As seen Downtown during Club Crawl

April 20 came and went — except for those who might have made their brownies too strong and are still feeling the effects.

But 4/20 was supposed to be about more than just pot this year — it was supposed to be the night that those supporting the Kony 2012 movement “covered the night,” making Joseph Kony the most infamous person on the planet.

Kony, for the uninitiated, is the leader of the Ugandan resistance group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, notable for the conscription of children into soldiers and the mass killing of Ugandans.

So, how’d the campaign do?

Good show, guys.

What about the local efforts, you ask? In Facebook one group, a member posted “Did we save Africa?” In another, a woman posts trying to confirm plans for Cover the Night — with no response.

To their credit, I did happen to see a few posters while wandering Fourth Avenue during Club Crawl©, but many of them were either so poorly printed as to obscure their images entirely, or had such poorly written messages that they undermined the campaign entirely.

Nationwide, Kony 2012 supporters took the most logical of actions: Defacing homes and vandalizing landmarks.

Again, great job. This is the way to prove that the generation born in the late ’80s and early ’90s isn’t a bunch of narcissistic children, and that we do indeed hold the power to change the world through measured, organized action.

Sure, many of the above posts are facetious, but the fact that a movement that was sweeping the globe fell apart in a matter of months speaks to the power that this generation holds and squanders unthinkingly.

I think Kony 2012 and Cover the Night can be summed up in a paragraph from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s coverage: “A group of teenagers from Stanwood applied posters and stickers around the Pike Place Market. But some of their work was quickly undone by a security officer who followed them and pulled down the posters.”

Sounds about right.

This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2012.

6 replies on “So How About That Kony 2012?”

  1. We have a problem with our own government never mind caring what happens to some a-hole African who is murdering his own people…..like the rest of Africa….tribal culture…

  4. I still don’t know what this is? A naked crazy guy in LA right? Why does he get nonsensical fliers that are covering all of the light poles in my neighborhood?

  5. It is so sad that a peoples’ movement to stop the torture of children gets this kind of ridicule by the press. I get that the support in Tucson for this effort was poor and I guess that’s funny. Funny odd, not funny ha ha, though… Hmmm. Maybe I use the term “press” too liberally when referring to the Tucson Weekly. Instead of shedding light on the movement and using your commentary to AT LEAST inform people what Kony 2012 is about (an attempt to stop torture, rape, mutilation and enslavement of children), this is what you had to say on the subject? You’re NOT part of the solution and you ARE part of the problem. How about getting your conscience AND your SH*T together? Yeah, I said it. Take a lesson and use your voice to say something next time that adds to the world instead of detracts…

  6. Seriously?!? (man, I wish you had used an interrobang instead of that mass of puncutation — that would’ve been awesome), I understand your outrage.

    But at the same time, understand mine: I find that this movement perfectly illustrates the fleeting nature of political outrage within my generation. I was inundated with messages from friends who were deeply moved by the initial video — so much so that they never spoke about Kony 2012 again after that first week. I’ve heard stories from people whose kids did nothing about the so-called “invisible children” because they were unable to buy Kony 2012 action kits.

    I’m calling it as I’m seeing it here — a movement was abandoned as rapidly as it blew up into the public consciousness. Those left behind either vandalized their community or insulted the importance of the movement by not giving it the attention to detail their initial panic would have led you to believe it deserved.

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