I am angry enough to spit rust. Here is why:
Our 14-year-old son, BK, goes to boarding school. This past weekend was an exeat, which means all kids are cleared off campus after Friday classes so that frazzled house parents can get hammer-drunk on Friday night and still have two days to sober up before boarders return Sunday evening...and my wife and I get to spend 48 hours with our BK...everybody wins.
For this exeat, BK asked if he could bring home three friends. My wife (TLove) and I snapped that up with an immediate 'yes'. Otherwise smart money says BK will be the one asking to stay over a friend's house, and apart from us. As much as TLove and I like to play the chilled parent routine, we miss the hell out of him and love it when he wants to come home.
After throwing a lot of my groceries into their faces, the boys went upstairs into BK's cave to do what 2012 teenagers do. Tony and Kevin were handling business with their Xbox controllers shouting, "Booooom! Headshot!" and "Knife to the faaaace!" O'Reilly was smashing yellow birds into stuff on his iPad and BK was pissing off the neighbours with Skrillex.
An hour later, TLove and I ventured into the cave to gauge teenager appetites for hanging out with oldies. On the grunts vs conversation continuum, the boys were unusually talkative. This was a promising sign that the phenomenon of "casual chit-chat amongst homo sapiens" might take place. It did, and after few minutes of banter BK noticed the words written on the back of his hand. The ink scratching read Kony 2012. This jogged BK's memory that his teacher had asked all the students to see a YouTube video. While we crowded around BK's laptop, he explained that everyone in school was talking about this video and apparently some of the girls had already watched it and wept at what they saw.
"29 minutes? What?.....," was uttered.
"O'Reilly, get your hand out of your pants," was uttered.
And then for 29 minutes the six of us said not one word.............................................
..........................................................................................................."Dad, I want to buy some Kony bracelets to help those kids. One for me, two for you and mom..........and two more to give to friends."
"BK, five bracelets is 50 dollars."
(I now need to interject that BK doesn´t spend $50 on anything not called Nike, iTunes, Hollister or Beats by Dre.)
As he was pulling out his savings account debit card he said, "I don´t care, I just want to be a part of something bigger. And can we put up posters with everyone else on April 20th?"
........................................................................................................................."Yes, son. We sure can."
The next thing BK did was post the video link onto his Facebook page. Here is what followed:
BK: everyone please watch this!! Kony 2012
Adult Friend of the Family (AFotF): It´s all bullshit BK. This man is evil, yes, but he is in hiding or more likely dead. Look up AFRICOM. The USA are essentially putting forth a military fist but covering it up with the velvet glove of humanitarianism and development. It's created by the state department for the state department. When you first hear a story, that should be a jumping off point. Delve deeper, bruva.
BK: no man, have heart.
AFotF: I have seen it! Joseph Kony has been leading the LRA for 20 years. Raping, killing and kidnapping children. Why do people suddenly care after Kony has been at this for 20? Look deeper, mate. Don't accept a documentary as truth.
BK: i do man. i just believe in things
AFotF: So do I, mate. But I don't believe the reaction from this KONY 2012 shit. It's too manufactured. If you have beliefs then it is a good idea to test them.
BK palmed his debit card. Neither TLove nor I said anything. Our policy has always been to allow BK to make his own decisions, and be at the ready when the questions come.
The weekend was great. I showed the guys the difference between a baseball windup and that English cricket bowling-thingie. And they showed me that they could rugby pass a tight underhand spiral almost as far as I could toss my Dan Marino pump-fake-long-bomb special. At night TLove took a step back so the boys and I could talk about guy stuff while nursing our one beer allocation and cooking up some marshmallows around the new fire pit.
On Sunday afternoon, just before leaving the house to take the boys back to school, BK pulled me into our office and said, "So can you help me order the bracelets?"
"What about what AFotF said about testing your beliefs?"
"Here´s what I believe, Dad, Kony raped and mutilated and killed thousands of children and their parents. I almost threw up watching the video.......and I cried in my pillow once my friends fell asleep..........I don´t care what people say. If only one penny of my money goes to those kids, I want to send it."
It has been over a week since Kony 2012 went viral. I´ve read about all the controversy: that only 30% of donations are spent on the ground, the AFRICOM angle, that Kony has moved to the Sudan, the staff salaries and film production costs and the rest of the claims against the filmmaker and the Invisible Children charity.
According to data collected by YouTube, the video is most popular among teenage girls ages 13 to 17, teenage boys ages 13 to 17 and young men ages 18 to 24. Young people across the world have organized massive Facebook events for their communities to participate in the campaign to bring this monster to justice.
If you are an adult and so jaded that you cannot see the greater good of this movement, do me a favour and stay away from my son.
Otherwise you can catch up with me, TLove and BK at midnight on 20 April. We will be the ones in the street with bracelets on our wrists and posters in our hands........