who the hell died and made you king koopa?

i'm trying hard to get a grip on what actually happened this weekend. it's like i'm running slow. two or three seconds behind where i'm supposed to be. someone wind me up. i want to explain what happened from my first hand experience, and then respond to this texasinafrica blog. but all in due time.


my heart is beeping/breaking for the invisible children.


this weekend was the rescue hosted by invisible children. a rally. yes. an act of solidarity. yes. a form of civil disobedience. yes. but a protest it was not. first and foremost.

to explain our actions, i have to explain first what the children of northern uganda are going through right now. children as young as 5 are pulled from their homes and schools and forced at the barrel of a gun to march, fight and murder for the LRA. if they refuse to cooperate, they are killed and used as a way of scaring the other children into submission. their leader Joseph Kony uses god to keep them frightened and willing to do whatever he says. a child has an amazing mind. the capability to bend their imagination around anything. and this man is telling them that god wants them to kill their families. and that god has chosen them to die. he has claimed that he is possessed by a spirit and that god speaks through him. this coupled with a knife to your throat would convince any child to kill for him. on a whim he has decided he wants to slaughter a group of his own troops. he cuts off body parts of those who cross him. what started as a plot to overthrow the government of uganda, has turned into madness. no real rhyme or reason. just a textbook psychopathic murderer. kony has refused on several occasions to sign peace treaties, and as he is a threat to his own people and people in neighboring countries, we are now demanding his arrest.

there is no way that we can recreate in america what those kids are going through in the LRA camp in uganda. obviously. we weren't blindfolded and forced to march barefoot through the desert. no one was murdered. no one had their arms ripped off their body. no one was stomped to death on the side of the road. wtf were you thinking it would be? i'm extremely insulted that you imply to know MY motives for going from watching a 2 minute statesman piece. it is true that the event could have run smoother. yes. and some of our organizers were douchebags. absolutely. but don't you dare say that what we did was for nothing at all. i'm looking down at my shirt while i'm forced to walk through the city to get to the capitol, and i'm so grateful that i live in a country where i don't actually have an ak-47 strapped to my chest. there are no bullets flying over my head, and at any point i can choose to go home. and it all came crashing down why i was doing this. for the kids who don't have that privilege. i will walk in solidarity for the kid who can never really go back to the life of a normal 8 year old because he was forced to murder his parents. the only life he knows now is one of violence and dissent. i'll walk for that kid who wanted so much to go to school and become a politician to hopefully change the life of people in uganda for the better, but was picked out of a crowd and killed just to serve as a scare tactic.

i arrive at the capitol and all i have for the weekend is what i could carry on my back. far more than what the children in uganda have, and i was grateful for that. always grateful. always humble the entire weekend. the first and absolutely most important goal of this rally, is to put pressure on or government to arrest kony and hold him accountable for the horrible things he's done. that is our demand. secondly, to raise media coverage about the situation to educate the people in the western world who haven't heard of what's going on. in my opinion, every single person should know about it. and everyone should be totally pissed about it. so angry, that they are moved to action in any way. i'm crying. sobbing in front of the capitol building. NOT because of what i'm going through. NOT because it's an accurate portrayal of an LRA camp at all. but because i know what someone half a world away IS going through. i'm out on the front lawn as an act of solidarity. writing letters to my political leaders that they are legally bound to read and respond to. begging for help. not for myself, but for the people who really need it. i will be visible somewhere. i will fight with all my heart, with my entire soul to provide a better life for these children.

something i can't get my head around is this line "Support for ten schools. Which is a good thing. But it took how many millions of dollars and wasted years to do it?" all of the money collected goes somewhere important. personally i don't consider fresh water wells so that the people in the idp camps can have clean drinking water a waste of time or money. personally if i were living in that situation and heard someone say that everything that has been done outside of education was a waste of time, i'd wanna telepathically bitch slap them. invisible children has provided jobs in an otherwise unemployable situation. the mend program has provided 13 women who were former sex slaves jobs. which is a small amount, but it's more than they ever had. the savings and investment training initiative has provided financial management training. with an ultimate goal to become a self-sustaining society out of an utter desperate situation. the bracelet campaign has provided jobs and substantial pay for 180 more people. maybe you think it's a waste of time to essentially aid people in need, but i don't. whether it's aiding people who are starving, or raising awareness in america it's not a waste of time or money. obviously things cost money. the san diego offices don't pay for themselves. electricity bills. banners. t-shirts. and websites all cost money. but it all goes towards education. every inch.

"By all accounts, the IC organization is seen as a bit of a joke in northern Uganda. This isn't suprising seeing as there's no evidence that IC's ideas for helping with the situation appear to actually come from Ugandans themselves." i don't know what gallop polls you've been reading to get this information, but i'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you here. i can't even begin to pick this apart. i mean wtf is this? i could make outrageous claims too i suppose. but that would completely discredit my entire piece...

after the global night commute in 2006, night commuting stopped. after displace me in 2007, the us state department appointed a senior advisor to the conflict in africa. and now in 2009, we want to arrest joseph kony, and bring home the children. these are our demands. (you have one day...)




nice lance name drop by the way. it really captured the emotion you were so desperately striving for.