What's it all about?
Students at HSPVA are getting fired up about ending the 20+ year reign of terror caused by the criminal, Joseph Kony, founder and leader of the "Lord's Resistance Army". To this day he regularly abducts Ugandan children and forces them against their will to be either sex slaves or killers for his bogus organization that has only one identifiable motive, to feed his ego and perpetuate his messianic delusions. He's already at the top of the International Criminal Court's list of "most wanted" criminals. Now is the time for YOU to get involved, make yourself heard and stop this unspeakable horror. After all, what IS the legacy you want to leave behind?
Watch the video from the Invisible Children organization here.
Check out the NPR story about the video and the message here. Hear a Ugandan side of the story.
Stay tuned to this page as the HSPVA Community rallies to define our own response. Share your ideas and your passion on the "Community" page of this web site NOW!
This crisis is not new. Read a message from one former student, Brianna Castle, now a sophomore at Northwestern University:
I'm writing this more in response to the many people critiquing the KONY 2012 movement (not that I am against people sharing their opinions or anything like that). So I hope you understand this post is coming from a place of passionate concern and genuine respect for others' opinions.
When I was a freshman in high school in Mr. Bingham's geography class, we completed a unit focused on Rwanda and the genocide that happened there in 1994. We were all so deeply disturbed that something that horrific had happened in our own lifetime. What happened to the promise of "NEVER AGAIN" after the Holocaust and Nuremberg Trials? Yet, Rwanda isn't even the end of the story of present-day genocide.
Yugoslavia, Cambodia, Darfur, and now Uganda? Millions of lives have been abruptly ended at the hand of a fellow man. Why? Politics, "race", power? Look at Rwanda. Nothing distinguishes the Hutus from the Tutsis outside of historical identification with one group over the other (granted, it is more complex than this but not too much more...). However, I'm sure many are thinking "Uganda, a genocide?" According to Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide:
...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
That last line? That's what has been happening in Uganda and now into the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and who knows where next. So what about this promise of "NEVER AGAIN"?
Invisible Children took on this promise, and our freshman class did the same. We joined in the fight. We shouted to the world that what is going on with our brothers and sisters in Africa is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. We just needed people to hear our shouts.
So we shouted first to our school and got many more on board. We shouted to our local congressmen, mayor, national representatives. Yet, were we really heard?
When we asked this question, we lost our voices. Where was our fundraising going? Who was even listening? We lost faith in the movement (or at least I did). But that didn't mean we stopped trying. Every life is sacred, and it pained me to know that 1) we were willing to turn a blind eye on the situtation and 2) that when we did take notice we did nothing.
Then, hope emerged in the darkness. President Barack Obama, by way of the prodding and insistence and courage of those at IC, said he would not tolerate it any longer. We, as a nation, joined in the fight. I have never been more proud to live in this nation then at that moment. No longer a nation of bystanders, but one step closer to upstanders.
Progress has been made. In Uganda and elsewhere. In fact, Northern Uganda is enjoying a period of great peace - it's been a long time coming. Yet, its neighboring nations - not so much. Why? Joseph KONY.
Sure, there are plenty of problems we could attack in Central Africa, so why KONY and why now? This is a man who could potentially have the destructive power of some of the worst dictators and genocide master-minds in world history. The youth and innocence of hundreds of thousands of children has been stripped away and replaced with an AK-47. Yet, like the true coward he is, KONY remains in the "bush."
It's about time he made national and international news. It's about time that we published his face for the world to see. It's about time we ended it once and for all.
Sure, IC has some problems, and there are great questions to ask them. Where is the money going? What are you doing? How much on-the-ground research have you been able to do since the original documentary? But the root of the issue isn't about the organization. It's about the movement, the awareness, the great change that come from our voices.
What those guys at IC are doing is admirable. Finally, someone has decided to take a stand for the invisible. Their passion is something to replicate. Their drive, incredible. Their goal, attainable.
I'm not asking everyone to support Invisible Children, and I'm not saying that they are even attacking the most pressing problem in the world today. What I am saying is we can't really argue that KONY 2012 has the potential to go somewhere, to do something huge. Sharing the video is the start: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc But educate yourself. You don't have to agree with all the suggestions IC puts forward - many who support the movement don't. Just say why you don't agree - and what you would do instead. Don't just shoot down everyone else's great passions but build them up, encourage them, and yours will be encouraged, too.
The real change happens when you find something you are passionate about and pursue it with all your heart. If that passion aligns with IC's, then go for it. If it's something else, then fight with every ounce of effort you have. Don't let anyone stop you. We should respect one another's passions, not denounce or discourage them.
So hear I am, 6 years later, still shouting because putting an end to the atrocities brought about by Kony is something I care about. It's about time we stuck to our promises from over 50 years ago.
Watch the video from the Invisible Children organization here.
Check out the NPR story about the video and the message here. Hear a Ugandan side of the story.
Stay tuned to this page as the HSPVA Community rallies to define our own response. Share your ideas and your passion on the "Community" page of this web site NOW!
This crisis is not new. Read a message from one former student, Brianna Castle, now a sophomore at Northwestern University:
I'm writing this more in response to the many people critiquing the KONY 2012 movement (not that I am against people sharing their opinions or anything like that). So I hope you understand this post is coming from a place of passionate concern and genuine respect for others' opinions.
When I was a freshman in high school in Mr. Bingham's geography class, we completed a unit focused on Rwanda and the genocide that happened there in 1994. We were all so deeply disturbed that something that horrific had happened in our own lifetime. What happened to the promise of "NEVER AGAIN" after the Holocaust and Nuremberg Trials? Yet, Rwanda isn't even the end of the story of present-day genocide.
Yugoslavia, Cambodia, Darfur, and now Uganda? Millions of lives have been abruptly ended at the hand of a fellow man. Why? Politics, "race", power? Look at Rwanda. Nothing distinguishes the Hutus from the Tutsis outside of historical identification with one group over the other (granted, it is more complex than this but not too much more...). However, I'm sure many are thinking "Uganda, a genocide?" According to Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide:
...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
That last line? That's what has been happening in Uganda and now into the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and who knows where next. So what about this promise of "NEVER AGAIN"?
Invisible Children took on this promise, and our freshman class did the same. We joined in the fight. We shouted to the world that what is going on with our brothers and sisters in Africa is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. We just needed people to hear our shouts.
So we shouted first to our school and got many more on board. We shouted to our local congressmen, mayor, national representatives. Yet, were we really heard?
When we asked this question, we lost our voices. Where was our fundraising going? Who was even listening? We lost faith in the movement (or at least I did). But that didn't mean we stopped trying. Every life is sacred, and it pained me to know that 1) we were willing to turn a blind eye on the situtation and 2) that when we did take notice we did nothing.
Then, hope emerged in the darkness. President Barack Obama, by way of the prodding and insistence and courage of those at IC, said he would not tolerate it any longer. We, as a nation, joined in the fight. I have never been more proud to live in this nation then at that moment. No longer a nation of bystanders, but one step closer to upstanders.
Progress has been made. In Uganda and elsewhere. In fact, Northern Uganda is enjoying a period of great peace - it's been a long time coming. Yet, its neighboring nations - not so much. Why? Joseph KONY.
Sure, there are plenty of problems we could attack in Central Africa, so why KONY and why now? This is a man who could potentially have the destructive power of some of the worst dictators and genocide master-minds in world history. The youth and innocence of hundreds of thousands of children has been stripped away and replaced with an AK-47. Yet, like the true coward he is, KONY remains in the "bush."
It's about time he made national and international news. It's about time that we published his face for the world to see. It's about time we ended it once and for all.
Sure, IC has some problems, and there are great questions to ask them. Where is the money going? What are you doing? How much on-the-ground research have you been able to do since the original documentary? But the root of the issue isn't about the organization. It's about the movement, the awareness, the great change that come from our voices.
What those guys at IC are doing is admirable. Finally, someone has decided to take a stand for the invisible. Their passion is something to replicate. Their drive, incredible. Their goal, attainable.
I'm not asking everyone to support Invisible Children, and I'm not saying that they are even attacking the most pressing problem in the world today. What I am saying is we can't really argue that KONY 2012 has the potential to go somewhere, to do something huge. Sharing the video is the start: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc But educate yourself. You don't have to agree with all the suggestions IC puts forward - many who support the movement don't. Just say why you don't agree - and what you would do instead. Don't just shoot down everyone else's great passions but build them up, encourage them, and yours will be encouraged, too.
The real change happens when you find something you are passionate about and pursue it with all your heart. If that passion aligns with IC's, then go for it. If it's something else, then fight with every ounce of effort you have. Don't let anyone stop you. We should respect one another's passions, not denounce or discourage them.
So hear I am, 6 years later, still shouting because putting an end to the atrocities brought about by Kony is something I care about. It's about time we stuck to our promises from over 50 years ago.