Stop Gun Violence: Step 8. Lift Your Voices, Cast Your Votes
Step 8: Lift Your Voices, Cast Your Votes!
You can click on any of the slides above to go to that Step.
8.1. Introduction to Step 8: Lift Your Voices, Cast Your Votes!
In this final Step 8, you will cast your votes for the top three proposals for stopping gun violence. In the days ahead you can monitor the ongoing vote as more students take this minicourse around the country and world. We encourage you to also download your speech and send it and your video to your elected representatives at the local, state, and federal levels. Finally, return to your Stop Gun Violence Project and reflect on what you have learned about lifting your voice–and the importance of lifting every voice. Remember you can keep your Stop Gun Violence Project and keep working on it in the future.
8.2. Step 8 Questions
What proposals/bills do you think will have the most impact on stopping gun violence?
Why is voting so important?
What are your top three proposals?
Why is it important to lobby elected officials?
8.3. Step 8 Democratic and Academic Competencies
Lift Your Voice, Cast Your Vote
- Review Steps 1-7 to determine which proposals will be most effective in stopping gun violence.
- Vote for the three most important proposals.
Lobby Elected Officials
- Send your speech and video to elected officials encouraging them to support the legislation you're advocating.
- Meet with your elected officials to personally encourage them to vote for the legislation you're supporting
Reflect on the Importance of Democratic Voice
- Think again about George Floyd who couldn't breathe and who lost his life and his voice.
- Reflect on what you have learned about stopping gun violence.
- Reflect on what you have learned about why it is important to lift our voices.
8.4. Why It's So Important to Vote!
Ultimately, democracy depends on people lifting their voices through voting. Our votes determine who gets elected at all levels and that in turn determines what laws get passed by our senators and representatives and enacted by our mayors, governors, and the President.
Scroll on the Sway below to think about why it's so important for everyone to be registered and to vote.
8.5. Cast Your Votes!
This is the culmination of all your work.
This is your vote. Your democratic voice.
You can keep track of the vote on the link in 8.4.
Congratulations on making it to this point through the Eight Steps and through learning the Academic and Democratic Competencies.
8.6. Keep Track of the Votes
You can check the running tally of the vote by clicking on the button below. You can also copy the following link so that you can keep track of the ongoing vote after you're done with this minicourse and the other Lift Every Voice minicourses.
8.7. Why It's So Important to Lobby Elected Officials!
Elections take place every 2, 4, or 6 years. In between elections, we need to monitor our elected officials and how they vote or how our laws and budgets are implemented. Moreover, in between elections, we need to lobby (educate and advocate) our elected officials to pass the legislation we support and to address the contemporary broader social issues.
Lobbying can take the form of writing letters, meeting with elected officials, and/or community organizing.
Scroll down the Sway below to learn more about lobbying.
8.8. Lift Your Voice and Send Your Proposal and Your Video to Your Elected Representatives
Now it's your turn to lobby your local, state, or federal elected officials.
Write one or more elected officials encouraging them to read and/or listen to your speech advocating one or more solutions for stopping the pandemic.
You can download your speech from your Stop Gun Violence Project and you can also download the video of your speech as a MP4. (provide database for looking up elected officials, plus the outline of a letter)
8.9. Return to the Central Questions
Here are the questions that we posed at the beginning of this minicourse. Read them over and think to yourself what you have learned related to these questions.
How can we stop gun violence?
What have we learned about how to stop or prevent gun violence ?
What values are most important in guiding us on how to stop or prevent gun violence?
How can we reach out to people who do not want to stop or prevent gun violence?
How can we stop gun violence? What have we learned about how to stop or prevent gun violence ? What values are most important in guiding us on how to stop or prevent gun violence? How can we reach out to people who do not want to stop or prevent gun violence?
8.10. Reflect on What You Haved Learned About Lifting Your Voice
In this final Step, I'd like to encourage to reflect upon what you have learned from this minicourse about lifting your voice—lifting our voices.
Also, feel free to provide any comments on ways to improve this minicourse.
8.11. Share the Link to Your Portfolio
When you have completed your reflection, you can e-mail me the a message below with the link in it for your portfolio.
8.12. Wrap Up
Hopefully, you'll remember these Eight Steps when you take on the next major social or ecological problem that you are concerned with.
- Connect to the problem
- Take different points of view
- Analyze the facts
- Listen to and share stories
- Read proposals and listen to speeches
- Research, present, advocate
- Discuss, debate, innovate
- Lift your voices, cast your votes
Probably, most importantly, for the rest of your lives is to continue to embrace and use the democratic values of love and freedom to guide your way through your life and to help create a more a more compassionate, just, and free country and world!
Be safe. Be determined. Be hopeful. Never give up. Lift your voice.
Revised 4/10/2021.