This was preventable.
19 kids dead because they were shot with an AR-15
and you can't even recognise the kids.
Their little bodies are destroyed because of these war weapons that were used.
So we don't need your thoughts and prayers
or your hearts, keep your hearts.
What we need is our kids.
February 14th I took my son and best friend Joaquin to school
That was Valentines Day so he was holding some flowers that we bought the night before.
And then we got to the school, he gave me a kiss and a little hug
he said I love you dad, take care and call me later.
And that was it, that was the last time I saw my son alive.
I saw him again, dead, two days later.
17 people died, 14 of them were kids.
No father is expecting to hear that ever.
You go crazy, you don't even know if it makes sense to keep on living.
My whole point in life was to raise Joaquin.
And have grandkids at some point.
And he will bring me to the games when I grow older.
I'm not a happy person. I have very short happy moments.
But I'm not the happy person that I used to be.
I don't enjoy company.
I'm obsessed with our movement and how to protect other people.
That includes also moments of breakdowns and crying.
And missing my son and remembering him, every time I see a kid playing with his dad.
When you go through this you miss not only your kid but who your kid will become.
My forty year old son grown up man with his wife or husband or whatever the fuck he wanted
And my grandkids
It's sad to go to the past, it's sad to envision the future so you have to stay in this space zone
which is right now, this conversation.
What is it bothering you? The timing? Are you concerned because 19 kids
are dead and I'm talking about political goals?
Alright, let's go back to Buffalo, or is that still too early?
Alright let's go back to Parkland, four years ago, can we talk about politics now?
It shows me zero interest to solve the problem or complicity.
With what happened.
We should all agree that what happened in Texas is unacceptable.
That should be a before and after for a whole nation to do something right now.
Related to guns.
Not related to oh my god we need higher fences in schools.
Or we need more officers in schools.
Let me tell you no other country has one officer in a school.
And I come from Venezuela, a third world country, with a lot of shit going on.
I never saw an officer in my school.
I know that in America little more than 100 people will die every day because of gun violence.
I know there is a lot of mass shootings that are not even part of the news.
I feel very frustrated that after 5 years nothing has happened,
it has got a little worse actually in some states.
I'm very mad, the agressions that I see are like the top of the line of being aggressive.
You cannot respond to something like this in a polite way.
We tried that already.
And it's not working so you have to do the old school activism.
The only reason that crane is there is for me to climb it.
I don't know what the other use is.
I endorsed President Biden a little more than a year ago and he promised me a
few things related to gun violence.
We shared the fact that we lost loved ones and so we had a conversation about things to do
more than a year ago.
If you promise me you will fix things and you are the President, you should acomplish your promise.
If not I've got to hold you accountable.
So I decided to go back to Washington in February and climb that crane and drop a
image of my son Joaquin with what we call the shock mark.
Which is what we call the platform that indicates every single case of gun violence in America.
The result of that was that I was received at the White House by President Biden.
And I told him I am going to keep on holding you accountable.
I am going to keep on doing what I do and you should do what you told me you would do.
But I'm telling you it's a month ago so this was preventable.
19 kids dead.
Because they were shot with an AR-15 and you can't even recognise the kids.
Their little bodies are destroyed because of these war weapons.
So be offended.
Scream it out.
Don't take this as an option.
My son was shot inside a school.
4 times with an AR-15.
Inside his school.
So we have to un-learn the fact that a gun and freedom are not two things that go together.
Eventually the same way that these young Americans are fighting and asking for a better planet
For civil rights
For inclusion
They are also expecting guns not to be the centre of their future.
I think we are going to reach a point where the NRA is totally irrelevant because of these kids.
One day Joaquin asked me "Dad how do you want to be remembered?"
I don't know, I never thought about how I want to be remembered, as an artist,
I had no chance to be remembered as an artist
Joaquin was my son
But then I asked him back, "How do you want to be remembered?"
And he told me I want to be remembered, big, like Mandela, like Muhammad Ali.
So I need to do that, to put all my efforts in making my son accomplish his goal
I know that Joaquin was very into helping people
He was a very protective person
And you know what it gives me the pleasure of continuing my parenting
In a different way, but I am Joaquin's dad, fuck it, I am Joaquin's dad,
don't tell my the opposite because it's not true.
Change the Ref is a non-profit created after Joaquin Oliver was shot in the Parkland Shooting.
Joaquin loved basketball and he always thought that he needed a fair game.
Change the Ref refers to the referees in Washington.
Change the Ref will keep fighting gun violence in America.
Any help is welcome, make a small donation, but most of all your support and your work
and not accepting this reality is the most valuable donation you can make.