Knowing real Change … ( 03 / 24 / 2012 )
Knowing real Change … ( 03 / 24 / 2012 )
“ Between stimulus and response there is a space . In that space is our power to choose our response . And in our response lies our growth and our freedom .” ~ Viktor E . Frankl
Now that the “ find & punish Joseph Kony ” craze has died down a bit — now that the emotions that were provoked by the viral video calling for his capture and imprisonment have subsided enough to be a bit more clear-headed , I thought I would offer some additional in-Sight into the matter …
First of all , I am going to mostly circumvent the debate about the facts of the matter : that the producers of the video in question are primarily using their campaign to support their own organization — not to help the children in question ; that the abuses of which Kony is accused have been steadily declining since 2004 ; that there is a very good chance that Joseph Kony is no longer in Uganda at all ; and that this entire issue ( only one of thousands of child-abuse tragedies worldwide ) has only come to the fore to give the U . S . government an excuse to passively invade Uganda in order to acquire that country ’ s vast natural resources before China &/ or India do the same . To all four of these charges I offer a most sincere : “ Maybe so ” … “ Maybe so ” … “ Maybe so ” … and “ Maybe so ”.
Yes , it is quite reasonable to get very angry when confronted with “ evidence ” of another person abusing children . And yes , it is noble to want to do something about it … AND YET therein lies the rub . You see , whether Joseph Kony is actually committing these atrocities or not is not the issue . The issue is how can we truly help the children .
And one thing is quite certain : capturing and punishing Joseph Kony will NOT solve the problem ! First of all , “ dysfunctional people ” ( even those we label as “ evil ”) were not born that way — they chose to become that way in response to being subjected to immense pain . Now this does not excuse their “ evil ” choices , and yet it can allow us to understand why they are doing what they are doing — it can open the door for us to do the only thing that might allow them to change — to exude the one thing to them that they lack ; the one thing that they want more than anything else : Compassion . Any other option — as “ justified ” as it might be — will only serve to escalate the problem and make it even worse for the very children we are trying to protect .
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