News Americas, MIAMI, FL., Weds. Oct. 7, 2020: The parents of Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting victim in Parkland, FL, Venezuelan born Joaquin ‘Guac’ Oliver, have resurrected their 17-year-old son back to life using AI technology.
The purpose? To encourage young people to vote.
Manuel and Patricia Oliver, the parents of Joaquin, have been fighting gun violence and trying to change gun laws since their son’s killing. They teamed up with artists for “The Unfinished Votes” campaign launch film, which used artificial intelligence to bring their son back to life digitally to ask people to “finish” the vote he was never able to cast.
“Every day nearly one hundred more families lose someone they love to gun violence. Every single day. We keep telling people it doesn’t have to be like this. They don’t listen. So, we found a way to bring back someone that no one will ignore,” Manuel Oliver says at the beginning of the video.
In the video, the Olivers, alongside their late son, recruit voters to replace the ballots of gun violence victims by going to unfinishedvotes.com.
“I’ve been gone for two years and nothing has changed, bro. People are still getting killed by guns. What is that? Everyone knows it but they don’t do anything. I am tired of waiting for someone to fix it,” he says in the video. “I’ll never get to choose the kind of world that I wanted to live in. So you’ve got to replace my vote. Vote for politicians who care more about people’s lives than the gun lobby’s money. Vote for people not getting shot, bro.”
This would have been the first year Joaquin could have voted in a presidential election.
The Olivers call the video and the process of producing it “the most difficult experience we’ve had since we started fighting to end gun violence after our son was murdered.” However, they say it’s their duty to fight for change in Joaquin’s name.
“See Joaquin was an activist, not a victim, that is giving you great advice. He is telling you that you should vote for people that give more value to the lives of a person, then to sell guns,” said Mr. Oliver.
