“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. 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 clear-headed again, I thought I …would offer some in-Sight …

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.

Maybe so … maybe so … maybe so … and maybe so.

I am not going to debate these issues at all. For one thing, with Uganda being on the other side of the planet from the U.S. (where much of the debate is raging), objective facts about this matter are almost impossible to obtain. You can all rest assured that you are certainly NOT getting them from your nightly news!

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 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. 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 further the problem and make it even worse for the very children we are trying to protect.

Kill Kony and another “evil” man will fill the power-void left behind; a man even more determined than Kony to succeed where he failed. Punish Kony and his self-esteem will take yet another hit, making it that much more likely that he will commit more atrocities in the future. Ignore Kony and he will keep on keeping on … But openly and courageously extend Kony acts of Compassion, and he will have no choice but to re-awaken to who he truly IS underneath all that “evil” — to the pure, happy, loving being he was in his own early childhood.

Hogwash, you say … Maybe so. Though I have applied this principle thousands of times over the past eight years of my life and IT HAS ALWAYS WORKED, I realize that it indeed might not “work” on Joseph Kony.

So, if punishing him is counterproductive, and Forgiving him might fail, what are we to do for the children?

Fortunately, the answer is an easy one — START RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!

There are thousands of children in your own neighborhood desperately in need of Kindness — there are thousands of children right nearby who are desperately yearning to be Cared for; to be given a smile, to be listened to, to be played with for even five minutes. And the best ting is, you don’t need to cross the ocean and invade another country to do something for these children. They are your own kids — they are your neighbor’s kids — they are the kids you pass on the street on the way to work.

I know, it’s scary to think that we can actually DO SOMETHING for others. It’s so much easier to simply sit at home and get ticked off at people like Joseph Kony; to ask our government to do something about it because Kony is too far away for us to be of any real assistance … Of course, the children in our own neighborhoods are hurting just as badly, and they are just as worthy of Love as those in Uganda.

It’s really difficult to face our innate fear of intimacy and DO SOMETHING for children — to volunteer at a local Boys/Girls Club, to extend warmth to our own kids, to smile and maybe give a compliment to a child we meet in a store or on the street. And yet we CAN be the change we want to see, my Friends.

Of course, asking our government for help is a waste of time and energy. Our “leaders” (from both parties) have proven over the past several decades that they do not have our best interests at heart — much less the best interests of the children of Uganda, much less the children of our own land(s).

Indeed, if we truly want things to get better for our children, WE are going to have to be that change.

LOVE is a verb …

… got LOVE?

“I would hunt in the night for the face of my fear and take it home to tea.” ~ Louise Cloutier

Filed under: Wisdoms from the Journey by Scaughdt