Invisible Children: Joseph Kony 2012

Every day, I see quite a few videos posted on my friend’s Facebook walls, and on twitter. I click on some of the humorous ones—especially when folks who share my sense of humor post them. Every now and then, a cute animal video will also snag my attention, and I pass some of those along, as many of my friends are also animal lovers.

But today, I saw a video shared by several people -the same video- and by people from all shades of my friendship spectrum. I clicked on it, and I was transfixed. First, by the pure and amazing skill of this filmmaker. The video in itself is an amazing piece of work, the kind of documentary that is so perfectly timed, edited, narrated, and sewn together that you dare not think of pressing pause.

So, there’s that. Then, the subject matter.

In Central Africa, a war is raging. To me, it is a war against innocence and the future of small children. But however you see it, and however you categorize it, it is indeed raging. Children are being kidnapped --stolen—and indoctrinated into an army against their will. The young girls are sold into sex slavery, the young boys are given weapons and a choice: kill or be killed.
You may know a little about this war. Some movies allude to it, books have been written, and every now and then, a nighttime news show covers the story in some small way. I know a lot about this war, I have read quite a bit previously, but this was one of those problems in the world where you think…how can I possibly make a difference? What could possibly stop this?

Joseph Kony’s Ugandan rebel group is responsible for tens of thousands of kidnappings, killings, and mutilations over the last 26 years. The atrocities cannot be totaled when you think of all of the lives affected, destroyed, and lost, and the ripples of after affects in generations to come.

It is bigger than we can imagine, more horrific than we can fathom.

And then, someone like this filmmaker, like this group that formed this nonprofit, comes together and decides that saying, “It’s too much, I can’t help,” is not an acceptable answer. They look at the vast, unending reach that the internet and social media have right now, in this moment. They form a plan, simplistic, yes, but also a little brilliant.

I am so inspired by this declaration, this stop-at-nothing movement that is blazing across computer screens at this very moment. The confidence they have in the world, the confidence in they are banking on in response...there really is no way for this to fail. Whatever criticisms come this organization’s way...they are reaching and affecting people that had never heard of this nightmare.

They are teaching us all to think bigger than our own world, and father away than we thought our whispers or shouts could carry. Bravo to them for that, and for everything else they will accomplish.

The world is watching.

And I can tell you one thing I know for sure, Joseph Kony wasn’t banking on that.


Watch and share the video above. Visit the Invisible Children website, Facebook page, and twitter account. Join the cause, make a difference.