This week the internet galaxy woke up to the “campaign” of Mr. Joseph Kony, guerilla leader of the Ugandan LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army).  This campaign was cleverly created by a non-profit called Invisible Children, who has been doing some great work in Africa, working to rescue children who are kidnapped by the LRA and turned into child soldiers.  Over the past two decades, the LRA has made it common practice to enter towns and kill the adults, take the male children as soldiers, and sexually abuse the female children.

As a designer and owner of a creative agency, one of the first things that stood out to me was the genius behind this campaign.  It is branded very well and just look at the momentum and attention that it’s received.  One would think that Kony was running for President of not only Africa or the U.S., but the freakin world.  The only other time that I’ve seen such a powerfully branded and well designed campaign was during Obama’s run for President.  Kony is receiving exactly what Invisible Children sought after . . . Attention.

The second thing that came to mind, after watching the very well produced Kony 2012 video, and after seeing so many people talk about giving to this cause on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets, was how trendy it will become to latch on to this campaign.  People are spreading the Kony video like wild fire and boasting of their support for this movement.  This campaign is only about 3 days old and the video has received over 16million hits on youtube.  I’m seeing people on Facebook refer to the attachment to the campaign as “trendy” and many will say that this will be short lived until the next big trend pops up in about 2 weeks.

I myself feel the same, but isn’t this what the campaign is designed to do?  To bring attention to this “evil” leader for one year, or even less if he gets arrested before the end of 2012?  Inivisible Children is now receiving some criticism for the campaign and there are even videos popping up that attack their integrity and financial transparency.  This is part of the game when an organization does something ground breaking and becomes an overnight “celebrity”.  Regardless, I have to say that the organization is doing what they felt would be the most effective for their cause and in the end if it works, then more power to these guys.

Whether you decide to support this campaign or not, I hope that it brings awareness to what is going on in Uganda and drives people to do their research and find out about even more atrocities taking place around the world.  If this Kony campaign moved you to give or step out and do something that you’ve never done before, then it’s doing exactly what it was supposed to do.  We should all have a giving heart and be a regular supporter of anyone or anything that is doing good and changing lives.  If you could care less about Kony, that’s fine, but find something to care about and give to it, whether it’s your time or money.  You have the power to change the world, even if it’s the small little world around you.  Make a Shift.  Change the freakin world.

- Hector Garcia

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I was fresh out of high school, maybe 18 or 19 and I remember her passing by my house in her little red Hyundai Scoupe, honking and waving.  This happened regularly and I would do the same if I passed by her house.  We lived down the street from each other, for years, yet we never talked to one another.  We knew of each other, went to the same high school, and our little brothers were good friends, yet we never talked or hung out.  We may have had secret crushes on each other and we were both just too shy to talk to one another.  Who knows, we’re still trying to figure that one out.

Well, she did get enough balls one day to stop by and ask me out.  I was either outside cutting the grass or working on my car and to my surprise she showed up and asked me out to a local club.  Red Square to be exact.  Back then it was the place to be, and it’s where Christine would go practice all of her new wave dance moves.  You should see her new wave moves by the way, they’re awesome.  Anyway, what’s crazy is that neither one of us remember anything after her picking me up that night.  Not because we were drunk, because neither one of us drank, we simply can’t remember the night.  Only little bits and pieces.  We do remember her dropping me off after the club and that was the last time we talked, until years later.

This is just one part of our story.  There’s a lot more, which I may detail in a small book one day.  I believe there’s a great love story here at work and after being with each other for the past 1.5 or 1.8 years, we are always amazed at how connected we are.  I’m not sure why things happen the way they do, but like I said in my blog post yesterday, “Life’s all about moments of impact and how they changed our lives forever”.  (Read yesterday’s blog post) Both of our lives have gone through major changes over the past few years.  Neither one of us expected to be where we are today and who would have ever predicted that two people who lived down the street from on another would come together one day and have a second chance at love.

It’s happening right before us, and though we’ve been through our own challenges, we learn to love every day.  We learn something new about one another every week and it only pulls us closer and closer.  I love her smile in the mornings and how her hair looks all crazy sometimes, like an 80′s rock star.  I love her style and wouldn’t change it or ask her to ever be something that she’s not.  Her laugh is awesome and it’s music to my ears.  She’s feisty and I sometimes want to give her shaking baby syndrome, but I love her for being her.  That same feisty passion translates into the love that she has to give and it’s wonderful.  The way we end up sitting in the truck for half an hour in the driveway when we get home from somewhere is just one way that illustrates how much fun we have together.  And though she hates the freckles on her face, it’s those same freckles that caused me to fall in love with her.

So yeah, life is crazy.  We’ll never understand how we end up where we are or with whom, but that’s life, right?  I love where I’m at now and though “it took twenty years for us to find each other”, in Christine’s words, it was worth it.  Love you Christine.  Happy Valentines Day.

- Hector Garcia

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