Kony 2012 Campaign Hits Plymouth

Standing up for a cause is hard. Getting over 100 million people to stand beside you is harder. But somehow, with a few thousand red posters, a 30-minute video, and one irresistibly adorable five-year-old, Director and founder of Invisible Children, Inc. Jason Russell has managed to make his message heard.

"Kony 2012" is a short film directed by Russell and created by Invisible Children, Inc. It was released on Mar. 5, 2012, and since then has garnered over 100 million views on YouTube, Vimeo, and the Kony 2012 homepage.

Russell's message is simple: "to make Joseph Kony famous."

Joseph Kony leads the rebel group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which is notorious for its heinous warfare tactics, especially the recruitment of child soldiers, in Uganda, the Congo, and South Sudan. Inhumanity and brutality under Kony's command has plagued the region for 26 years.

Russell and Invisible Children have ambitions to bring his reign of terror to an end by seeing that Kony is arrested by the end of the year.

In an attempt to "help bring awareness to the horrific abuse and killing of children in the East and Central African countries at the hands of Kony and his leadership," Russell and Invisible Children have launched a campaign to stop Kony that relies on the help of influential policy makers and "celebrity culture makers" to broadcast the charity's message.

Kony2012.com states: "Invisible Children's Kony 2012 campaign aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice... We want Kony to be famous so that when he is stopped, he will be a visible, concrete example of international justice."

The campaign plans to culminate on Apr. 20, 2012, when supporters are asked to distribute and hang posters sporting the Kony 2012 logo in their hometowns. But already, supporters of the cause have gotten a head start.

The day the video was released, papers and posters with Kony's name and portrait were hung on doors and walls around the Plymouth State University campus. Among other places, his face appeared in the HUB, in Rounds Hall, in Lamson Library, and on light posts lining campus walkways.

For more information about Joseph Kony, his war crimes, or to watch the video and sign the pledge to bring Kony to justice, visit kony2012.com.