Oy vey – this is hotbed of debate right now – I know. I have stayed away from it for 2…but I knew I wanted to write down my thoughts, come what may from them.
I first saw this from a friend on – where else – Facebook. Then another friend. Then I heard about it on K-Love, and then from a friend through email. Within a matter of 24 hours or less, I had heard about this campaign at least 4 times…and it seems so did the rest of the world.
In case you haven’t heard of this – which I know is still possible in this day and age but must be hard for I heard of it without even having TV – this campaign is put on by a group called Invisible Children who have made a very pretty 30 minute video – as some call Hollywood style – in order to tell the world that a man all the way over in Africa must be stopped.
Stopped from what? Stopped from taking young kids out of their homes, arming them as one of his own in his army and forcing them to do horrible, awful things to other humans. This man, Kony, has been doing this for years and years and years – and most of us up until early part of March knew nothing about it.
Yet, the controversy continues to pour in over this campaign, over this organization and over the main figure – Jason Russell. This is what I find, frankly, amazing and disheartening. People all over the web are quick to jump down Invisible Children’s throat about many things…and here are just a few that I found while looking into this:
* that IC are financially shady, not sharing their financials and that they aren’t really supporting/sending funds to Africa to help the community
* that IC is going about this all wrong, targeting their campaign to rally an elite group of American’s and making the war in Uganda too simplistic
* that IC is not including the Africans in this movement and thus disempowering them, saying that IC needs to learn to respect Africans and needs to do a better job at getting everyone in Africa involved as well…or at least represent them.
I’m sure there are many more than these. However, I just have to say that while I understand some of the opposition about the tactics of going after this Kony and how of course it is not as simple as going in and capturing just one guy…it never is that easy…I just really don’t understand why all the negative feedback, attacking him and his group for everything they didn’t do or aren’t doing right.
Whether you agree with this man’s take on the situation or not,
whether you agree with how he is using his time and talents to take on this issue or not,
wouldn’t it do us some good as one big human group on this planet to look at what good this guy is trying to do – while so many of sit on our rears night-after-night watching pointless TV or writing blogs – and learn from him?
Here is my take after watching the beautiful, emotionally charged video:
* Jason and his buddies went to Uganda as filmmakers and met Jacob, one of the boys who had escaped from Kony’s army. A friendship was formed between Jason and Jacob, one in which Jacob becomes a “son” to Jason…where eventually Jason’s own son calls Jacob his brother. Before Jason left Uganda that first time, he promised a terrified, fear stricken boy that he (Jason) would stop him (Kony). Did you catch that? That Jason made a promise…and by golly Jason is doing everything in his power to hold to that promise. How many times have I promised something to someone, and how many times have I failed to uphold that promise? Yet, here is Jason and his 2 buddies who have made it their life mission to do what they can to fulfill a promise – and I completely applaud him for that no matter if he is going about it in the right or wrong way.
* My take-a-way from the video wasn’t at all that they were trying to gain funds in order to send to Africa for the people. They do mention this is part of the organization’s work in the film – but this is not the primary focus of the film. The film is clear that they are asking for you to buy into their campaign to keep Kony’s name in front of the US government to ensure the troops stay in Africa to help. You can contribute to the work on the ground in Africa as well, but this film is not about that.
* The film is much more about what Jason and his buddies are able to do as citizens of the United States of America. It is about them starting where they are, learning as they go and doing what they can within the system that they live in. It is about educating their own fellow citizens about something that is going on on the other side of the world…and I didn’t get the feeling that it was about demoralizing Africans, making them look weak or incapable of capturing Kony themselves, or trying to make American’s the “white saviors”. My take is that Jason doesn’t see color or citizenship. He sees children in need and wanted to do something about it. (I mean really – who cares who is helping who, as long as the help is coming, even if it is from the other side of the world?) Jason is a filmmaker, a story teller…so he is using what he was created to do in order to do something to leave this planet better than how he found it. He can’t do everything, but he can start some where and that is what he did. I again applaud him for that no matter if it is the right or wrong way to go about it. At least he is trying to do something.
* As far as the charge of the film focusing in on an elite set of Americans to gainer support – I might stand corrected, but the film has been viewed by one count over 100 million times (reported on March 16th) – and I find it hard to believe that would be one social/racial group with that high of a number. I think within one week it was at 28 million views…which is staggering. Again, I applaud him and his group for having such unbelievable numbers in a relatively short span of time, something only Justin Bieber seems to be able to do.
Bottom line, whether I completely agree with everything Jason and his buddies have done I kind of find irrelevant. What I do find myself doing is applauding him for doing SOMETHING, for keeping a PROMISE, and for showing his son that even though he is just one person – he can make an IMPACT on the world in a good way.
I think there is a lot for me personally to learn from Jason as I look at what I feel called to do. To me, when Jason says near the end of the video, “No kid should have to go bed with fear,” I think of how many kids just right here in the US, right here in the San Francisco Bay Area go to bed in fear every night as they hear shouting voices or feel the fiery tension of living in a home where abuse is the norm for them.
And I think, “Wow – I wonder if Jason would take on domestic abuse in America as his next project? Of helping the kids all around him break free of their bondage – sometimes generational bondage? Of assisting in unleashing a great workforce right here in his backyard?”
To me – I look at what Jason and his buddies have done and it encourages me to not give up on what I feel created to do…and to cheer another along as he is doing what he is created to do…and to see that maybe, just maybe if we put our minds together we really can do something about creating a better planet than we found…of really bringing heaven to Earth – even if we make a few mistakes along the way.
KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.
P.S. In case you haven’t heard, it seems that Jason – under a tremendous amount of stress from all the publicity (good and bad) about him and his group – has been hospitalized. My prayers go out to him, his wife and family during this tumultuous time in their lives – even if for a good cause.
Resources:
Joseph Kony 2012: It’s fine to ‘Stop Kony’ and the LRA. But Learn to Respect Africans.
‘Kony 2012’ viral video by Invisible Children stirs debate
Invisible Children – Financial Stats and in answer to the critiques they were receiving
