Post Classifieds

Vox Populi

By Ashley Ahern-Mclaine

On March 8, 2012

Pin It

Kony 2012. Who are we to end a war? They're here to ask us "who are we not to?"

Thursday March 8,2012 a dorm building on campus was vandalized with "Kony 2012" tagged in hallways and other areas. It was written repeatedly on every brick, large and small. This got me to thinking…

How many people are actually informing themselves thoroughly? I don't doubt the actions that people are taking to stop Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army, but how many people have just jumped on the bandwagon? My question comes from the amount of people that I have spoken with JUST today that have no idea what's going on, but they know that something is happening. I know that too many people say "wow! They have shirts, bracelets, posters, and stickers! I'm going to get these and pretend that I know what I'm talking about".

Look how popular the Livestrong bracelets were when they first came out. I was in elementary school when they made their appearance and EVERYONE, including myself, had to have a Livestrong bracelet. I don't think that the fourth and fifth graders really knew what they were about - they were just a trend. In fourth and fifth grade, the world is only just becoming cruel. For the most part, you still think it's perfect except for when you can't play your Nintendo because you didn't clean your room; you just shoved everything under your bed. Later, people found out it was for cancer awareness and support in honor of Lance Armstrong. Now, I'm genuinely shocked when I see someone with a Livestrong…anything! Personally, I don't have the bracelet, but I do have a bright yellow sweatshirt that has LIVESTRONG written right across the chest.

But I digress. Let me get to my point.

Kony 2012 is no game. This is not something that you should just hop on the bandwagon with like was done with Livestrong and so many more organizations like it. Not that those organizations aren't serious, but those have been working for years and this is JUST coming to light in so many people's eyes this year. This expires on December 31, 2012.

Joseph Kony is "not fighting for any cause, but only to maintain his power." "He is not supported by anyone," and "he has repeatedly used peace talks to rearm and murder again and again." Kony is number one on the International Criminal Court's list of the World's Worst Criminals.

How does he operate? For 26 years, he has abducted children in the middle of the night, handed them a weapons and trained them to mutilate anyone that stands in their way. They take chunks of their faces to the point where they're unrecognizable. More often than not the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, will end up killing their victims and not only are their victims strangers, but also their own parents. The girls that are taken from their homes are turned into sex slaves, and the boys are turned into child-soldiers.

It has been made possible by the efforts of the people that have been fighting this war so far to track every movement and problem that occurs in Uganda regarding the LRA. You can visit the website and see every occurrence from civilian deaths to abductions. In the past month, there have been three civilian deaths and 53 abductions. In the past year, there have been 98 civilian deaths and 477 abductions. And lastly, in total, there have been 1,012 civilian deaths and 2,214 abductions

So what is the point of Kony 2012 and The Invisible Children? The world needs to know who Joseph Kony is. We need to make him famous, not so that he can be celebrated, but so he can be caught. We need to plaster our towns with posters and the links to websites where people can be informed. He has to be captured THIS year!

Because I could go on forever… Visit some of the websites listed below and get yourself informed. A little goes a long way and just a pebble in the water can set the sea in motion. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Don't ignore this and don't just jump on the bandwagon and DON'T ignore this!

Watch the video:

Kony2012.com

Track the events:

LRACrisisTracker.com

Join the cause:

InvisibleChildren.com

Sincerly,

Kirstie Venne

Junior Creative Writing Major