Ava Acevedo's Democracy Story

Speaker: Ava Acevedo

Ava Acevedo: To me, a healthy democracy is one where every eligible resident, regardless of their race, ethnicity, income, age, gender, sexuality, any aspect of their identity has equitable access to the ballot box and equitable access to making a difference through their vote and just through engaging in the community. Um And that especially includes just feeling safe going out to vote and knowing that their vote will make a difference. I also believe that what's really important in a healthy democracy is respectful engagement across each other's differences. Um Just making sure that we are listening to opinions and beliefs and experiences different from our own even when we disagree with them and especially making efforts to uplift voices that have been historically and cont temporarily marginalized from um bipoc residents, LGBT Q plus residents, lower income residents. Um And so many more.

Ava Acevedo: So democracy has shown up for me in several ways throughout my life. So to start out since I was a child, I've suffered from asthma and I've grown up in the central valley and it really wasn't until recently that I learned Children, born in the central valley have much higher rates of asthma due to sinking pollution, especially from big corporations. And this has only been worsening with wildfire season. But by engaging with local activism, I learned about how much influence that large corporations had in politics, um especially environmental policies. So this past summer, I organized a meeting between local environmental activists and our Democratic assembly member to urge him to vote. Yes. On Senate Bill 2 60. This bill would require billionaire corporations operating in California to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions to the public. But despite our efforts, our assembly member who's supported by fossil fuel companies and their corporate partners declined to vote and chose corporate interests over the citizens. He was representing, despite citizen interest in a cleaner future, not many people knew about this bill to hold our assembly member accountable. Um Using their votes. I alarmingly realized that this corporate influence and lack of public awareness spans far beyond policy, addressing environmental issues, into health issues like um health care reform, also gun safety issues that are impacting the lives of millions of people. So gathering attention around and pressure on people and systems holding that tremendous power are crucial in making our world liable in protecting members of our communities. I also just wanted to point out how I'm now a college student and I cast my first ballot um just this past year on campus and I'm very grateful to not have had any difficulties with that. We had a huge school celebration at Stanford and it just really worries me to see that so many colleges in um more red leaning states like Texas Idaho are imposing more and more restrictions on college students and um on their ability to vote. So for example, just making things like requiring that students have a valid form of ID that's usually not accessible to college students, not letting them use their student ID to register. Um It's, it's very worrying to see this especially since so many college students like myself um either aren't aware of it or will only be aware of it. Like must be aware of it in order to make a difference. So that worries me in addition to just how as most of us know, voting restrictions have a disport disproportionate impact on black residents. Um Brown residents, indigenous residents, um lower income residents voters with disabilities, so many different um identities and it's just discouraging and disheartening to see that so many politicians are wielding their influence in order to block people from accessing our democracy and making the difference that they have a right to make in our societies. And I just want to close this out by saying the, the ways that I often show up for my democracy are attending and helping organize protests on and off campus. Um So, for example, I help organize um protests at my school or will help organize um concerning fossil fuel funding. Um Our school's endowment in fossil fuel companies and also attending protests that are trying to get fossil fuel funding out of our schools, climate school, our door school um as well as helping organ organizers across the US through the green schools campaign or trying to campaign for 100% clean renewable energy in school districts. Um And a lot of just in school, just doing research on different um voting rights issues from um farm workers access to the ballot in California and Union elections. Um how policing often hinders black citizens a ability to vote and their safety. And now I'm an intern for the protect democracy team at public citizen where I get to learn about these new challenges every day and work with really dedicated activists in demanding and ensuring equitable voting rights through organizing education and just making sure we're bringing awareness to these issues. Thank you.

Ava Acevedo: I'm calling on President Biden and Congress to protect voters of color LGBT Q plus voters, student voters, voters with disabilities, lower income voters, and so many more, everyone who deserves access to make a change in our society, to protect our freedom, to vote and safeguard our democracy.