research, soul searching and discussions with human rights activists was “Without Sin,” which chronicles the exploits of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and an ill-starred 17-yearold Mexican prostitute as they struggle to come to terms with the increasing violence and changing politics that govern the borderlands dividing their countries.
The novel was recognized as a semi-finalist with the William Faulkner Words and Music Competition. The California State Library and the California Center for the Book also have presented “Without Sin” with the 2013 Book to Action award.
The Aug. 31 event is being promoted by the Glen Avon Regional Library as a Book-to-Action event, which will include a reading of the book and a discussion led by McCabe regarding the moral obligation that all members of society must bear in supporting the rights of undocumented individuals and ending human trafficking. A book signing will follow.
The Book-to-Action events, created by California State Library and the California Center for the Book, builds on the traditional book club concept. As it provides an opportunity for people to collectively read and discuss a book, Book-to-Action enables them to put their newfound knowledge into action by engaging in a community service project related to the book’s topic.
For more information on “Without Sin” and its author, visitMcCabe’s website.
For more information on Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Public Affairs at (909) 537-5007, or visit the university’s news site at news.csusb.edu.
