Confirming that the coronavirus has arrived. When we were stuck inside, we wondered, would we face a plague of gun violence again . Would we fear gathering in our schools and churches again . Would we be shot for the color of our skin again . With the fight for Justice Force empty streets . He black americans are being killed for being black in america. The pandemic is hitting black, indigenous and people of color disproportionately and it has worsened gun violence in those communities. It is clear, the fight for Racial Justice is still on and we wont live without it. , they spoke about hatred. In michigan, she carried a swastika. They brought guns in record numbers. But we took to the streets. When we leave our homes this time, will the people carrying weapons of war and banners of hatred decide our future again, or will we stand up and demonstrate our power . Our power means we demand all guns should be licensed. Our power means we demand up ands of war be banned. Our power means lawmakers must listen. Our power means we refuse to watch black people be murdered in the streets. Our power means we refuse to fear for our lives. We refuse to live without justice. It is our power, and we will use it. Good morning. I am jackie. Thank you so much for joining us today. I am thrilled to introduce our guest, david hogg, a survivor of the 2018 shooting at Marjory StonemanDouglas High School and cofounder of march for our lives, running david is alexis the executive director of march for our lives. Thank you to both of you for joining us, especially during this crazy time with just under 90 days until the election. I dont want to waste time so lets talk about this powerful add. For our lives first foray into national politics. To be here. Happy this is our first add and we knew it needed to be clear for first time voters who are heavily generation z. They know the stakes far too well. They are making real choices based on issues and policy, and our goal with the ad, which will be running in nine states, florida, georgia, north carolina, pennsylvania, texas, arizona, michigan, and wisconsin, we need to connect to intersectional issues that young people care about from racial inequity Climate Change to gun violence. We have tons of young voters out there who are fired up and they want to hold elected officials accountable. Voting and protests are more important than ever. Jackie the ad played on fox and friends. Was that sending a specific message to someone in particular . Alexis if you are voted into power, you work for the people so every elected official is there at the will of the people. That is why we live and work in a democracy. I hope there was self reflection that happened. Jackie there is no call to action in the ad. What are you asking young voters to do, david . David the main thing we are asking young voters to do is inlize there are many tools our toolbox for creating change, protesting is one of them, voting is one of them, writing letters or emailing our congresspeople and representatives is another. All these issues young people are rallying around, Climate Change, Racial Injustice, nonviolence, making them realize gun violence, that we needor part of it, to strengthen the laws but we also need to discuss the large amount of systemic racism and of which gunstice violence is a symptom of in our country. Address why they are pulling the trigger in the first place and that needs to mean addressing militarism, racism and poverty. That is the point, to make us realize those connections and even with the recent passing of john lewis, and the work he did at march for our lives in atlanta, he talked against the worked nra and on top of that, i think thate now the communities are most impacted by gun violence are also the ones most impacted by covid. They face the most obstacles as a whole that have been built against them as marginalized communities. This isnt just around laws, this is a conversation around injustice that drives violence. On on the talk pick the topic of john lewis, he fought his entire life or the right to vote. Some might say you might have missed out on an opportunity for not calling for young voters to vote. Why didnt you . Entire way ofs an bringing young people to the table. We want them to be met where they need to be met. We heard from young voters they want to hear their issues voiced in a clear way and not downplay the power of First Amendment and protest and direct action and making your voice heard publicly. We will be pivoting to the voting message and reminding people that you can choose the inple who are ideally positions of power that you can hold accountable. We are not looking for someone who will save us all, we are looking for a Public Servant who can work with communities and be held accountable by the voters that put them into office so we will be having a voting message. This is just the beginning going into the fall. First and foremost we want to make sure we are clear on what the stakes are because this is a fight for our lives and people are voting for their lives. Somee i want to pivot to of our viewer questions. A handful of people submitted questions. First we will take a question from pennsylvania. This person asks what the best way to reach young voters to turn out in november is. Is it ads, facebook, emails, s, what is thezer best way to reach you . David more than anything it is other young people that are already going out about, like person every young talking to other young people about voting. One thing that in my opinion doesnt work is older people telling younger people that they need to vote, although of course we do that, it is better if young people talk amongst themselves about it and dont see it as, this is not something your parents are telling you you should do, but rather, this is rebellious, this is a form of the angry young person angst that many of us feel and this is a way, one way we can work to create change and go out there. Another thing is, it is not just sending a message to them. Part of it is, those young people out there marching right , for those that are interested in talking about it and talking about voting, young people talking to other young people about it and realizing it is not, this is more than just a president ial election. This is an election that more lil and likely will determine the future of the Supreme Court generationsd other that comes after us. On top of that, there is a ton of down ballot races that matter. Other young people talking to each other about it is something we have to do, and it is something we can do to frame, to make those in power scared of young people, because they are actively destroying our future. Jackie im sure amid the pandemic, your get out the vote plans have taken a bit of a twist. How has this affected your efforts . So many past events around campaigns and getting out the vote have revolved around inperson events, rallies, concerts. Alexis to talk more about this, but we have big events coming up around we realize they cant be in person, but that hasnt stopped us from doing smaller actions like recently, after we filed the complaint against the nra in investigation came to an end with the new York Attorney general, march for our lives in virginia through an nra is over party where we went with a bunch of boxes and stuff, socially distanced of course and we brought a uhaul to help them move house. Phrases onboxes with them. That is one way we see using a smaller amount of people to create content on social media for young people to see in a safe manner, along with other things im sure alexis can talk about. I thinkhave everyone is trying to grapple with the effects of covid on their families and i think we are lucky we have the ability to pivot quickly online. This movement, march for our lives, was built off online mobilization, so like many, we are innovating with how we reach our chapter networks, we have 300 chapters nationwide, and how we can bring them into trainings online and have conversations about things that matter to them or conversations around art, like our power up training series, remix, we have opportunities for people to come together online and plan and talk about what matters to them during this next phase of america. We also have some largescale events, some have kicked off already, we have been doing events called into action live, which is partnered with many incredible organizations to bring together culture and changemakers to talk about what is at stake in the world and our country and whats change we want to see. Tomorrow, we will be having several conversations people can tune into, and at the end of the month we are kicking off a nine state event series, vote for our lives, and they will be inequitiesg systemic in those nine states and why groups on the ground are doing incredible work and how we can actually mobilize young voters around the work that is going on on the ground, using art as a conversation topic. Artill be amazing installations across these nine states and more to come on that but it is an opportunity to highlight the local work on the ground, also with National Partners like Sunrise Movement and united we dream and others, there is a collaborative spirit bringing youth together across the board. We hope we can continue to build around the digital aspect while we continue to figure out if and when it is safe to go back more offline. Jackie i hope you and your families have remained healthy and everyone watching this live show is wearing a mask in public and staying safe. I want to get back to the nra news eventually, but we need to go back to another viewer question quickly. This one is from diane in new york. Her 20tes in that something son feels like his vote doesnt count because of the Electoral College. How can she persuade him to vote . David i think part of it is it is not solely a president ial election we are having right now. There is a lot of local races that matter, as well. Even if you feel like your vote doesnt count that much, because currently we have the Electoral College and we dont really have , sorry, i was going to go off worktangent, but if we can in congress and the senate, to hold the next president accountable, if you want something more expressive or Something Like that, on top of that there is a lot of work being done on the ground in some states. The Electoral College contact, which would be a more constitutional way of bringing about a popular vote system but to do that, we need people to know out and continue doing that. Right now, the elect oral college the Electoral College, there are more things out there. Voting for the president is important, as well. Jackie there has been narratives throughout the primary that support for joe biden among young voters has t, most ofy milquetos berniepport was around sanders and elizabeth warren. Does joe biden have young voters . David i cant speak for young people, for all young i cant generalize, but i guess you could say that young people want to elect someone that, we want to have a chance to have any semblance of a future on our planet, and address major issues like Climate Change and gun violence. A lot of young people realize donald trump is not doing that at all right now and the alternative is basically an end to our generation and possibly an end to the human race. We are getting to that point with Climate Change and all these other major issues that are happening. But i do think there is still more work that can be done to bring people into, bring young people specifically into the fold more. Jackie i want to dig deeper into that. You guys obviously have prioritized policy over people and made the choice in the ad to not explicitly endorse any candidates and not endorse joe biden over President Trump. The harvard poll came out showing voters age 1825 are binding vated, and biden leads among them. Are you worried you are missing a motivating factor in not maximizing your impact . Go ahead. David i will let you take it. Alexis i will be worried every day until the election. For anybody who has worked on a campaign, you can take nothing for granted and we know we need to be inclusive of bringing people into the fold between now and the election on so many issues. To your question of, will young people go out and vote . I think there is a willingness and a hunger to do it. I think especially generation z, fueled by activism and reading everything, every theory out there and taking it to the streets and making their voices heard on like any generation i have ever seen personally, this is an educated base of people who want to change their communities, educated in the formal and traditional sense, nontraditional sense, they are making sure they know everything in the world around them so bringing young people to the table in a meaningful way that doesnt feel like a token or an afterthought, they are not future leaders, they are current leaders. Bringing these current leaders in meaningful ways will be very important. People are fearing for their lives. During covid, that is only exacerbated. The huge inequities in our country, nobody could say this happened by chance, these are institutionalized inequities that were built to hold down black and brown communities and make a situation where we have huge gaps in education, huge ips in people going to vote, am more terrified about complete Voter Suppression, holding back the young voices from this election, and actually suppressing their bonuses through vote by mail their voices through vote by mail, democracy should be our most basic right. Is thati am wondering, your diplomatic way of saying you dont think the Biden Campaign is doing enough to engage young voters . Inxis we dont endorse general. As Vice President , joe biden went further on guns than many elected officials do. We thank we think he couldnt go he can go even further. We will continue to see the Biden Campaign using more voices. There has been a lot of calling and young people in recent months and we hope to see more of that. We are optimistic, and our coalition with other organizations across the board that speak to young people recognize that we will have direct messaging tower bases to say we have your back, your Voice Matters and voting for elected officials are important but there is other work to do as well. I am always a diplomat, but i think we have seen major strides in the Biden Campaign in recent months. Jackie in the wake of George Floyds murder at the hands of minneapolis police, we have seen protests erupt throughout the country, black lives matter front and center. David, how do you see the intersection of blm and march for our lives . David im glad you asked. It is something that is not touched on enough, the connection between Racial Injustice and nonviolence. March for our lives and a lot of the gun violence prevention organizations, one of the things march for our lives specifically ,s a Youth Focused Organization police violence, police gun violence is gun violence and should be addressed. Ourselvesthat, we see as a supportive role, not one where we are part of what many call the nonprofit industrial complex, which is the whatm that reinforces exists and doesnt change anything. What i think march for our lives tries to do is ask people how we can be pretty supportive of the work they are doing on the ground and around these things. Even if it is something as simple as getting people to help you get a chair, not right now but prior to the pandemic, at a town hall or something, simply asking how we can help because obviously march for our lives is not a minneapolis focused only organization and it is not a partisan focused organization but we need to ask people that are most affected by these issues how we can help. The big thing around that has been talking to other young people in blm, asking them if they would be interested in working with us to continue to build a Better Organization and and counter the narrative that gun violence is something that only happens in communities like parkland where the reality is that happens in any community. That has been the interaction and realizing that, yeah, voting matters but protesting and making the people in power uncomfortable is also a really important way and essential way of creating change. When politicians are comfortable, they simply dont do anything. And we have another viewer question. I want to thank all of our viewers from the thoughtful questions you provided for us. We have jane baker from massachusetts. Shes asking what do you see as the biggest barrier to translating youth activism into actual votes . Youth turnout hass historically been low. David thats a good question. There are a couple of major obstacles. One of the first ones, i think we may have even seen this in the 1950s, when there was record voter turnout with young people again, where people turned out and although i wasnt alive in the time, so i can speak so much on it watergate happened and a bunch of other stuff happened, they had a lot in the system. You turned out ones, and there was not much change. I think a big object for us is making change is it will not be joe biden or any single politician that will help us address the issues. It will have to be years of voting consistently and turning out at high levels to make sure the priority is every policy the u. S. Government, state and local governments have for the future of our country. Especially the young people that will be most affected by the policies. Secondly, a major obstacle that isnt talked about is youth Voter Suppression is a huge problem. Even in florida. I think in parkland in 2018, i think it was about 15 of young people that voted by mail in parkland had their votes thrown out. One of the reasons, for example in florida, they know there are a lot of older people that vote by mail. That tend to vote a more certain way. They want to make sure they are continuing to vote. One of the things they did was they made the law that said if your signature you register to vote with, for example, i registered to vote when i was getting my drivers license, and when i signed my signature, it is a terrible signature. If my signature doesnt match that signature i register to vote for, that vote does not get counted and gets thrown out. They know that is disproportionately affecting younger people. And younger people may tend to vote more progressive. Talking about Voter Suppression and the barriers that there already are, especially when Younger Voters live on College Campuses or voting by mail. There are so many friction points i think people dont think about. I want to get to the news from last week. The new York Attorney general announced she is suing the nra, called for its dissolution, and also the removal of the ceo, saying hes engaged in fraudulent activity. From my reporting and talking with you, there was a lot of behindthescenes work to bring this out. Can you talk more about that . Alexis i want david to talk about the incredible work they did a year and a half ago, before i was with the organization. We have known for a long time that the nra is corrupt. They dont even represent their membership in a meaningful way. Most members actually believe in some sort of responsible gun protocols. The nra lined its pockets for decades and decades, and im incredibly proud as a new yorker to see an elected official stand up in a meaningful way. Im sure the ag will be hit with much backlash from the nra we have seen working on gun violence prevention. This is just the beginning of tackling the gun lobby. Many organizations, march for our lives with many other organizations, have been trying to call this nonprofit attack. To task. There are certain inherent things nonprofits must adhere to. This complete abuse of power, from private jets to private vacations, lining your pockets with due paying members money is completely inappropriate. It is appropriate legal action is being called. We have the attorney generals back on this. She is the first female ag of color in new york state. A huge win overall. Amazing kudos to the ag. But this is just the beginning of what will potentially be a long battle with the nra. Go ahead, david. David especially its not like we im never the biggest fan of a lot of elected officials, but it makes me happy and gives me more faith in the system to see the attorney general take a lead on that and stand up to an organization that believes it is above the law. On top of that, im also i think it is funny, because if you read through the proceedings from the case and Different Things the attorney general talked about, one thing we found out is when their spokesperson came down to florida to debate the children that had just survived a School Shooting about why and ar15 needs more protection than the lives of our children, which he ultimately completely failed to do, and obliterated on the debate stage by a bunch of teens. They actually paid over 100,000 to fly her and two other people on a private jet to go to that town hall. That is one example of their mass corruption. After the march, we also found out one of the main lobbyists in florida got a massive pay increase, because they realize we were here to stay. The other day, the nra parked a car in front of our sign, because they were so afraid. They know that we are here, and we are going to stay, and march for our lives, young people especially, will outlive the nra. I want to get to this important question quickly, and maybe leave things on more of a hopeful note. For young people stuck at home because of the pandemic, all of the fall plans canceled, they might not like any of the candidates they see right now. What do you recommend to them to get involved and stay hopeful going into november . David although im always a fan of hope, i would be lying if i said i was always hopeful. I think its finding your best motivation, even if it is anger at the people in power for not protecting our generation. Just doing so many things that are in the selfinterest of the people in power, rather than the actual interest of the people they should be protecting, the young people of our country. Whatever that motivation is, you should go out and use it to vote. Know if you think this election will fix everything, you are if you dont think the election will fix every thing, youre right, but it will make things better than they are right now. It will not just be this election or the next one, it will be consistently voting year after year, not for democrats or republicans, but for morally just leaders that care about the future of our country, care about my classmates killed at my high school. President trump dont just say things you are going to do like President Trump said, but go to action. Unlike the nra that gave him 30 million to buy his silence. Thousands of dollars of americans who died in his turn. But actually taking the action and doing something to stand up to gun violence and protect our generation. But we have to not only go out and protest, but eventually our generation if we dont learn from the leaders we are seeing in power right now, we have to start rebuilding. Building back this country better now, or else it might be too late for the next generation. If we dont go out and vote, gen z could end up being the last generation. Do you plan on running for office . David honestly, i dont know. It is something im always conflicted about. Especially on the outside and making people uncomfortable, but then i look at where it is so amazing. I looked at john lewis who was so amazing. He talked to us. In the weeks after the shooting, he offered us advice. Its important to have the right people on the outside and the inside. But i think we have great men in office right now, but it might be more time for diversity. Unfortunately, we are out of time. Thank you for such a great discussion. I really appreciate it. Thanks again for joining. We also have some fantastic programming coming up with the post live events this week. The 23 and me ceo joins us. The former cdc director, tom frieden. And mary schmidt campbell. You can get more information on those events at washingtonpostlive. Com. Thank you for joining us, i appreciate it. 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