Ryan Cassata Speaking Testimonial/Summary by Dave Seegart, BTHS

About the Day of Silence:

The National Day of Silence is a day of action in which students across the country vow to take a form of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in schools.

History:

Founded in 1996, the Day of Silence has become the largest single student-led action towards creating safer schools for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. From the first-ever Day of Silence at the University of Virginia in 1996, to the organizing efforts in over 8,000 middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities across the country in 2008, its textured history reflects its diversity in both numbers and reach.

http://www.dayofsilence.org/resources/ 

I believe that people are focusing too much on capturing/killing/putting away Joseph Kony and forgetting about the real mission; saving all of the children, creating a safe place for all of them, and making sure that none of this ever happens again. 

I think it’s much more important to focus on the positive mission instead of the negative mission. 

However, I know that spreading Kony’s name will help to make people more aware, not just of who he is, but also about the entire situation as a whole. Plus, unfortunately, the only way to save all the children is to stop Kony.

How do I know that spreading his name works in recruiting more people to the mission? Early yesterday morning, a friend of mine posted the Kony 2012 picture on her facebook profile. I looked at it for a second, figured that Kony was some new independent political leader joining the presidential race. I just continued my day. A couple hours later, when I logged on to facebook again, I noiced that facebook was flooded with Kony 2012 posters and then I finally wondered “Who the hell is this guy? Within a day he has become such a big deal.” I wanted to know who he was. All the awareness caught me on the Kony 2012 documentary-type video. I watched the entire thing and understood the movement and the increased need for change. I joined in. However, I didn’t make my mission “Let’s take down Kony”, I made my mission “Let’s save all these children and to do that we must stop Kony.” There’s a huge difference.  

A year ago, I did a presentation at a public High School on Long Island and the person speaking after me was a Holocaust survivor. He explained the Holocaust through the eyes of himself. He kept telling us that the United States knew what was happening and had the power to stop it but wouldn’t. He kept saying “…And the good guys did nothing.” Eventually the United States did help and ended the Holocoust that was going on. History repeats itself. Our government has the power to do something and we have to let them know that we want them to do something about this. The “good guys” need to do something because they can. 

This is sort of unrelated but it’s important. There are organized meetings in almost every city to put up Kony 2012 posters. Most of these meetings take place on April 20th, 2012. April 20th, 2012 happens to be the Day Of Silence, a nationwide event to bring awareness to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students in attempt to stop bullying, name-calling, harassment, and prejudice. It’s important that we do not overlook the Day of Silence this year. The amount of recent LGBT suicides and killings have been tremendous. At this point, most of my LGBT friends can say they have been a victim of a hate crime, including me. 

It is more than possible to participate in both of these events. The Day of Silence is a daytime event and the KONY 2012 movement meetings are a nighttime event. Please do not forget one over the other. They are both extremely important movements, movements that have the ability to create a better world. 

Closing up this whole thought, I think the Kony 2012 movement has the ability to raise awareness and create some change if not fix the entire problem. If I were running the event I would have titled it something else, perhaps “Stop Kony, Save the Children” or something along the lines of that, but it is what it is and I do think that it will do some good. Always do what you think is right and support the event if you really feel it in your heart. This time, we will not let “the good guys do nothing.”

Thanks for reading.