JD Photography

I remember very clearly when a friend invited me to watch a documentary about the Invisible Children in Africa. I knew nothing about them. To be honest, I didn’t care. I was year removed from a deployment and was still in decompression mode. I didn’t want anything too serious in my life.

Because most of my other close friends were going to go I went. I am a documentary buff, so at the least I was going to watch a film. 

I remember pains in my heart about children kill their parents. I could feel the fears of people in the villages. My heart went out to them all. I wanted to help. I needed to help. Atrocities like this made me want to serve in the military. I believed I could help make a difference, although through this it wouldn’t require anything from my military commitment. All I needed to was share the video, hang some flyers, and be engaged.

I did all those things. I knew too, that there were so many other things that needed to happed in Uganda and surrounding countries that I started doing my homework about others ways I could help from America.

I was so hyper focused on what I could do that I never heard the criticisms of Kony 2012. It’s only been in the last week that I knew there was bad press at all. Maybe that’s the nature of being viral, good or bad, there will be downers to rain on the parade.

I don’t feel Kony 2012 was perfect and the bad press impacted the message. But the fact that we all know the name Joseph Kony and we can acknowledge the horrors he’s committed, is a testament to the power of the thirty minute movie.

By today’s standards thirty minutes is unheard of, unless you’re watching something from Marvel. Most viral videos are short. Yet this one stand out. I believe, regardless of time, if you have a story that can penetrate your heart and engage your mind we can’t help but tune in. We crave stories, both good and bad. We are searching for a new viral moment, and hopefully, one that unifies.