Kony: The Bigger Picture

So, this whole viral Kony thing has been bringing something to light for me, and I do not like what I'm seeing. First, there was the wave of people (me included) spreading the Kony video and asking people to get involved. Then, there was the second wave, a wave of people pointing out the flaws with the first wave. Frankly, this second wave really ticked me off. At first, it was my pride, plain and simple, because I was part of the first wave. But then, I began to realize what I was feeling deeper down, and that is

So what??

So there are fewer than 30,000 kids in his army now. So he's not currently in Uganda (which the video actually made clear). So there are other problems. So this has been going on for a while already.  Do any of these "facts" negate the need or the horror??  What if there is only one small boy who has been taken from his family and is being forced to kill? What if there is only one little girl who was abducted and is being forced to do horrible things?

What if it were your child?!

Critical thinking, hey? While I am a passionate advocate of getting the facts, at some point, that either boils down to which total stranger you choose to believe (in this case, Jason Russell, Larry Magid, Rosebell Kagumire, etc.) or actually going and finding out for yourself.

Then, we can either get bogged down by showing to the world we're the ones who really know the "truth;" or, we can actually do something. I can't afford a trip to Africa; but, even if there's only one child involved, I can do something here. And I will.

I find myself genuinely fascinated (disturbed?) by how we as individuals choose whom we believe and on what we base this trust; what we accept as fact; whom we accept as experts. Should those who put such profound faith in other people be envied, or pitied?

This reminds me of Oprah's one-year-after-Katrina episode. Scenes of devastation and stories of despair, accompanied by tears from all, were followed by Oprah asking how this could be; how/why, one YEAR later, were things basically the way they were one day later?

Then she says, "We'll be right back." And there it was - a commercial with a chipper, skinny woman talking about weight loss. I jumped up, turned to my wife, and said, "That's why! Because when the heart-rending moment is over, we all go back to our own personal, surfacy, little worlds and NOTHING CHANGES!"  Or, like someone interviewed on NPR recently said, we are equally capable of getting indignant at injustice and then turning and listening to our "sweatshop" iPods.  [No, not the guy who was on This American Life who has been subsequently discredited; a guy commenting on the bigger picture.]

And this is the big picture problem this whole Kony thing has been illuminating for me. Why is there so much suffering in the world? Maybe one major reason is that those of us who could do something to stop it, just...don't.  Even worse, what if Alex Perry is right, and even fewer will now...?