Sunday April 26 – It was a regular loungy afternoon in San Francisco. The Bay was blue. The wind was strong. The food at my favorite Inner Sunset Restaurant was hearty. But about two hours later, my day was filled with an onslaught of screaming kids – the best kind there are. After a long and leisurely brunch, I received a text about the Invisible Children demonstration taking place in Presidio Park. So I headed down to the waterfront to check in on the intrepid Rescue Riders and Causecast VP Levi Felix .
As soon as I drove up and witnessed the colorful row of captivating young people, I got chills. In an effort to alert the world about child soldiers being forced to fight in Uganda’s civil war, the energized crew of activists loudly and passionately called out to former SF mayor Willie Brown to come rescue them. A number of the kids had braved the bayside wind and cold for a solid 30 hours.
The zest and knowledge of the demonstrators both thrilled and inspired me. Hearing them raise their voices for children who cannot be heard themselves, made me feel that much prouder to be an American, and that much safer to know that some remarkable young adults will soon be coming up in the ranks.
While I was there, I had a chance to talk with actress Kristen Bell, who rescued the Invisible Children activists in Los Angeles the previous day. She summed up the fundamental reasons for why this call to action is so important.
“There’s nothing in their soil that we need,” said Bell. “They have no money. There’s no real political influence that we need over there, and that’s why this war is invisible. And to this generation that doesn’t matter because they’re human beings, and that’s all that matters.”
Before she snuck off to the side to memorize the speech she was about to give for when Brown arrived, she added some simple yet highly motivating words.
“People have a voice, and if they use it stuff happens.”
Causecast couldn’t agree more. To learn more about how you can use your voice, visit http://causecast.org.
