President Obama's Big Step

This past Friday was an exciting day for me, and it all started with one text message. On my way to my eight period class, I got a text message from one of my close friends that read, "DUDE! Obama just sent 100 troops to Africa to fight off the LRA!".
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Before continuing with the current story in the blog post, here is a bit of a back story:
Invisible Children is a non-profit, media based, organization that is dedicated to ending the abduction and the use of child soldiers in Central Africa. For the past twenty-five years, a rebel terrorist group, called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, has been abducting children from their homes and forcing them to become child soldiers in the LRA. Villages are terrorized, mass atrocities committed, and the child soldiers are brainwashed and forced to commit the same violence. Ever since the spring of 2011, I have had an firey and growing passion toward this war and to fundraise/advocate on behalf of Invisible Children.
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Both ecstatic and confused, I quickly sent a text to one of my friends who tours with Invisible Children, asking her if this was true. Within the next hour, I received multiple text messages and notifications of the same news as well, slowly acquiring more and more information. A friend of mine even sent me a picture of an article, that gave me the first set of real information. I quickly found out, with the help of the Invisible Children Blog and CNN news, that President Obama had indeed sent 100 troops to Central Africa in hopes of apprehending  Joseph Kony. However, Obama's troops do not intend to engage in combat with Kony and the LRA, unless attacked. However, the American troops are there to advise and work with local authorities in order to eliminate the terrorist group.


Immediately, I was overcome with joy and excitement when I heard this thrilling news. In 2009, the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, was passed by President Obama in an effort to aid the conflict and bring light upon the issue. To see this planning process now taking action is an incredible experience. All that I can hope for is that it lives up to its expectations. Hopefully one day Joseph Kony will be apprehended, the LRA will diminish, and Kony's child soldiers will return home. I just hope that that day is sooner rather than later, and that Kony will not have another opportunity to ruin lives. I can tell that we are moving forward with a big step, a step that will lead us to peace in Central Africa. Justice is just around the corner, we just have to go the distance in order to reach it. 


For more information on President Obama's decision and/or Invisible Children's response, please visit the following links: 


Invisible Children's Response
CNN