Welcome back from Mid-semester Vacation! Hope you’re ready to feel guilty!

In case you were away from the internet last week (I know Senor Frogs can have some spotty WiFi), the newest Invisible Children video came out, titled “KONY 2012.” The subject of the video is Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, an army of children who slaughter and murder. And they don’t even get their Saturday morning cartoons.

Having totally forgotten about the Invisible Children campaign for the past five years (despite owning a shirt), I was surprised at the amount of backlash this video received within its first 24 hours. It seemed ridiculous that anyone would protest a non-profit organization that looks to end the abduction and brainwashing of children in Africa. However, due to some shady financing and questionable motives, plenty of blogs (the epitome of factual evidence online) are thinking twice before joining the campaign to make Joseph Kony the world’s most famous villain (even more than Voldemort) and donate to the Invisible Children movement.

There seem to be two main points that everyone should be able to agree upon: Kony is a very bad guy and this is a very complicated issue, far beyond the scope of what this column can reach. I know I’m known to write humorous columns, but let me just say this: child soldiers are not funny (they have terrible comedic timing).

Much of the opposition of Invisible Children comes from what they do with donated money. Allegedly, only 32 percent of the donations go directly to the efforts of helping free these kids. Many blogs are upset that the rest of the money goes to filmmaking and travel expenses. However, to be fair, Invisible Children is, first and foremost, an awareness organization. Their primary focus is to provide information to the nation’s youth in hopes that this knowledge will result in action, like what happened with SOPA or the “For every tweet, we’ll give $1 to Mark Zuckerberg” campaign.

And even though IC claims that they do not finance the Ugandan Army directly—a force that has committed rapes and murders of their own, much like Kony’s LMA—challengers argue that assisting this militia in any way is similar to advocating their actions.

I encourage everyone to do their own research into this topic if they have any questions because there really are arguments for both sides and I’m surprised how black-and-white these two sides are making this issue.

I agree that awareness is an important aspect to putting an end to Kony’s reign (whether he has 300 or 30,000 child soldiers, depending on the source). It may be “slacktivism”—which is a remarkably clever name for assuming a “like” or a repost constitutes social change—but for an ADD generation like ours, constant reminders from a consistent organization is what we need to stay on track. Otherwise, it’s easy to forget that we’re still fighting for a worthy cause.

Speaking of which, NBC’s brilliant show “Community” is in danger of cancellation, so please watch it, this Thursday at 8 p.m.

I mean, focus. Child soldiers; bad.

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