I'm sure many of you have seen this video already, since I was bombarded by insane amounts of people talking about it at school today. I first heard of it from Phil Defranco, but I was once again amazed by the power of the internet and the speed at which these things spread.
I personally believe this is an incredible mission, and Invisible Children is a wonderful organization that I want to assist through this project. It is truly a Project for Awesome. Nerdfighters, we can make a difference, we have before. And those of you reading this who are not Nerdfighters, 1. You should become one. 2. You can make a difference as well.
Cover the Night (April 20, 2012) is just a few days before my 17th birthday. For my birthday, I want to see people in my community and around the world taking a stand against Kony. Put up your flyers, wear your bracelets and t-shirts proudly. I'm getting them, you won't be alone. Make this your Facebook status, use the hashtag #Kony2012. Get the word out and strengthen the Peace Army. Share this post, friends. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Email, I don't care. Use your social media for good. I want to see the community coming together to help children on the other side of the world. Show me how far our love can spread.
- - -
EDIT Friday, March 9, 2012:
*sigh* so I don't know what to think about this whole Kony thing now. I think a lot of people (myself included) just watched the video and got caught up in the emotional 'children-are-kidnapped-and-killing-people-and-dying-and-they-need-help-omg' aspects of it, and jumped on raising more awareness and trying to take action. We blindly trusted Invisible Children and didn't look into its history as a charity organization.
The sad thing is, its history is not all that great. And the sadder thing is, this sort of thing happens ALL THE TIME. I'm not saying Invisible Children is a complete fraud or anything, but it's not quite exactly what it says it is. I honestly don't know whether to trust it or not, now. The situation is admittedly terrible, but it is so much more complicated than Kony 2012 makes it seem. The video (like almost any other thing involving politics and international relations) is presented from a biased point of view, so of course not all the 'facts' are entirely true. The US government is not as ignorant and terrible as is appears there. Also, does the United States really have the resources or economic stability to get itself into another war? I mean, we're already fighting in the Middle East. There's enough confusion and chaos centered around that. I don't know what choice is right and which is wrong, honestly. What gives us the right to interfere in ANY foreign affairs, anyway? I just don't feel like I know enough about any of these situations to pick a side. And the last thing I want to do is to act blindly and cause a mistake.
Admittedly, I do want to save the children. No child should be forced to kill their own parents. No preteen girl should be sold as a sex slave (nor should any girl at all, for that matter). I think we can all agree that those things are just wrong. But it's also wrong for groups of people to slaughter each other just because they practice a different religion, or for minority races to be treated differently, whether through segregation or something more discreet like environmental racism. There are people in countries everywhere who are the victims of injustice, racism, religious persecution, starvation, poverty, and illnesses and death from easily preventable disease. The world has a ton of problems, and we have to choose which are most important to us, and which effect the most people and can be resolved.
So I don't know what to do. I want to do the right thing, but I don't know what the right thing is. I feel about the same as my hero Hank Green does here, and he explains it much more eloquently than I just did:
So yeah. Kony 2012. Let's see where it goes then, shall we?
No comments:
Post a Comment