KONY: Educate Yourself

Now, just less than a week later, KONY 2012 has infiltrated social media and many public conversations in the United States. If you haven't seen the video released by Invisible Children, here it is.

There has been a lot of speculation regarding KONY 2012, Invisible Children, and many other variables behind the process of catching a most-wanted criminal. I'm not an expert in the matter and I do not intend to be. I do, however, understand and teach the power of rhetoric to hundreds of teenagers each year--training them to spot rhetoric and think about the author's motives. As I watched the KONY 2012 video last Wednesday, the rhetoric was easy to spot. A bright and adorable little kid, a smooth voice, violent images, the whole nine.

I'm not supporting a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g regarding Joseph Kony's actions or thoughts. I am a child advocate and often wonder if my mind would be better placed as a child advocacy lawyer (but that's another post for another time). I am supporting, however, the power in educating yourself. My students were full of questions this week, so it was important that I was educated enough to give them unbiased, bipartisan information. 

Here is a collection of links that I found most insightful and reliable when educate myself to help the students make the most sense of what has been happening and what Invisible Children is all about. 

• The Daily Beast investigates the producer's finances
• Andrew Sullivan: Can Crowdsourcing Take Down a Warlord?
• NPR: The U.S. has Spent 2 Decades on Kony Before Video
• Washington Post: Bringing KONY to Justice
• NPR: While Controversial 'KONY 2012' Has Put Focus on Atrocities
• NYT: African Critics of KONY Campaign See 'White Man's Burden' for Facebook Generation
• NYT: Kony's Victims and the KONY 2012 Video

If you haven't done your own research yet, I hope these links help you. 

This is probably the last I will post regarding this subject, because I like to keep as much of my political life as private as possible (unless it's just good fun bipartisan stuff). 

xo,