Some encroaching injustices beg for a response.
Human trafficking, according to the Central Missouri Stop Human Trafficking Coalition website, "is considered to be one of the fastest growing criminal industries in the world."
In response, Missouri lawmakers this year approved legislation to create a task force on human trafficking.
If you think this is not a problem in Missouri, state Rep. Elijah Haahr, R-Springfield and the bill's sponsor, cites a U.S. Department of Justice report that names St. Louis as a hub for human trafficking.
And, on the same day an Associated Press story about the task force was published, a local story identified a Jefferson City man sentenced in federal court for attempted sex trafficking of a child.
The task force will include a circuit judge, a prosecutor, a juvenile officer, a medical professional with experience in child abuse and advocates for human trafficking survivors.
One focus of the group will be to coordinate resources and provide more comprehensive services to victims, according to Deborah Hume, a founding member of the coalition.
"I'm hoping that the task force will be able to address some things that are lacking," Hume said, "like a statewide protocol or statewide strategy for better preventing human trafficking and responding to individuals who's been trafficked."
Lawmakers failed to approve a companion measure to target advertising sex with trafficking victims, but Haahr said he may reintroduce the measure next year.
Human trafficking is among the most despicable indignities a victim, often a child, can may forced to suffer.
Missourians must muster and coordinate all available resources to defeat this growing, encroaching scourge.