Kony 2012

Have you heard of Kony?  If not, watch the video.  If you know who he is and have not seen the video yet, watch the video.  Get back to me once step one is completed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc&feature=g-like&context=G2a902c7ALT1b3YQAAAA













Okay?  Okay.  So this entire incident has been going on for the past twenty years.  I've known about it for the past two.  While this makes me overjoyed that finally people are taking a stand to get this noticed, it also makes me very, very sad and makes me feel slightly unpractical.
Firstly, it makes me sad because I hate the fact that misfortune has to last this long before people unite to end it.  In the video I especially appreciated the reference to the Holocaust because I feel like it brought up a valid point: The United States did not officially enter World War II until after Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941.  The Holocaust began roughly January 33, 1933.  For eight years Hitler was allowed to continue violating the rights of human beings.  For eight years Jewish people suffered in ways too numerous to count and too horrifying to think of.  The United States still holds on to a sense of glory, an idea that the American people were fighting for freedom, that we were the ones to rescue Germany from the Nazis.  But honestly, we just jumped on board to save our own skins when we were attacked.  I understand the logistics that accompany war.  I understand that America was in the middle of a depression and still struggling economically- engaging in battle overseas was most likely the farthest from anyone's mind.  But what if it didn't have to be that way?  What if we lived in a world where we prevented tragedies before they had time to take their toll?  A world where all countries coexisted together, fighting to preserve basic human necessities.  I think that it's a stretch, but it sure is possible- if people actually made a conscious effort to achieve it.  So maybe Kony 2012 is just the way to arrive at this future.
Anyway.  Secondly, I feel terribly impractical when I consider the fact that I can't drive, I don't have a source of income, I am still legally in my parents' custody, and I can't do all of the things I want to do now, when I want to do them.  Which is now.  Don't get me wrong though.  I realise there is still plenty I can do for now.  I can still sign petitions, call the governor, write letters, raise awareness, stay educated and hang posters, which I am for sure planning on accomplishing.  In the mean time though...

I've always struggled with what I wanna be "when I grow up".  Sure, when I was way younger I had ideas of being a movie star, or an author, and even more recently I've toyed with the idea of cinematography or a job as a photographer for National Geographic, but nothing has ever quite sit right with me.  This past year I've thought of involvement with Peace Corps and human rights activism, or maybe a position in the liberal arts or teaching, and once again I've revisited the idea of becoming an author or a journalist.  However, the entire viral blowup of Kony and the Invisible Children has only reinstated the definite belief that I want to enlist in the Peace Corps as soon as I'm able to.  Signing petitions is great, but it also makes me restless.  I want to be out, fighting for causes I believe in, right in the middle of the action.  I want to be escorted peacefully from D.C. in handcuffs after advocating for the legalisation of gay marriage.  I want to be camping on Wall Street with other Occupiers, or lobbying for better education in the White House.  I want to be in Africa helping build better homes, solar panels, and providing education and clean water.  I want to DO something.  So yes, now when people ask me the question "what are your plans in the future?" or even "what do you want to do when you grow up?"  I can answer faithfully and honestly.  I want to join the Peace Corps and then see where life takes me from there.  Maybe I'll change my mind in the future, but for now I'm fairly certain that this is where I see myself, and I'm beyond satisfied.

Love,
Sierra