Rescued. Reposted.

For the first time in my life, I am filled with a feeling so overpowering that it is difficult to describe with words. For the past 7 days, I have followed The Rescue from its first moments of demonstration, to its final heartbreaking hour. When my own demonstration here in Athens ended, I logged on to await the final moments which came only moments ago. I have never felt so close to people I have never met, as when I watched on www.mogulus.com/invisiblechildren as 500 people stood on the curb of Harpo Studios with their hands raised in peace signs at 5am.

I twittered #therescue over 300 times in 3 days. I wrote facebook status messages imploring my friends to join the following online. I watched the live feed replay performances of “Oprah, in the name of love” continuously. Why did I allow myself to be sucked into this online-blackhole? Because it gave me hope.

Over 1,000 people logged onto mogulus last night in solidarity with 500 people raising their voices for children whose voices were violently abducted by Joseph Kony, who have no means of escaping the life of soldiers. All across the world people used their fingertips, their voices, their words, their songs, their hearts to say that no child should be denied the right to live a life unafraid of abduction.

One of my friends back in the U.S. e-mailed me in the midst of all of this. He wrote about how he wanted to change the world but had could not find any examples of people who honestly care about the world without an agenda. He heard about The Rescue but didn’t go because it looked like it was just “summer camp” and “self-righteousness.” I e-mailed him back immediately:
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There will never be a perfect cause, because there will always be people who disagree with you on how to solve it, and there will always be people standing in the way.

Here is some insight into how I feel about Invisible Children and The Rescue: I have been on my computer for 5 days straight, tracking the people who have spent days sleeping outside and marching through the streets to demand that their voice be heard. The Rescue is spreading the word that today’s youth has a voice and it is LOUD, that every person can be change and make change, and LOVE people they have never met.

Invisible Children has put thousands of children in Uganda through schools that did not exist before they arrived 6 years ago. It has ended the need for children in Northern Uganda to commute into cities every night to sleep safely. It has rallied over 100,000 people to peacefully protest the use of child soldiers and the political communities’ willingness to ignore it.

If that is what summer camp and self-righteousness do, then it can’t be that bad.

Have you watched the Invisible Children movie? http://therescue.invisiblechildren.com/en/#/watch What these young men have done starting Invisible Children has been an overwhelming sacrifice for their passion.

Being angry about the people who are not ideal, or not idealists, is no more productive than the people who make you angry. Maybe you aren’t apathetic, maybe you care… but only ACTIONS will bring about the world you want to see.

I am one of your biggest fans, so please don’t take this as criticism. I just hope that you will find something that fills you with the passion and drive that makes my life worth living every day. I honestly believe that the choices I make are changing the lives of children in Uganda, and that because of people like me, future generations of Ugandans have a chance at peace.

I am hyped up on 5 days of activism, a ton of bad coffee, and 2 all-nighters in a row, so excuse the soapbox.
His short response said it all:

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That’s just what I needed. Thank you.

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This last week has been powerful, amazing, life-altering, and EPIC.

If I could change one thing, it would be that I could have been in Chicago standing beside all of the most amazing people i have never met. Someday we will meet.

Re-posted from: http://www.causecast.org/member/amber_for_peace/blog_posts/1136-the-windy-city-rescued-your-voice-is-loud

Best Video Ever Made

The guy singing at the end… whew.

Explanation of Hiatus.

Hey Everyone, I know I have a lot of explaining to do. I just up and disappeared for a month without a word. Well, that is because of a global event called The Rescue that took place in100 cities around the world including Los Angeles, London, Sydney, and… ATHENS, Greece (kind of). For the last month I organized a small, unofficial version of The Rescue in Athens.

For the event over 100,000 young people abducted themselves into public squares and waited to be rescued by politicians, A-List celebrities, or the media with the goal of drawing mass attention to the child soldiers serving in Joseph Kony’s LRA in Uganda.

Today is DAY 5 of The Rescue event, and one city still waits to be rescued by Oprah or Barack Obama — Chicago. Over 500 people are in Chicago today, saying no to the use of child soldiers and demanding that no one forget that peace treaties have still not been signed, and generations of children wait for peace.

The Rescue has been all over twitter, facebook, and even CNN covered the use of social media to start a global revolution.

So thats what I’ve been doing the past month. Organizing an event, and now following Chicago on twitter and across the net. I imported all of the blogposts from The Rescue in Athens Blog, so you can see what I’ve been up to.

When The Rescue is over, I’ll update you on my trip to Santorini and other cool things I’ve been doing in Greece.

LOVE.

2 Days until The Rescue, are you ready?

The Rescue is in 2 days. I am very excited about the opportunity we have to do something for the people in Uganda. It has taken a lot of hard work, long hours, and sleepless nights to prepare for this global event — and you have the chance to be a part of it.

I have great news: Yesterday, more people than any other day visited this blog. Today, I received an e-mail from a member of Parliament asking to meet with me about the child soldiers in Uganda, and said that he had told everyone he knew about our event.

Most of what needs to be said, has been said here already. I believe that we can make a difference this Saturday, and change the lives of thousands of children. I hope that you believe that too, and what success has been shown already by the passion and care of the Greek people involved, is proof of that.

Click here to watch the video that Invisible Children made, to remind us why we’re standing out in Syntagma Square for 8 hours, and who our actions are going to affect – our friends in Northern Uganda.

If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together. – Aboriginal Activist Group, 1970′s

Don’t Sleep Through the Revolution

Today, Lisa and I handed out fliers at the Syntagma Metro Station entrance. It gave us both hope, to see people reading the fliers and considering the message it presented. There is always a chance, when one takes a risk, of being shot down — our greatest fear was for a flier to be dropped in the garbage or thrown on the ground. But, none were. Thank you to everyone who took a flier.

If you are one of the people who received a flier, and is reading this blog because of it — keep reading. We have an ongoing e-mail campaign, facebook, twitter and myspace pages, and a lot of progress made for change in Northern Uganda. 3,000 child soldiers have a chance at Peace because of this global effort — and everyone has the opportunity to be a part of it.

Today, I wondered whether the revolutionaries and freedom fighter of past generations felt the way that I do now. As if we are standing on the presipice of the future, and any given moment everything will change due to our united steps forward. Will everything change on Sunday, April 26 when our signs are put away? The answer, is no.

This Saturday, thousands of people will stand on the streets trying to bring peace to generations of children in Northern Uganda. On Sunday, life will return to the way it was on Friday and every day before. There will be no immediate results other than the coinage collected on the previous day (which is a lot). However, one thing will have changed that none of us will be able to measure — the minds of all of those people who walk by unexpectedly. Anyone who sees what we stand for and cannot look away — anyone who knows a corner of the world which they may otherwise have gone their whole lives never seeing.

We will introduce hundreds, thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of people across the planet to the lives of thousands in Uganda, and to the possibility of peace for their children, and their children’s children’s children.

Don’t sleep through the revolution. You may wake up in a world that has changed without you.

“This is how change happens, though. It is a relay race, and we’re very conscious of that, that our job really is to do our part of the race, and then we pass it on, and then someone picks it up, and it keeps going. And that is how it is. And we can do this, as a planet, with the consciousness that we may not get it, you know, today, but there’s always a tomorrow.”
-Alice Walker

I need your help! Sincerely, Amber

So – We are nearly ready for The Rescue in 4 days. I have everything we’re going to do planned, and ready to go. Signs and banners are made. All I have left is the translations (see below) and a little bit of shopping to do.

Does anyone have the following items? They’re not essential, but would make things more fun.
- A soundsystem that will play from and Ipod Nano that uses batteries (not plug-in)
- Chalk?
If so, please bring them to the event and let me know ahead of time if you can

I also wrote all of you a letter, because I could really use your help with something that is essential to the success of the event. In order for the event to make any difference, people need to be able to walk away with some idea of how they can help, as I’ve said before. Well, we have fliers that tell them exactly how to do that, but they need to be in Greek to do any good. I have them translated through babelfish (@yahoo), but the translation is very poor. See my plea below:

Dear Everyone,

I am in need of translation editing. Anyone out there who writes in English and Greek, I need a Greek translation edited. I know that the grammar and wording is wrong in the Greek version. I can provide you with a copy of the document in both languages, and I would only need the mistakes in the Greek corrected. Please let me know if you can help me with this, and I will send the files via e-mail.

I think you are the greatest human beings on the planet for coming to rescueinathens.wordpress.com and being interested in this event. Even if you’re hesitant to commit to taking action, you have made an important step in feeding your curiosity, passion and/or interest. Thank you for that.

Yours,

Amber

On another note: Invisible Children is getting ready for the same event back in the U.S. They’ve prepared a new means of getting the word out: Roadtrips across the United States for people unable to go to the Rescue otherwise. Although we can’t participate in this part of the event, what they have to say is inspirational, as always. Here’s what Invisible Children had to say this week, in preparation for the big event:

We at Invisible Children would like to believe we are pretty self-aware. Words like “young”, “idealistic”, “trendy” and “inexperienced” tend to follow us. We don’t mind though, because the one thing they can’t do is ignore us. And when this war is over, history will speak without bias. History will show what a bunch of dedicated, optimistic youth are capable of.

Here’s the gist of it. Since September 2008,

- Joseph Kony’s army has murdered 1,170 civilians.
- The LRA has abducted 476 children.
- The world has yet to respond.
- We’re ready and willing to change that. Now.

Call us what you will, just don’t forget to call us daring. Talk is cheap, and we’re not ones to sleep through a revolution.

We will not return home until every abducted participant in every city across America returns home. We will ride across the nation until we are rescued for the ultimate purpose of raising the banner for the abducted child soldiers. We are the Rescue Riders and you can be one too.

Join us on our most adventurous initiative (EVER).

RESCUE RIDERS. TOGETHER WE’RE FREE.

Click Here to watch the official “Rescue Riders” video the creators of Invisible Children made.

9 Days until The Rescue

So there is just over a week until The Rescue, and I know that you are all getting ready — reading all the information you can find, making posters, pulling out your red and black t-shirts and ironing them in preparation. Perhaps you’re even listening to the Tyrone Wells song I posted a couple of days ago, and letting it inspire you. I hope so. In a few days, we’ll be standing in the square in solidarity with the children of Northern Uganda — and undoubtedly they are anticipating the results of all of our hard work. Just over 2 weeks ago, the students at the University of Gulu, Uganda, watched their friends and families on screen for the first time during The Rescue in their own country. They know we’re taking to the streets for their cause, so that they can have peace after 23 years — I think we should do everything we can to make The Rescue in Athens count.

Keep up the good work! See you in 9 days!

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can only be free if I am free.
-Clarence Darrow

Tyrone Wells, sings for the Invisible Children

Check out this music video by one of my favorite artists. The video is based on Uganda, and the song is powerful. Official rescue song? I think so. You can skip the first 40 seconds of video, its credits and black screen.

Καλη Μεγάλη Δεύτερα, 12 Days.

Hey guys. So, its the first day of the Great Week before Easter, for those of you practicing Greek Orthodoxy out there — Καλο Πασχα.

Last night when I was making posters I was thinking about what it was like to be five-years-old… My favorite thing to do when I was five was to color and run down the street to play Barbies with my friend Michelle.

When I was 12, my favorite thing to do was ride my bike around town (because I was old enough to be free), and follow my older brother around because I thought he was the coolest person in the whole world.

The Lords Resistance Army (LRA) abducts children between the ages of 5 and 12, because they’re big enough to carry guns but young enough to be influenced by fear. Most children in Northern Uganda don’t have the freedom to play outside at all hours because they’re afraid of being abducted. If I were 12 in N. Uganda, I may not even have an older brother to look up to, because he might have already been taken from me.

I can’t imagine being a child that has never known a time of peace. Never knowing what it feels like to go outside and feel safe, or feel completely immortal as most children of that age do — as if the world is our oyster. These children do not have that luxury. But we can give it to them by bringing Joseph Kony to justice and bringing 3,000 child soldiers home to their families.

Then maybe Uganda can have peace.

Thank you for your support — keep it up. Invite your friends to The Rescue on April 25.

We need to talk.

Lets talk. Here’s the deal: The Rescue does not work without you. I know yesterday I was talking about all of these moguls that could show up and make a difference… but the truth is, without you they won’t do anything. If every single mogul in the world showed up on April 25, it wouldn’t matter if it was just me waving my sign around. They need to know that YOU, their constituents, care about this issue. A lot of you.

Right now, there are 16 people committed to attending this event according to facebook. If we make it to 30 people – each one of us will represent 100 child soldiers. Look around the room you’re in, and fill it up with 100 children. Multiply that by 30. Thats a lot of kids who are fighting a war who weren’t even alive to start it. AND, thats 3,000 child soldiers active right now.

66,000 + children have been abducted over the course of the war, with no record of their names or numbers this is just an estimate. How many more will have to be kidnapped and forced to kill, to fight for Joseph Kony, before someone does something?

If we get 100 people into Syntagma Square on April 25, each of us will represent 660 children lost to a war with no apparent cause, goal, or end in sight. This war continues to collect children for its army to protect Joseph Kony from going to trial for war crimes. There is no other rhyme or reason for its perpetuity.

Can we know that and do nothing? I can’t.

13 days.