International

Kony 2012: happening in America, too

Last night I logged onto Facebook to see what the world was up to before heading to bed. I opened the screen, and BAM! My newsfeed was crawling with this video titled Kony 2012. It looked a little weird, so I didn’t open it. But after seeing it for the millionth time, I decided I might as well figure out what everyone was talking about.

Joseph Kony

The video was made to bring attention to a horrible situation in Africa where many people live in fear that they will be captured and killed at any moment. Children such as Jacob (featured in the video)  would rather die than be living the way they are. Many children (as described in the video) are abducted and then forced to join Joseph Kony’s regime and kill people–even their own family members.

Because of the murder and crime going on, Jacob witnessed his own brother being brutally killed in front of him. I’ll spare you the bloody details, but please watch the video to learn more about this project designed to let Mr. Kony (the leader of the killing) know that people are not okay with this and are out to get him arrested.

As I watched the video and saw more posts on this, it dawned on me:  why in the world are people getting so worked up about this when their own siblings, friends, and cousins are being ripped apart down the street?

In the video, it was said that the situation in Africa has hurt/killed/affected around 30,000 people. The situation breaks my heart, and it disgusts me to see human life abused in such vile ways. But you know what? In America, that many people are brutally ripped/cut apart and sucked up in LESS THAN 10 DAYS. I think that’s pretty repulsive as well.

I don’t mean to belittle the Kony 2012 video – I’m all for saving people and ending what Mr. Kony is doing. If I could help end the horror of murder going on in Africa right now, that would be great. If you help, I applaud you. But you have to realize something here:  this isn’t just happening in Africa. It’s true that most of us in America will not see our brothers killed by Pandas before our eyes, but we’re losing our people through abortion in just as brutal a way.

I found a Facebook event created specifically for this video, and guess how many people were invited to it? Last I checked, about 89,000. The YouTube video had over 165,300 views in less than a day. Now guess how many people are speaking out that vocally about abortion on Facebook every day? Not even close to that number.

How wonderful it is to see so many people standing up for life. If I saw people getting as worked up about abortion, it’d make my day. Let’s spread this video, and do our part to end Africa’s slaughter; but America, I beg you, do not forget your own invisible children. Their cries ring just as loudly as those coming from Africa. Let us be advocates for ALL life, defend life wherever we go, and speak out against injustice of every kind.

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  • Guest

    The fact that you can relate this tragedy that is occurring in Africa to people having abortions is a little frightening. Someone taking a child that is already born and loved from its parents is a completely different story than a woman who does not want a baby choosing not to have one.

    • Arual

      So, it’s okay to kill a baby before it’s born, but not after. Riiiiiiiight….Try again.

    • http://www.facebook.com/Savannahmi3 Savannah Miller

       So it is only terrible if the people dying are wanted? What about the lives of those very own people? I thought people wanted to save children in African for their very lives…not because they solely being taken away from their parents…

      • http://profiles.google.com/c.wrinn Christopher Wrinn

        Not to mention the question of how many of those children were actually wanted by their parents. Not to say they weren’t, but Guest there is making a very large pre-supposition. So, is he saying too that the children who are abducted that are not wanted should not be saved? HMM

    • Lars Jorgensen

      Not as different as you might think.  Medical ethics professors are now pushing the boundaries to say that there is no significant difference between terminating a fetus and terminating an infant (up to 2 years old).

      As for loving parents, would that imply that the tragedy would be less if KONY only focused on abducting orphans?

    • Georg Laing

       Murdering someone who is unloved is not less evil than murdering someone who is loved.

    • Elise77

      I have no issue with a woman who does not want a baby choosing not to have one. What I/we have an issue with is a woman CREATING one, THEN deciding she doesn’t want it, and having it brutally butchered. What’s frightening is that you differentiate a human from a non-human based on its location. All other things being equal, if it’s inside of someone, it’s a non-human in your eyes. Pop it out, and VOILA! It’s a person! Just that easy, huh?

      In fact, it seems that only adults and their wants and desires matter to you. The horror of the whole Kony thing, as far as you’re concerned, seems to be that an abducted child is “loved by its parents.” Because the child’s life only matters if it matters TO ITS PARENTS. I guess children are just things, intended for the diversion of adults. How sad…

  • Guest

    I don’t mean to belittle the Kony 2012 video

    You’re not belittling the video, Laura.  You’re belittling the victims it portrays.   Are embryos in America being abducted, forced into military service, and even being made to kill their own families?  No?  Then Kony 2012 isn’t happening in America too. 

    • Arual

      In case you didn’t see, she said “In the video, it was said that the situation in Africa has hurt/killed/affected around 30,000 people. The situation breaks my heart, and it disgusts me to see human life abused in such vile ways.” She obviously cares about both situations. 

      Embryos aren’t being abducted in America, or being forced into military work. They’re being ripped and cut apart, then sucked out of their mother’s wombs and put into jars. That’s just as gross if you ask me.

    • Mica

      The difference is that these children can speak and give testimony of what is happening to them, aborted children can’t even scream!!

      Great article! Human life in any of its forms is sacred.

    • Annamferro

       You “guest” are the kind of people who think hypocritically. Murder is murder anyway it is done! If that mother has the choice to kill her ‘embryo’ then I guess Kony has the choice to kill these children and families. If a mother has the choice to abduct a baby our of her womb, then I guess Hitler had the choice to abduct the Jews. Your logic is again hypocritical and backwards. Do you actually think about what abortion is before you go ahead and support it? You can call the BABY anything you like: a fetus, an embryo, a group of cells! Every human being started out that way, you yourself are still a group of cells, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if we cut your heart out and threw it away? It’s just a group of cells, why do you need it? Oh that’s right, TO LIVE!

  • Jordan Elizabeth

    Really great article, Laura… it is a little shocking to see how much more dramatic the response is to Kony than abortion is to the pro-life community, and I think it’s really important that we care about the pre- and post-born. I really like the “don’t forget your own invisible children”… I’ll probably use it.

    • Jordan Elizabeth

      If that’s okay with you, that is

  • Annamferro

    Thank you Laura! I posted a status very similar to what you said on my facebook before I even read this! I applaud you for seeing this.

  • Tfbrett

    it’s probably because the pro-life movement exists in defiance of science (future hip hop all star over here) and  is responsible itself for violence, hatred, and vandalism.

    the two issues have absolutely NO connection, aside from the observation that there’s suffering in North America as well. Maybe you should advocate for victims of racism, the poor, and displaced orphans. There are plenty of real problems in America and abroad for you to focus on without conjuring up ridiculous BS like this, and loosely, despite your disclaimers, taking shots at people for taking issue with real-world murder and destruction.

    • Oedipa Mossmoon

      “the two issues have absolutely NO connection”

      They really are enamored here with finding external issues and marrying them to their own pre-fabricated narrative, no matter how tenuous the connection. One writer actually looked at dating advice from eHarmony and tried to spin it into the certainty of Planned Parenthood’s demise. That one was a laugh riot.

      • Elise77

        Connection: brutal killing. Pretty straightforward, actually. You may not believe that’s what abortion is, but the truth doesn’t require you to believe it. It is what it is. Masses of mangled bodies were enough to convince the world of the European Holocaust. Pictures of dismembered women and children testify to the horror of the Kony regime. Such pictures exist as supporting evidence of the brutality of abortion, as well. You can deny them, but that just makes you ignorant.

    • Elise77

       ”…the pro-life movement exists in defiance of science.”

      Umm… no. That would be YOU guys. The ones who insist that life does not begin until birth, when the vagina becomes a magical portal that mysteriously transforms some random tissue into a tiny bald squirming person. I got into a debate (a short-lived one; I didn’t have the patience to argue with someone with such a moronic point of view) with a girl who said that an unborn child is the moral equivalent of- are you ready for this?- PEANUT BUTTER. Because “a fetus has the POTENTIAL to turn into a baby, and so does peanut butter, if it’s eaten by a baby.”

      Gosh, who can argue with such BLINDING BRILLIANCE?

      The pro-”choice” movement’s entire platform boils down to “I want what I want and I don’t care whose life I have to destroy to have it.” There’s no science. It’s a rare pro-”choicer” who even attempts to argue science, and each time, when their scientific argument gets pecked away point by point, they fall right back on the “my body my choice” chant.

      Science is on OUR side. As technology has evolved and our knowledge of life inside the womb has increased, the scientific case for pro-life has only improved. Sorry to burst your bubble.

      And there are TONS more instances of “violence, hatred, and vandalism” over the short life of the Occupy movement than over the ENTIRE nearly 40-year history of the post-Roe pro-life movement. But I’ll bet you my right eyeball that you’re a big Occupy sympathizer, if not a participant. Never mind the fact that there are several instances of pro-life people being assaulted verbally and physically, threatened, and even SHOT TO DEATH while standing/sitting/kneeling on a sidewalk peacefully praying for the mothers walking into an abortion clinic and the lives of their children.

      I can also guarantee you that there are many more people among OUR ranks who advocate for the less fortunate than among yours. And demanding that others pay more taxes toward government entitlement programs in no way makes you charitable. If you’re a do-gooder, put YOUR money where your mouth is.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Savannahmi3 Savannah Miller

    You should probably do some research. The majority of the pro-life movement has never done anything violent or hateful, nor committed vandalism. It is really sad that you don’t hold the scientific information to understand that abortion is murder. Although, I’m sure you do because science books support the pro-life claims.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Savannahmi3 Savannah Miller

     This was meant to be a reply to someone, not the article, sorry.

  • Elly

    Exactly! My husband sent me the link last night and all through the video I was thinking, “What about the babies being aborted here?!” I agree that it’s essential to stop people like Joseph Kony (and there’s a long list of people on the most wanted list apparently), but let’s work on the log in our own eyes. Please pray.

  • Gloriajean46

    No
    matter how you try to look at abortions they are an ugly business.
    Defenseless babies who have no voice but they do have a heartbeat
    that communicates I am alive within my mother’s womb safe and I want
    to live. We see tiny premature babies after birth at 2-3 pounds of
    body weight fighting for their lives. It is a natural instinct to
    choose life. If you have ever seen an abortion then you know how ugly
    and evil it can be. For all those who support abortion you should
    have to watch at least one abortion and walk through a clinic where
    they are disposed of like garbage. Babies still alive have been found
    from botched abortions. In California my children’s pediatrician was
    on call at the hospital where an abortion took place past the time it
    should have legally. The abortion was botched and the baby was alive.
    The pediatrician walked in and he found the doctor strangling the
    life from the baby. This turned into a huge trial in California.
    These precious little lives suffer during abortions. We should be
    outraged every bit as much as we are over the children in Africa. The
    suffering of children is unforgivable. I think many forget that there
    are fathers who do want the baby that was aborted and that baby has
    been abducted from a parent who wanted to raise and love that child.
    There is a correlation between the children murdered and abducted by
    Kony and the ones who have been murdered by abortion.
    They are all
    precious and invisible and suffer at the hands of those who took
    their lives. The fact that the Kony 2012 video caused so much
    compassion for murdered and abducted children should have been a flag
    that something is very wrong in our Country when these same people
    have no compassion for the invisible child in the womb that gets
    pulled apart limb by limb while alive and skin and tissue burned.
    Where is your compassion for these children? Why is your heart so
    heartened against a little life in the womb that should be the safest
    place in the world while growing and preparing for the day of birth
    to be loved and nurtured instead of being tortured and murdered?

  • Mary Ann Wright

    Well done!  You are a very articulate spokeswoman for the unborn.  Laura, don’t ever lose your ‘voice’ … too many unborns need it!  God bless you!