The Moving New Video That’s Prompting Viewers to Act on an Important Issue

In a moving new video published by Generation Progress to protest gun violence, a young African-American man and a young white woman stand side by side on a crowded stage.
“On May 10, my friend Blair Holt was shot and killed on a Chicago city bus,” the young man says, staring straight at the camera.
“On December 14, my mom survived the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school,” the young woman says.
The video is part of a new #Fight4the33 campaign to honor the young victims of gun violence — and to remind Congress that young people want them to act.
Generation Progress, a national organization that works with young people to promote progressive solutions to social problems, teamed up with the Director of the National Jazz Theater of Harlem, Jon Baptiste and students from Duke Ellington High School in Washington, D.C., to create the video.
Throughout the video, young bodies dance across the stage, falling and rising in a twisted version of “Ring Around the Rosy” while students speak to the horrifying facts of gun violence in the United States. Thirty-three people are murdered by guns every day in America. An American under the age of 25 dies by gunfire every 70 minutes. Baptiste sings “We all fall down” as the camera pans over the crumpled bodies of the students lying on the stage.
The launch of the #Fight4the33 campaign, named for the 33 daily victims of gun violence, coincided with the anniversaries of the Columbine and Virginia Tech school shootings. It has also been one year since Congress’ failed vote to pass comprehensive background check legislation.
The film ends with a young woman standing alone, looking in devastation on the fallen bodies of her peers.
The video makes you want to act — and you can, by remembering those who have died, and by joining the #Fight4the33 campaign.