Has Jason Russell lost his marbles?

It seems that Invisible Children's Jason Russell has been arrested for exposng his 'Invisible Children' to the world. If you get what I'm saying.

To be honest, I was a little shocked to hear of Invisible Children's frontman Jason Russell being arrested for indecent exposure and public disturbance. After all, my last blog was - if anything - glorifying his campaign, even if it pointed out a number of small criticisms about him.

Russell, 33, was taken into custody earlier in the week after reports reached the police, suggesting that he was 'pounding his fists on the sidewalk and shouting incoherently.' Other reports claimed that he had removed his underwear and...well, I'm not going to go into detail. He is now in a health institution on the road to recovery.

It seems that Russell -who was allegeddly interfering with traffic, screaming, yelling incoherently and prancing around the sidewalk in the dunny - has finally suffered some type of major breakdown. Perhaps he missed the natural lifestyle he had while in Africa.

The official statement from Russell's wife rode the incident off as a direct result of 'reactive psychosis' - a result of 'exhaustion' and 'dehydration'.

The statement read:
"Though new to us, the doctors say this is a common experience given the great mental, emotional and physical shock his body has gone through in these last two weeks."

To clarify, this is the type of behaviour that the majority of us here at TAFE excert when under overwhelming amounts of stress.

In fact, just last week I ran around the school grounds stark naked, pounding my fists on the sidewalk and shouting incoherently. This was a direct result of doing two week's worth of assignments in one night, chucking an all nighter - of course. The next day, I got scolded...and, well, there you go.

In all seriousnesses though, the entire episode seems a little excessive to me. I have heard of AND witnessed both dehydration cases and exhaustion cases - neither of them resulting in similar results as those Russell excerted. On the contrary, the primary symptoms of both dehydration and exhaustion include physical/mental weakness, excessive fatigue and lack of energy.

It just makes me wonder whether or not there is more to the problem than the media - or Jason's family, for that matter - are letting on. It is not our personal business to know what Russell does in his spare time, however with fame come consequences - and a direct responsibility to the public. This would especially apply to Russell, who has gained a massive following for the cause which he is responsible for.

Whether or not Invisible Children and Jason Russell are genuine is another question. But the fact remains that the entire thing is turning into somewhat of a joke (as most over-popularized events do - eventually) and  events such as Russell's public display are not helping.

-Dahlia