Real protests involve real causes. Real activists are active.
The Kony kids are neither real activists, nor are they for a real cause.
Case in point: Friday, April 20, 2012, was, among being Hitler’s birthday and national get stoned and eat yourself into a heart attack day, “Cover the Night.” The event, sponsored by “Invisible Children Inc, was supposed to get Joseph Kony “famous.”
It didn’t do that exactly, because no one showed up, at least not to the Cheney/EWU event. Even in downtown Spokane, where, according to my own following of the “Spokane Cover the Night” on Facebook, many hundreds of people were supposed to show up, “cover the night,” and get Kony “famous.”
“Okay so tonight at AMC. Do we have an idea of who's actually gonna show or how many,” posted Lindsay Ackron on the Spokane Kony page.
“I know of 10 fer sure,” replied Mike Guarisco.
Then, around 9 p.m., well after the desired time, posters started writing that no one had showed up. By Saturday morning, all of those posts had been removed by the admin, as if to “cover their tracks” so no one would know of the dismal turnout.
Kony posters did show up around town. On Francis Avenue in north Spokane, Kony’s face was plastered along poles from Crestline to Nevada. Downtown, too, had a few littered around. But it was no where near the amount promised by Jason Russell, the group’s leader who, among other things, touched “it” in public (by “it” I mean penis), wholly and unequivocally tarnished his movement’s reputation forever.
One positive outcome of the Kony fiasco is that is shows real activists that average Americans aren’t as foolish as originally thought.
Many Occupy Spokane supporters took to the Internet to “Cover the lies,” and spread the word that there are bigger problems to fight for.
“We need to turn our attention to the bigger problem. Flake out the night,” posted Chris Sturm on Facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment