Learning to defend and believe...

It is amazing to me how the human race works. I spent several anxious days preceding the screening of Invisible Children's Kony 2012 here at HCRHS because I was fearful that I was putting myself and my club too far out there--putting us in the spotlight. What if people didn't get it? What if they don't care? What if teachers hate that they took away from their class time to do this for me? Several classes that came, came solely because the teacher was a friend of mine and wanted to be supportive of what I was doing-- this only added to my stress. I wanted it to go well soooo badly, not for me, but for the club, for the classes, I wanted people to leave with something that they did not come with--awareness. I had never seen the film before--it was a screening--no one gets to see it beforehand. I had no idea what I was about to show to the 900 people that RSVPd to the event.

To say what happened afterward was amazing, is an understatement. I myself was so motivated and inspired by Boni's story, the Road Team's passion, and this movement that I was part of... but suddenly felt even more passionate about. Teachers came up to me all day long, ones who hadn't even attended, saying they heard how amazing it was and how they wish they had. Students stopping my club members asking when is the next meeting. The line out the door of that meeting... how amazing was this response? I had never seen the student population of HCRHS band together over something that had nothing to do with them, but everything with helping another nation. I was floored, and moved, and ecstatic. My facebook feed was nothing but repostings about Kony and Invisible Children-- we had gone viral. Politicians, celebrities, news channels--it's what everyone is talking about. The mission had been accomplished--well part way-- but still. And my favorite thing of all-- Invisible Children showed these students that they have a voice, they can evoke change. You have the power to take something no one is talking about--something that is NOT part of the conversation, and make it part of the conversation. In a matter of 3 days--Kony 2012 went from being known by 5000 people to 54 million, and all IC did was put a video on YouTube. You did the rest.

But then... the backlash. With anything that gains such rapid popularity at such an alarming rate, comes swift criticism. Suddenly an organization I had been spending all my spare time with, dedicating hours of volunteer service to, was underfire for manipulating the youth, not spending enough money in Africa, not having the right style... what?! Some of my club members were so upset by the negative press--we have never had anything negative said about the organization. People raising awareness about Kony in Africa and starting rehabilitation centers for the rescued children. Really... this is bad? I told the students that immense publicity brings intense scrutiny and not to worry, this is a good thing in the end, it shows we have people taking notice. So I put on my adult "don't worry about it" face--but deep down--I was hurt too. Not for the program, but for the students at HC that I suddenly saw band together for a single cause, not playing Temple Runner (or whatever that game is) on their phones, sitting mindlessly in front of the TV or computer posting pictures of prom dresses--you were all united in making change. I didn't want ANYONE to ruin that buzz. Especially unfounded hater blogs that misrepresent facts. So I did the only thing I could think of to do. Defend without defending (or at least I tried).

"The Teachable Moment"-- The best thing I could do was to teach students to research criticism and any company they want align themselves with. When your charity or organization (or even your favorite celebrity for that matter) comes under fire for something, do NOT take the first blog post or esoteric news story off the internet and treat it like the holy word. You need to look at both sides of the issue--what are the critics saying? What is the organization saying? What do 3rd party impartial news sources/gov. organizations say? What does one side have to gain over the other's demise? Why are they really criticizing? When you do this kind of research, sometimes you find that you were right, your organization is doing the right thing, and sometimes you may find that you don't agree with some of their policies. But you can say you made an informed decision and didn't just run off with the first thing you read. Haters love to spread hate, so you gotta weed through it all and search for truth.

I put myself out there, I brought Invisible Children to the school, I believed I was sending a good message--it was hard to read anything negative. But I did. I followed the stories, I followed the money, I looked at the sources, I looked at the response--and in the end, I can say I am still proud of Invisible Children. Some people may not be, and that's their opinion and they have every right to it-- but I know after working with them for four years, that they are people whose hearts are in their work. That's really all I want out of my charity-- to know that they are in it for change and to make a difference for the greater good of humanity and they want to inspire others to do the same for their own beliefs.