"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."-Albert Einstein
It's been almost two weeks since I joined several hundred people on my campus in a packed auditorium to watch a documentary called Invisible Children. I knew the subject of this documentary somewhat. Children, Africa, oppression. I went by choice, but I was pretty much ready for another documentary trying to make me feel guilty by showing me six million pictures of malnourished kids with bloated bellies. I tend to be skeptical. I tend to be sparing with my support. Why do I do that? Is my support, my love, really worth so little that I have to keep it to myself? What I ended up seeing was three guys going to Africa and being so surprised by what they saw that they couldn't just sit back and not try to do something.
An eight year old boy -- that's just a few months older than my nephew -- abducted from his home, taken into the bush, brainwashed, and then led back to his village to abduct his siblings and friends or even kill the family he was taken from. In Northern Uganda there's a civil war taking place that began before most of the people reading this blog were born. Twenty years. Twenty years of killing. If it's not bad enough that the majority of our country is completely unaware of this even though it’s been enduring throughout our lifetime, add to it that the children fighting this civil war also weren't born before it started. A war older than the soldiers fighting it. They don't know why it's happening. They don't support the cause, but still they're forced to kill. These are young, beautiful, real Children. Over 50,000 kids have been abducted from their homes by the Lord's Resistance Army and turned into machines. They watch as other children around them are killed because they said they were tried or they missed their home. So these machines learn to shut up and do as they're told. The children of northern Uganda who haven't been abducted are afraid to sleep in their homes. Because they fear the LRA, they commute to the city every night to sleep on a hospital floors along with hundreds of other desperate children. This is what was laid out in front of me while I sat miles away in safety. Kids who walk hours to obtain some semblance of safety just to sleep and then wake up to walk the same hours back home every morning. I was confronted, not by hundreds of pictures of malnourished children (although there's plenty of that as well), but simply by hundreds of children. Real children that I watched play soccer and dance so much like my nephews and every other great kid I know. Real children with names and smiles and dreams. Children that should be innocent, but instead they're forced to know more of humanity at the age of ten than I ever have to know if I choose to ignore it. I, the anti-crier, sat there watching this through the pools in my eyes.
The United States of America controls roughly half of the world's wealth. I was talking the other day with a friend, and we both came to the conclusion, obviously not for the first time, that even the poor in America are rich compared to much of the world. Don’t our freedom (true or otherwise), the power of our government and our economy give us a responsibility to people like the children of northern Uganda? Even before I saw Invisible Children I had been trying for some time to fit my head around the idea that the only reason I'm a middle-class, white American college student is because I'm lucky. Isn't that what it comes down to? I could be a child of northern Uganda. The only thing that stopped that was luck? Later tonight I'm going to turn off my laptop, change into my pajamas, walk down the hall to my community bathroom (the one I have a tendency to complain about), and then come back to my own warm bed in my room that I share with one other wonderful person who's not even here this weekend while there’s a boy named Ofonyo Innocent (yes, very fitting) in Africa that walks for an hour and a half when he’s ready to sleep, just to survive the night. I could spend a lot of time thinking about the fortune of my physical life. I could spend a lifetime (a lot of people have, in fact) thinking about why children with beautiful souls, beautiful people are forced to live surrounded by things like civil wars. I could think about it, and I do. The problem starts, though, when I get so caught up by thinking that I don't DO anything. There's so much more than just this civil war in Uganda. There are horrible things happening literally everywhere. You all know that. I know that. I can let this overwhelm me, or I can start doing something. Sitting around thinking, as vital as it may be to understanding, is not helping anyone.
I didn’t plan to give my heart away on February 14th. I really did, though, give it away on Valentine’s Day to these beautiful children. They have lost their innocence, abducted or commuting to safety, sooner than any being should have to. Guilt was not the point of the Innocent Children documentary. I think to stop at guilt is to cheat the world. Guilt isn’t what’s needed; Change is what’s needed. It probably seems a little dumb to blog about something like this, but it’s been on my mind for a long time. I didn’t mean to ruin your day if you’re reading this, or to say this is the best documentary in the world and everyone should go buy it. I just wanted to tell y’all what’s on my mind, I guess. You can tell me what you think about this if ya want. You can even call me phony or hypocritical or something if you feel like it. : )
Innocent Children, the organization that has formed since the making of this movie, has a website. www.invisiblechildren.com You can go there and see what it’s about. You can get the documentary there if you want, as well. If the only thing stopping you from watching it is the fact that you have to buy it, let me know and I’ll buy a copy and loan it to you. Honestly. I just think it’s really important to stop being so arrogant, as Americans. I think that’s what we’re doing whether we know it or not. People need help and we can give it to them. I’d be really glad to hear what you guys think about this. Maybe I’ve said too much for that. Don’t know.
9 comments:
Ok, Nate. Fine. Thanks for that 'truthful' sarcasm... even though that's an oximoron. : )
I didn't get to see the documentary, but I'm seriously considering buying it. But that's not the point.
All through high school, I had to keep up with the news for debate. And because I did international extemperaneous speaking instead of domestic, I read a lot about what was going on in other places, where people aren't nearly so lucky as even the poorest person is here. So I've been thinking about this for a long time. There are so many horrible things going on around the world all the time, and most of them are people hurting other people instead of natural disasters (even though those happen too). Truth be told, I don't know exactly what to do. I think it's important for me to get an education and support myself, and while I'm doing that I can't be there physically to help these people. On the other hand, I think that everyone should DO something. And since I can't make other people do things, that needs to start with me. Maybe my doing something can be an example for other people.
So I still don't know what to do, but I totally agree that just thinking about it isn't helping anyone. We need to figure out what to do. And I'd like to talk to you about this in real life. I promise I'll let you talk too. :)
You're so sweet, Sarah. Ha. Letting me talk too. How kind. : ) I think it's important to point out the organization of Invisible Children has ways to help. I didn't really put this is the post much because it was already so long and I wasn't trying really to sell anything - just get people thinking.
Invisible children does, though, have more than one campaign to help the people of Uganda help themselves. I know twenty bucks is a lot to college students but it sends a child dreaming of becoming a lawyer to school for a month. They have bracelets you can buy, so you're not just donating this money but the people of Uganda are producing a product that you're buying (and in turn helping out and supporting them while they still have dignity and things like that). There are other ways of helping too. The biggest one is just telling people. A difference has been made in just the two years since the documentary came out because more people know. We can talk more about this in person... when you give me a chance to speak. : )
I agree that freedom from tyranny is a value that the United States should not be afraid to impose on other countries, but I do wonder what the best way to achieve that goal is. When large portions of humanitarian and charitable aid from the US never reach their intended targets, it seems like justification for sending in troops and slapping around those who would put innocents in such inhuman circumstances. Yet we are seeing that certain forms of government are more or less susceptible to tyranny and there is no one magic variable that will force other countries to see things as we do. Like the war on poverty, the war against tyranny is a complex and multifaceted problem that still stumps many of the world's greatest minds today. If we fight it on every front, do we stand a chance of succeeding? That's a tough question.
It's funny that you bring that up, Braxton. I'd like to hear what other people *coughEvancoughcough* have to say about that subject...
Regardless of whether troops are needed in northern Uganda, I honestly think there's a lot we can do (are starting to do) there without sending in troops. Nieve optimist? Probably. The fact of the matter is I don't know a great deal about the governmental workings of Uganda. Maybe I should have looked into that more before I posted this... Regardless of how jerky I sound(ed,) I'd really like to hear what other people with more knowledge of those kind of things have to say about this.
What a lovely, yet heart breaking post. Sorry it's taken me a while to comment.
Earlier this semester, a lecture was given on campus along the same lines of what you are talking about, occuring somewhere in South America. The women and mothers made quilt blocks depicting horrible murders, kidnappings, and invasions happening to their children, specifically their boys, and they smuggled them out to be sold and to inform the rest of the world.
Many of the students here, myself included, were affected by this, and couldn't stop discussing the issue. While others here simply brushed it off. Even though they were introduced to problems around the world, they chose to remain naive about it. I believe that that is often a problem, a common one at that, with Americans. I'm not sure why many are like this... and in fact even I'm sometimes like this, we all are. We forget that other people aren't as well off as we may be, even though we may complain about money and bad cafeteria food, when there are hundreds, thousands, and millions who don't even have close to that. It becomes difficult when we try to figure out how to help....sending in troops? - is that going to solve the problem at hand? I don't know. No one has a simple black and white answer, probably because there isn't one, it's a complicated thing.
So, what do we do? Laura, how did they encourage the students to help? Is praying and sending money enough? Can we do more?
There are a ton of things! Money and prayer are great! They have several different programs, like I mentioned before. There are other things to do. People have dropped out of school to tell other people about the situation. People have gone to Uganda. People are still there. There are plenty of radical ways to help out. I think some people are called to that. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of people who would be disappointed in me if I stopped going to school right now, though. I think we tend to forget how important things like money and prayer are. They seem little because everyone can do them, but they're a huge help, I think. I'm not saying we should just stop there. Sign a petition, call a congressman, I don't know! Think it up and then do it! Sounds good to me... : )
Thanks, Ev. I really appreciate that you commented. I think you're perspective is a lot different than mine could ever be.
Thanks for the comment, Marcella. It's too bad I have to ask my friends to comment on my post because I want to hear what they have to say on the subject... some might think that's pathetic. : ) Again, though, with another interesting perspective. I appreciate the viewpoint you share because of your experience.
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