The Rescue

Saturday afternoon I went, with a few friends, to an event called The Rescue. The Rescue has been organize by the group Invisible Children to create awareness and support for their cause. The group is trying to stop the war in Uganda and the rebel army of Joseph Kony. Over the last 20 years over 30,000 children have been abducted and forced to fight a war against their will. While many of the children have been returned home there are still kids out there fighting that need to come home.

F0r the event, in 100 cities in 10 countries, thousands of people symbolically abducted themselves. Here in Richmond a group of about 150 people met in Monroe Park and marched down to the state capital holding on a rope. Once we got there we sat in the grass in what was our version of a LRA camp. While at the camp we wrote letters to our senators asking for their support on lobby days and contacted the media hoping to gain some publicity on the event to create awareness. We did get some publicity but not to the extent to which we hoped. So many people were calling the t.v. news stations that they got angry with us and refused to come but we did manage to pull in some newspapers that interviewed the organizers in Richmond. The publicity was also help a mogul come to rescue us. Many people tried to contact moguls but publicity would really entice them. A mogul is either a celebrity or political person. By the 11:00pm saturday night a mogul hadn't shown up. There were a few who were close to coming but none ever showed up. Because Richmond is very picky where people can and cannot sleep outside we had to walk to the convention center to sleep. My friends and I didn't feel like sleeping on a cold concrete floor (and I had to meet my parents in the morning) we walked the short mile back to the dorms. After the brunch sunday morning with my parents and the roommates I went back to monroe park to wait for a rescuer. Because I had a paper due today I grabbed all of my stuff and sat out in the park to write the paper while we waited. Then night fell and we had to leave the park. I went back to my room to finish the paper as well as all of the other work that I had but today after classes I joined them again. After another full day of waiting no mogul showed up but just after I left to study for a test that I have tomorrow reinforcements from New York, Philly and D.C. showed up with one of the head people at Invisible Children. Tonight the group is either spending the night in a backyard in Oregon Hill or at a church to wait for a mogul to show up tomorrow.

As a group we have been waiting to be rescued for about 60 hours now with most of the time spent outside. If I get enough work done in the next few hours I will rejoin the group wherever they are spending the night, if not I'll meet them in the park in the morning and wait for the mogul to show up as I study for my test that is at 4:00.

Rumor has it that Gavin DeGraw will come to rescue us before his show at The National but Killswitch Engage said they would yesterday before their show but they were too busy with interviews. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully our luck will change and we will be rescued.

Updates will come!