Invisible Children

Have you ever heard of Invisible Children? Do you know their story and the great things they are trying to accomplish? If not it's time that you find out.

Back in the spring of 2003, three teenagers from Southern California, Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole, in search of a story to film, traveled to Africa; never knowing that what they were about to do would make the front page in the newspaper and put them down in the history books forever. Upon their arrival, they witnessed a conflict that both disgusted and inspired them. They were told about an army of children, who were kidnapped from their families and forced to fight.  After hearing this, they knew they had to do something to help.

After returning to the states, they had a film that they just had to show the world. They called the documentary, "Invisible Children: Rough Cut". This exposed to the world the horribly real things that were happening in northern Uganda.s. Things such as night commutes and child soldiers. One of the most predominate responses to the film was "How can I help?". In response to this, the teens created the non-profit Invisible Children Inc.

This conflict is probably the most heartbreaking conflicts ever hidden from the world. It is currently Africa's longest running war in it's history. It all started in the 1980's with a woman named Alice Lakwena. She believed that the Holy Spirit spoke to her and told her to overthrow the Ugandan government for being unjust to the Acholi. Lakwena and her followers tried and failed to complete their goal. Lakwena was exiled and Joseph Kony, Alice Lakwena's acclaimed cousin, took charge. He transformed the small rebel army into the powerful LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) it is today.

But the LRA didn't get the same support it got as the Holy Spirit Movement by the Acholi people. The government started to increase their offensive line and with the support of the natives ceasing fast, the LRA resorted to abducting children for their unjust cause. Over 90% of the LRA army were abducted as children.

Recently, more attention has been showed to the conflict. In 2001, the US Patriot Act officially declared the LRA to be a terrorist organization. This was a huge step toward stopping the conflict just because it got noticed. In 2004, Congress passed the Northern Uganda Crisis Response Act, the first piece of American legislation to address this disaster. And in 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Joseph Kony and four of his top commanders. In July 2007, in response to an increased concern for peace in northern Uganda by the American people, the US State Department appointed Tim Shortly to Senior Advisor for Conflict Resolution with his immediate focus on northern Uganda. This showed that the U.S. wanted to officially end the conflict peacefully. That same year, the United Kingdom bolstered their commitment to peace by allocating £70 million in aid, while Germany committed to a 25% increase in aid to Uganda by October 2010. Canada later became more than an international supporter of the peace process in February 2008 by joining the peace talks as an official observer.

Since September 2008, LRA attacks have become more frequent and hostile, provoking military action against the rebel group. The governments of Uganda, DR Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic launched an attack on LRA strongholds within DR Congo. “Operation Lightning Thunder”, the name designated for the counteroffensive, was largely unsuccessful in light of both the failure to reach top LRA leadership and the onslaught of violence that followed.

One month later on December 24th, 2008, the LRA launched a retaliatory attack against the people of DR Congo. This spread terror throughout the nation. The LRA murdered over six hundred and abducted more than one hundred and sixty children to fight amongst its ranks. More than 104,000 Congolese have been displaced since Christmas in attempts to escape the LRA forces.

With all these attacks and abductions, the Invisible Children can't stress enough how important it is to help these people, now more than ever.

When the Invisible Children Organization came to my school to talk about their themselves, you could obviously tell they were very passionate about their cause. The video that they played was heartbreaking. Jacob, the boy that the Invisible Children followed around, told his story and how hard his life was and how vital our help was. He talked about how his village was raided and his parent's were murdered, right before his eyes. At one point he started crying and I couldn't help but cry. He was so sad. It's horrible how we take our everyday freedoms for granted when there are people all around the world that are so worse off then we are. We don't even think about the stuff when we have; a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs and an education; a life. They live in fear everyday. They don't know if they will see the morning or their mother or father or brother or sister. It is so unfortunate.

Donate your time and help save the innocent that are being terrorized by LRA.

Link:  http://invisiblechildren.com/donate

Sources:
http://invisiblechildren.com/history-of-the-war
http://invisiblechildren.com/our-team
http://invisiblechildren.com/our-story

Westboro Baptist Church Bullying??

Westboro Baptist Church was established in 1955 by a Pastor named Fred Phelps, in Topeka, Kansas. They claim to follow the teachings of the Bible by preaching against sin of all kinds (adultery, divorce/remarriage, homosexuality). They believe that the doctrines of grace are well summed up by John Calvin's 5 points of Calvinism: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints. Today these doctrines are just about universally condemned. Personally i would take that as a sign that no one should be following them. If no one likes them that's a good indication that they are most likely unjust for the time period and the beliefs are just totally unfair to the natural rights of everyone. They believe that "God loves everyone" and "Jesus died for everyone" is a lie. For some reason they believe that a Church who "supposedly believe the Bible" tells lies. How is that lies?

These people "engage in daily peaceful sidewalk demonstrations" that bash homosexuals because they believe gays are "soul-damning, nation-destroying filth". Is that any way to talk about another human? Everyone should respect Human Dignity. They show up at funerals and petition at public places distributing peace. Don't they understand that funerals give closure to families? And the funerals are for military men, the people that have served out country and have died for our freedom so people can have freedom of speech. In my opinion, they are absolutely crazy. They say that they create colorful signs defending their causes. Some example of the signs are:

They even get their children to peach their blasphemy! ^^^^^^^^^^^^

Is this religion really related to Christianity?! I can't believe people can be so narrow-minded and just plain not even good enough for words. This was disgusting to read. Many people feel the same, I'm sure.

The so called church says they are doing good Charity by showing the people of the world that everyone is going to H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS because Jesus or God hates them and their children. But if this was the case than wouldn't God hate them also?! How do they justify doing such immoral things as moral? Technically they are wishing people dead, which is very immoral to me.

I read an article on http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/10/westboro-church-uses-iphone-to-announce-steve-jobs-funeral-protest/ and upon reading some of the comments i found that i agreed totally with them. They were just as outraged as i was. It infuriating to see that much hatred in the world today.

Cyberbullying

With technology today, it's almost inevitable that bullying would somehow transfer and/ or intensify with anonymous posts and comments. Everyday thousands even millions of people get cyberbullied. Unlike normal face-to-face bullying, Cyberbullying almost gives bullies the upper hand because most of the time, with privace rights of the internet, disables the ability for people to find you. Someone could totally bash someone and no one would ever know it's them. They are guarded behind the computer screen or cellphone or whatever it might be so they think they are safe from being caught.

Being hidden makes them also feel like it's less personal, like it can't come back at them in someway. As the Stargazette article said people should feel safe especially at school and at home but for many, many kids and teens that's not the case. 9 out of 10 kids say that they have been cyberbullied at some point in their lives. That's more than 89% of kids. These kids have been threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed and tormented by others online. It is really time to put a stop to it.

http://www.stargazette.com/article/20111006/VIEWPOINTS02/110060318/Cyberbullies-should-not-ignored-any-longer?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

http://www.sys-con.com/node/2010139

Bullying: Jamey Rodemeyer

Delaney Escher, now a senior at Victor Senior High School, was bullied for not being "cool" over text messaging and voicemail.

Jim Harold Jr, also a senior at Webster Thomas High School, bruised and bullied for being a social outcast and not fitting in with the norms of society.

Elise Groth, a 12-year-old at Oliver Middle School in Brockport, beaten and battered for not going on a date with an older boy after she said she wasn't allowed to date.

All of these kids had done nothing wrong, nothing to deserve what they had endured but still became the victim of this hate crime everyday. Each got help for their problems but some kids don't. Some kids can't be fixed and they feel the need to fix it themselves with a permanent solution.

Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14-year-old from Buffalo, NY, was bullied for years for being sexually different from others. For years, he was verbally tormented and confronted at school and over the Internet for something that he couldn't even have a choice in. His family said he was bullied since fifth grade! How could someone be so cruel, so evil, so heartless as to bully such a little boy.

On Sunday, September 18, 2011, 14-year-old, Jamey Rodemeyer committed suicide. After hinting about being reunited with his deceased great-great-grandmother and biding his last farewell to Lady Gaga, he realized he had enough. His parents, Tracy and Tim Rodemeyer, recently made a statement that even after Jamey's death the bullies that tormented him, still are bashing him. How could anyone be so heartless?! They chanted things like ‘You’re better off dead!’ and ‘We’re glad you’re dead!’. If this doesn't make you rethink the world that you are living in now, i don't know what will. I can't even grasp why they would do this.

If anyone watches Jamey's YouTube videos you'll see a very strong boy. He says most of his friends and family has supported him on all of his decisions. He also said Lady Gaga was one of the biggest things that helped him survive as long as he did. He loved her, her music, as well as her commitment to the gay community. He looked up to her. She made him believe everything was going to be okay.

After hearing about Jamey's death, Lady Gaga made a tribute at her concert to Jamey. She said they had recently lost a little monster. The gossip sites reported that she and many other celebrities were "furious" and "very angry" at the kids that tormented Jamey still even after death. They were mad that the problem had gotten as far as it did.

After interviewing, Mr. Miller, the Dean of Students at BK, on his opinions of bullying he said "Bullying is bad, so don't do it." These are words to live by people! Bullying ruins lives. Also Desiree P. said "Bullies are just people that are too insecure to deal with their own issues." That couldn't be more true. 3 out of the 5 people I interviewed said things like "Bullying is bad" or "Bullying is mean." (Ryan M., Alicia R, Lauren L-S).

personal opinion

Everyone has their own opinions on things. One topic that i am against is having teenage friends over while babysitting unless it is a reliable person, someone you can trust not to fool around with. That is the only exception i can think of. This person has to be responsible and helpful. If that person is a person you know you will mess around with, don't even think about it. This is not only disrespectful to yourself, but it shows to the family that you are babysitting for, that you are very untrustworthy especially if they gave you a set of rules that included no friends. Most likely when teenagers say that they are having friends over, they don't mean lets read some books about calculus and calculate the perimeter of an irregular octagon. Parties are designed to be a place to chillax and just have a good time; to throw responsibility right out the window. While babysitting is designed to show how much you have grown and show if people can trust you or not. The parents of the children are counting on you to provide a safe and secure environment for their children in their absence. Having a party, or a "study group" as they may call it, doesn't show they are reliable, responsible, trustworthy, respectful, or any other word that relates to that.

Another topic that i feel strongly about is parental involvment with extremely ill or on the verge of dying situations. Parents have the right to deny the sugery or any other medical thing that could protentionaly save their child's life. I think this is wrong because every living thing has the right to life, right? So why is it legal for someone's parent to deny the right of their child to have something medicailly done that may save their life. For example radition on a sick little girl dying of cancer or a little boy who is extremely ill and needs a heart transplant. This is so terriblely wrong to me. How can one human being take away another human beings right to live? That is unmoral.