“There’s nothing worse than attempted murder of possibility,” tweeted Ben Keesey, the CEO of Invisible Children. The Kony 2012 movement has flooded our newsfeeds and Twitter pages for the last two and a half weeks, and I am not complaining.
The non-profit that raises awareness about Joseph Kony and the gruesome acts of his Lord’s Resistance Army has received an exuberant response to their 30-minute documentary.
The film highlights the history of the LRA, their terrorizing of vulnerable and innocent children and the fear Joseph Kony has spread over Northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. Jason Russell, the director and creative mind behind the film, tells the audience to join him in making Kony famous. Through social media and the power of unity, Invisible Children’s goal is to end Kony’s reign of terror.
The question isn’t why should you care. The question is why shouldn’t you. Everyday, children are kidnapped, drugged and forced to be sex slaves or soldiers in a war with no purpose and, if we ignore that, we continue to let it happen. But with the help of George Mason University’s Invisible Children Club, ignoring Kony and his LRA is becoming harder to do. Charles Coats, the events coordinator for the GMU Invisible Children club, refuses to let Kony go unnoticed any longer.
The student organization was not expecting the reaction that the film received. “[At the time] I didn’t know how to feel,” Coats said.
A mixture of excitement, disbelief and utter shock was the general reaction across the board. No one was expecting it to be so popular so quickly. Within 24 hours the documentary received 2 million views. Coats explained the Invisible Children headquarters was only expecting to get 500,000 by April, and now they have surpassed 84 million views.
Within days of its release, there were hundreds of blogs and articles that criticized the movement and labeled it as shameful or nitpicked through “shady” financials. Anything and everything about the organization was being scrutinized, and it seemed that people were losing interest fast. “It’s hard when you’re passionate about something and there is so much negativity being attached to it,” Coats said.
Passion can lead us to accomplish great things. It’s what drives social movements, innovations and creations. Without it, our lives would become static and we would slip into a world where emotions, actions and thoughts become obsolete. There are few people who have the confidence to stand up and speak out against the injustices in our world and Jason Russell is one of them.
His passion makes bringing Kony to justice a possibility. Quite frankly, I’m surprised that this is even being debated. Why does anyone have an issue with stopping a tyrant who rapes women and children, abducts them and forces them to kill their parents and their families?
Anyone can look at a situation and see the negative, but only a virtuous person with integrity can look at a situation and see the positive.
“A lot of the people who are spreading negativity about the movement don’t know how non-profits work,” Coats said.
Non-profits need to raise money in order to accomplish their goals. The way the money is spent all depends on their cause .Invisible Children doesn’t just make movies and spread awareness. It build schools in LRA-affected areas and gives students scholarships for school so that they can have some hope to recover from the vast horror they endure. All of those programs require money, which much of Invisible Children’s funding goes toward. It’s the unwillingness to accept change that brings social movements to a standstill since change is precisely what movements bring.
Mason’s Invisible Children club is stopping at nothing to see Kony brought to justice. Coats has been involved with Invisible Children since 2005 and, like many of the other GMU IC members, has dedicated the majority of his high school and college years to educating people about this conflict that has been ongoing for 26 years. The Invisible Children organization is teaming up with American University, George Washington University and James Madison University to create a coalition to energize and rally the students and people in the D.C. area.
As the movement carries on, remember what you’re passionate about and the possibilities you want to make happen. Don’t fall a prisoner to ignorance, aversion and avoidance because you’d be destroying the possibility to be part of a movement that could literally save millions of lives.
Take a moment as you read the final words of this article and think. Think of how you would react if Joseph Kony was kidnapping children and killing millions of people here in the United States. Think if you were one of the children forced to kill your parents or, worse, if your children were the ones being abducted. Would this change your perception of the severity of the issue? Regardless of whether you support Invisible Children, don’t reject what their end goal is — Joseph Kony being tried at International Criminal Court for the millions of lives he’s taken.
Kony 2012 isn’t a phase or a new trend. It’s happening and affecting the entire international community. Use your voice and heart, and most of all stop at nothing to end the injustice.
Comments