Ashton Kutcher’s emotional speech before the Senate is a MUST WATCH

This will be the most powerful thing you watch today.

Actor Ashton Kutcher is not your typical Hollywood celeb. Sure, he may vote Democrat, but his passion for issues goes beyond just lip service. He’s in the trenches, getting his hands dirty, standing up for those in need.

In fact, in his speech before the Senate on Capitol Hill on the software he’s helped develop to combat human trafficking, he called his latest endeavor his “day job” — not acting.

Kutcher is the chairman and co-founder of Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children. He told the Senate Committee that his software, called Spotlight, has helped rescue many children from sex slavery. He’s careful to ask everyone to stop calling it “modern slavery” and just call it for what it is — slavery.

In doing this work, Kutcher has seen some terrible things. He teared up when he spoke:

“I’ve been on FBI raids where I’ve seen things that no person should ever see. I’ve seen video content of a child that’s the same age as mine being raped by an American man in Cambodia. And this child was so conditioned by her environment that she thought she was engaging in play.”

But he’s also seen some amazing things happen, too. Using Spotlight, he’s helped law enforcement track down a 15-year-old girl who was sold into sex when she met up with a stranger she met online. Instead of that girl getting lost for years, she was found and returned to her family in just three days.

That’s why he is in Washington; to tell our nation’s leaders how to get involved. Kutcher said technologies like his are “best built in the private sector,” but added, “at a certain point, the public sector needs to recognize that tool.” He also reminded them that the right to pursue happiness is foundational to America, and should always be the government’s highest priority:

“I’m here today to defend the right to pursue happiness. It’s a simple notion — the right to pursue happiness… but the right to pursue happiness for so many is stripped away. It’s raped. It’s abused. It’s taken by force, fraud or coercion. It is sold for the momentary happiness of another.”

Kutcher sounded very patriotic as he talked about his upbringing and how this moment was his proudest yet:

“As a young man raised and brought up in the public school system, I pledged my allegiance to that flag every single day. And maybe one of the greatest honors of my life today is to be here and leverage the work that I’ve done as testimony that may in some way benefit the nation that I love.”

Some of Kutcher’s words are hard to hear, but this is a subject we all need to be more aware of.

Click CONTINUE to see his emotional speech: