Stand Against Silence

I don’t think that Invisible Children are naïve. I don’t think that President Obama was ever blind to this matter either: his own father, a Kenyan, hails from the Luo, the same tribal group that has suffered so much at the hands of Kony. My hunch – and hope – is that they see this campaign as a way to encourage wider and deeper questions about wholly inadequate governance in this area of Africa.

~Musa Okwonga, “Stop Kony,Yes.  But Don’t Stop Asking Questions.”

The filmmakers at Invisible Children probably did a few things wrong.  For starters, I wasn’t entirely comfortable watching a 3 year old absorb information about children being forced to kill their parents and then labeling Kony as a “bad guy.”  Granted, Kony is the bad guy in this story.  But so is the government that’s effectively ignored him for over 2 decades.  But, yeah, as I parent I realize that’s a hard topic to distill for a 3 year old.

That being said, the guy narrating the video had every reason to see Kony as the bad guy.  Jason Russell, Invisible Children’s co-founder, has a personal connection to the story he’s telling.  He’s been there.  He’s seen, and focuses the lens of his camera on, the children.  He’s watched a now-dear friend mourn the brother he saw killed.  Having an actual connection to that kind of hurt makes things real for people.

So when we, a nation of consumers daily bombarded with violent images and political rhetoric and heads full of our own criticism, balk and take up verbal arms against a grass-roots movement which is asking only that we mobilize our nation’s resources on behalf of a people who are too young to save themselves, I have to wonder: who are we?

Has our affinity for self-help so out-paced the basic principle of chivalry, of using our resources and strength on behalf of those in need, that our first reaction when thus approached, that we fold our arms and decry the requestees as war-mongers and financial parasites?  Really?  After checking the veracity of the story [yes, the entire world seems to agree that children are being kidnapped and forced to be soldiers and prostitutes], we honestly think the best course of action is to sling mud and stuff our hands into our pockets? 

Okay, so we don’t agree with the current Ugandan government.  I can get behind that (given the very minimum charge that they allowed Kony to continue doing what he does).  We don’t want the focus of this very non-American issue to become the non-profit organization that brought it to our attention.  Spectacular.  Don’t give them a dime.  But do give them props for bringing it to the attention of those of us with our heads buried in the sands of our own little worlds. 

Even with those qualifications, could we not, still, advocate that our very able military “advisement and support” contingents empower the people of Uganda to stop Kony and then install new government officials?  Not ones that we’ve chosen, but ones that Ugandans choose from among their own people?  As Americans, couldn’t we all get behind the idea of a government of the people, for the people…in Uganda?  So that the people of the Congo and neighboring regions might live without the fear of kidnapping, terrorist activities, and the worst kind of atrocities enacted upon innocent children?  Can’t we agree to use our resources and strength for the benefit of basic human rights?     

Isn’t that something we should all work towards?

E-mail your Senator.  It costs you nothing more than moments of your time, maybe a few missed status updates.  Let your congress-person know that you want Joseph Kony caught and tried for his actions.  Let him or her know that you support a Ugandan election that will allow for the people to genuinely chose who their leaders will be.  So that their children will be safe.  So that every person may have the most basic of rights: identity and safety, and the extravagancy of the freedom to choose whom they will follow.

And then you’re not financially backing any specific organization, nor are you favoring a government that has also enacted atrocities upon its people, if only by omission.  You’re advocating for those without a voice.  You’re saying that you support them having one.  You desire that all should be heard. 

You’re standing up against

silence.    

origin

Jesus said,

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:34-35

    

A Silence that Can't Go Away

Make Kony Famous, 2012

It’s all over Twitter, and facebook, and the news.  And, frankly, I’m crazy disappointed that: that’s what it took for me to become aware of it.  But it’s exactly what I’ve been praying to be made aware of: people without a voice.  Forgotten people.   People who wonder if God hears them. 

And then, tonight, this video was everywhere

 It’s everywhere because it should be.  It’s everywhere because we need to think about this.  We need to see it.  To personalize it.  To stop yammering on about idiotic comments from shock-radio jockeys and start thinking about the global community.  Start saving lives.  Start writing or calling or texting or tweeting our Congress-person, not because it’s unfair that some people in our country make a whole lot more than others, but because children are being stolen from their beds while they sleep and then forced to do things we can’t even put into our movies.

We need to do something. 

Yes, this is a reactionary post.  Yes, I’m a comfortable, white, suburban, American mom; and all that those categories imply.  Yes, I can’t wrap my mind around this topic. 

Can’t wrap my mind around it.

I don’t care about the critics to this video.  I don’t care if it’s too shocking, or too slanted, or too let’s-take-all-our-money-and-give-it-to-the-needy-so-it-makes-us-feel-better-about-ourselves.  Because even if this video helps ONE CHILD, then it’s worth it. 

Really, I have to ask the naysayers and politicians and critical rhetoricians: how many kidnapped kids are too many?  1?  6?  600?  6,000?  66,000?  6 million?  How many children forced to be soldiers is enough to require action?  Or sex slaves?  Or parent killers?

Or, to frame it a little more personally:
        How many nights is too many to keep watch, ensuring that your child won’t be stolen from you while you sleep?

For all the “problems” in America, I have never, NOT ONCE, sat up at night worrying about my children being taken from me.  To be made into a soldier or a prostitute, who would then be forced to execute me.

I’ll be honest: I hate politics.

 Mostly because I’m jaded and sincerely doubt that there’s much out there that resembles truth.  I’m the cynic that thinks one person, or one small movement, is too little to make lasting and real change in the world.  The one-person-at-a-time approach I totally buy into, and completely agree with.  I also stand behind the fact that One Man did change the world for the ultimate better.  Forever.    

But with those two caveats, I lean towards avoidance.  Oh, I vote!  And every chance I get; because it’s not a “right” but a privilege, given to me which I intend to use to make my voice “heard.”  At least once every few years.  But otherwise, I’d rather not talk politics.  Or hear about them.  Or read about them.  Or think about the people involved in them. 

Not because I’m too weak minded.  Or that I don’t think the issues aren’t important.  But because I find incessant rhetoric of comfortable Americans getting exercised about their idea of what’s important, off-putting.  To a nauseating degree.              

-----But, I digress. 

Tomorrow morning, I’m getting up and e-mailing my Senator and Representative.  And then I’m going to shoot them a hard copy through the mail.  And I think I’m going to save that original e-mail and keep sending it, every day, until Kony is arrested.  I might get sent to the junk mail folder.  I might be dismissed as a loon.  I might be sworn at as a serious irritant.  Whatever the outcome, because I am now aware of it,

                I will not be silent.   

 

origin

Fellow Coloradans, here is the e-contact information for your senators and representatives.  Do something for these kids.  Use your voice on their behalf.  Today. 

Bennet, Michael F. - (D - CO)
458 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5852
Web Form: www.bennet.senate.gov/contact/
Udall, Mark - (D - CO)
328 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5941
Web Form: www.markudall.senate.gov/?p=contact Ed Perlmutter, Washington D.C. Office 1221 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 e-mail: https://forms.house.gov/perlmutter/webforms/contact.shtml