KONY 2012

"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything"- Peter Marshall

Ladies and Gentlemen, my heart is sad and my brain is angry. After viewing the video for KONY 2012 
http://vimeo.com/37119711 seen here, I was really inspired by the group Invisible Children. I'm not going to really explain the video, because I hope you all watch it for the information.


I am a mediocre activist. I like peoples pages on facebook, I sign up for petitions and give my email, and I always sponsor my friends in their runs and races and fundraisers against cancer, or anything else that plagues the world, $20 here and there to help. It matters to them, so it matters to me. But now I am sad that not everyone can get behind me and this cause that I think is so important. Friends that I've supported want to be cynical, want to be experts. They post videos and blogs and articles about holes in the plan of Invisible Children. They want to be right, they don't want to act, don't want to change and I think that is taking the easy way out.


I think that Invisible Children did a really great thing. They have worked up to the goal of getting noticed and their issue getting noticed. It has also undergone changes over the years it took to get a following and get action from the government. However, all this attention has seemed to place more responsibility on the group than they really have. The group wants to motivate the U.S. government, informed leaders and experts, to help people in need. How they help is up to them, as it always has been. People are having to dig so deep to shit on this campaign- criticising the financials of the organisation, saying that the Ugandan people are safe, that the information is out of date, that Kony isn't a big deal anymore, that they have EXAGGERATED his crimes.


 I think it's great to bring awareness to an issue that hasn't got a lot of attention, maybe then more educated people will come up with a plan. Maybe then Kony and others can be stopped. What's wrong with that idea? People who are supporting them and their video aren't claiming to be experts on Uganda; they are not claiming that they've always cared- because we didn't know before. We are more aware now and hopefully will become increasingly aware. Cynics in your cozy little bubble, you don't have to change, but maybe butt out of criticising those who do. No plan is perfect. I REPEAT, NO PLAN IS PERFECT. All the money and all the resources in the world cannot come to a perfect conclusion because human beings have a choice on how to act, but the point is, they can act.


I don't think that everyone has to agree with the STOP KONY campaign, hell, they don't even have to like it. But I don't think that it's simply good journalism to promote both perspectives. I don't think that that kind of "balance" is necessary in the reporting. These people are trying to do something good, to make a change about an issue THEY care about. If you don't care about it, and if you don't have a better plan, then please, I'm begging you- shut the f&^% up.


I want to believe in the good, and the possible, and maybe even the naive. I want to believe in the kids, and change and safety. When I go to sleep I have my own bed, I have a door that locks. Appreciate the simple things you have; and there is nothing wrong with trying to help others to get the same.


This is not my eloquent arguement against the criticisms, although I do have some of those too. This is my call for people to think positive, take the hard road, because it's easy to fight for the status quo- after all, it's take Invisible Children 8 years to change it.
You don't have to stand for this, but for God's sake stand for something.


If you read to the end of this I'm impressed.