Say goodbye...to the world you thought you lived in

Last semester, I took a class called "The World in Crisis," and it literally shook my world. I hadn't been paying attention to the rest of the world, and as a student trying to maintain a high GPA, I buried myself in the sophism of my personal academic life. Consequently, I missed out on a lot of current events...

There are so many ugly, terrifying things happening right now in the world. Uganda. Rwanda. Sri Lanka. Sierra Leone. Darfur in the Sudan... What really shook me was learning about the horrific use of children as soldiers--especially the Lord's Resistance Army of Uganda. (Researching this and uncovering this knowledge almost made me with I could have remained ignorant) Joseph Koney is the individual who organized the Lord's Resistance Army (a terrorist organization in every grueling sense) and he is probably the closest manifestation to evil I can think of.

Children are kidnapped from their homes and forced into bloodshed and warfare. The process is positively inhuman. In order to "break" the children, they torture, force intoxicate, and drug these innocent children--some as young as 6--to dull their sensitivities to their new life. Rape is also used as a means of torture--and to break the young ones to their first killing, the higher up officers will make them kill their parents or siblings. In a stupor caused by substances, the children are sent into the rage or war, and are at the mercy of cruel chance.

In Uganda, particularly, the "invisible children" spend their entire days walking, seeking a safe place to spend the night--so that they wont be picked up by the Lord's Resistance Army and made into soldiers.

I have been moved by this knowledge of the world, and I just wish there was something I could do. I feel called to help, somehow. I don't want this to be something I learn about and toss in the back of my closet--with my old books and worn out notebooks. This is what actually matters. There are children being damaged on so many different levels--so many children, and what about their future? The youth now is the future of the world, and with such a large population profoundly disturbed--what will happen if this is never dealt with and treated? If there is no healing, it is bound to get worse.