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Page 8 • Thursday, March 2, 2006
The Pendulum
Editoria
The Pendulum seeks to inspire, entertain and inform the Elon community by providing a voice
for students and faculty as well as a forum for the meaningful exchange of ideas.
Witnessing the ‘Invisible Children’
Often, students will attend manda
tory cultural events that barely hold
their attention and are soon forgotten
after they are over. However,
last Thursday was different.
“Invisible Children” left all who
saw it rocked to the core with images
to last a lifetime.
“Invisible Children” is a documen
tary film made by three college
students in Uganda.
This movie documents the endless
suffering that children are forced to
endure out of fear of rebel forces in
Northern Uganda.
Watching these children live like
this and stili have the spirit to go on
was heartbreaking. The film allowed
people to see the hardships they face
while getting to know them personally.
“Invisible Children” was such a
moving picture that many were in
tears throughout the screening. No
one left the auditorium the same as
when they entered.
These children have been ignored
for decades. Now it is time for their
story to be told and for people to step
up and help them.
The children are fearful that they
will be taken in their sleep by rebel
forces if they stay in their homes dur
ing the night. Some children have
already been taken from their homes
and have escaped from the Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA) after being
witness to violent experiences no
human should have to endure.
The LRA has been engaging in
guerrilla warfare against the Ugandan
people for two decades. Since support
for the LRA is lacking and willing sol
diers are scarce after such extreme and
long-term violence, the LRA has
turned to children for armed support.
With older children and young
teens being so easily influenced, the
LRA has resorted to kidnapping chil
dren from their homes and immedi
ately desensitizing them by brutally
murdering one of the children in front
of the rest. The children are then
armed and trained to kill with threats
of their own vicious murder
if they try to escape or do not kill
their quota.
Out of fear, children in Northern
Uganda walk for miles every night
and sleep in cramped, unsanitary con
ditions in “safe” locations.
The children are being given no
hope for the future and being left
to fend for themselves, since so many
adults have died due to the
conflict and AIDS.
“Invisible Children” is creating
awareness of these problems in
hopes that people will write
representatives to push toward a
conflict resolution.
Also, the supporters of “Invisible
Children” are hoping that through the
sales of the video and goods, they
will be able to provide money for an
education and better conditions for
these innocent, suffering children.
On April 29, those involved with
“Invisible Children” have organized
a Global Night Commute where peo
ple will walk to their local downtown
in hundreds of cities and spend the
night to raise awareness and support
to help the children of Northern
Uganda. There are Commutes occur
ring near Elon, in Chapel
Hill and Greensboro.
With all of this publicity from the
documentary, the Global Night
Conmiute and an upcoming full-
length feature fihn, it is becoming
increasingly hard to ignore the
horrible crimes being committed
in Northern Uganda and to not
want to help.
These children are just like the
ones we see every day, except they
are unprotected. The world commu
nity has left them in such a tragic sit
uation. These children shouldn’t
have to be invisible anymore.
THE PENDULUM
Elon University
Elon, N.C.
Established 1974
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Nathan Rode, Editor in Chief
[Section Editors]
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