- It's messy. It's freedom and it's rules.

- It's rights and responsibilities.

- It's conflict and resolution.

- Both empowerment and compromise.

- It is justice.

- It is individual.

- And it's collective.

- It is fairness.

- Respect and values.

- It is equality.

- Equality.

- Equality.

- Equality.

- It's truth.

- It is government.

- And it's choices.

- It's passionate.

- It's problem solving.

- It's action. And it's possible. It's me.

- My family.

- And my community.

- Democracy it is!

- Hi, I'm Ashley.

- I'm Ulysses.

- My name's Alli.

- My name is John. As we grow older, we all begin to get more privileges.

- And we get more power to make decisions for ourselves, too.

- What if we could make even bigger decisions? What if we could change the rules in our community?

- It turns out we have that power even as teens.

- For example, think about making cars slow down.

- At Wright Middle School, it all started with some signs.

- Then some important people started noticing.

- The speed limit is 20. And cars always seem to go faster. So, we've been putting up signs and trying to get everybody to slow down so that when kids come to school, they don't have to worry about getting hit by cars.

- Because cars are just speeding by.

- They're probably going 50 or 60.

- I had one close encounter as I was trying to cross the street.

- And this green car just went straight by me.

- I call them the crazy speeder, just zoomed by and nearly...

- Luckily, it was in the other lane, or I'd have been a pancake.

- We wrote letters to people who we thought would be influential in this project. We wrote to Art Rainwater.

- This is a great school. It's always a pleasure to come here.

- We're doing this because one day we just looked out the window and we saw that Fish Hatchery has a lot of problems with speeders there.

- I almost got hit by a car once, because they didn't want to stop for the stoplight.

- Sounds like a great project. Are there questions that I can answer?

- Do you have any plan of action to stop this?

- We really don't have a plan of action, because we can't take any action.

- The superintendent, Art Rainwater, can only change things at the schools.

- The school district has absolutely nothing to do with anything that happens on the streets.

- I am kind of disappointed about that, because he can't really do anything.

- Traffic safety, the way the traffic streets are designed, all those kinds of things is really under the authority of the city.

- His lack of power sort of disappointed me.

- What would you suggest for us to do?

- What's important, when you want action, is to be sure that you know where that action can happen, who has the responsibility for it and the authority to make it happen. And then deal directly with them.

- He couldn't help us, but I guess it's good that he shows that he is listening to us, that other people can hear us.

- What do you think? We haven't heard one word from him. What would we do now?

- Maybe we have to get more letters to them, because if only like three people wrote to them they're not going to really listen. Maybe we should get more, so they can see that we really need their help.

- I think the more they hear us, and the more they see us, they can't ignore. Go ahead.

- Target a specific person, like kind of a leader that will set an example to get the issue across to the rest of them.

- It might take a while, but we will try to kind of keep on doing what we're doing till people notice what's going on.

- We made signs. I'll be out there carrying a sign in the morning and afternoon.

- I think the mayor can be a lot more influential.

- Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is the mayor of Madison. This is the letter that Mayor Dave sent to me and some other kids. It was as a reply that we wrote to him.

- I was invited by the students and their teacher to talk about traffic safety on Fish Hatchery Road. Why don't you just tell me in your own words what you think the problems and issues are.

- People running the red lights over there.

- There's a crosswalk right there, and it has the little sign with people walking, but they don't pay attention to it.

- Let's talk about solutions.

- We just have the cops sit out there.

- If they added a stoplight.

- What are we doing in the area of enforcement?

- What we could ask them to do is get out here as often as possible so we can have them work on some speeding enforcement.

- We're going to move the crosswalk back a little bit. Whenever you want to cross the street, there'll be a button that you push. When you push the button, flashers will go off.

- We're definitely going to be doing the crosswalk with flashing lights. We're going to do the signage. And we're going to work on an enforcement strategy.

- Well, I think that it's finally getting noticed.

- Now we can actually see our progress.

- It kind of seems like people actually care, and that they're listening to our voices.

- Something that we've changed in our community.

- Driving is a privilege, but speeding can be dangerous.

- A problem like speeding only gets fixed when people hear about it.

- Have you ever written a letter to your mayor like the students at Wright School?

- Writing and meeting with public officials can get their attention.

- Especially when you have the facts on your side.

- The members of FACT want to expose, empower and understand.

- They're truly passionate about fighting corporate tobacco.

- Today in the classroom, we were really educating the students on a lot of the dangers of smoking.

- Now we're going to go over how many chemicals there are in a cigarette. There's about 4,000 known chemicals.

- One ingredient is formaldehyde.

- There's acetone.

- Ammonia.

- Hydrogen cyanide.

- Methanol.

- D.D.T.

- Rat poison.

- Cadmium.

- Carbon monoxide.

- I really want to make sure that they just know the facts.

- When they sell it to us, they don't tell us all this stuff.

- I'm not going to smoke, because I could get cancer and die at a young age.

- Every time I walk in here and I talk, I could be changing someone's life.

- Smoking is bad. And I'm going to tell my Auntie she's got to stop.

- Because it's bad. I don't want to die.

- FACT is fighting against corporate tobacco.

- We have three key messages.

- Expose, empower, and understand.

- Expose means that we're going to expose big tobacco's lies.

- Empower you to stand up and fight against big tobacco.

- And understand that we're not against smokers. We're against the way that we get targeted. Our ads are actually playing in the movie theaters.

- State the stats and fight with facts. A revolutionary movement. And even the blindfolded can see the truth behind tobacco's lie.

- The tobacco industry has tons and tons of money. But if you unite as one group, they see you as a threat to them.

- Hi, I'm Judy Robson, your Senator. Glad to meet you.

- Senator Robson represents our area in the state.

- My role is to support them and to encourage them in any way I can. You're up against a huge industry with lots of money and devious ways.

- From the Joint Finance, I want them to know that we do want the tax increase.

- The Joint Finance Committee won't just be focusing on the tobacco tax. So, it'll be kind of a potluck and kind of a smorgasbord of comments.

- Is there anything we can do to like make sure our point gets across?

- They want to hear your stories, just your own personal stories. Just relax and enjoy it. And know that you're really having an impact, because they are listening.

- I think that it is very good for you to, like, just be supporting us. So, thank you.

- I think they will be successful, yes.

- The Joint Finance Committee is the budget writing committee. Any bill that spends any money has to go through the review of this committee.

- When you come to these hearings, you sign in. You're given a ticket.

- I have 7430.

- You have three minutes to talk.

- Number 366.

- We'll be here for a couple more hours.

- I'm going to tell my story so kids like me don't fall in the same trap that I did.

- My uncle also died of cigarettes and smoking.

- It's almost time to speak. I'm excited and a little nervous.

- Number 430. Meg?

- If people would've asked me, "Oh, you want to go talk to somebody?" I'm like, "No." I would've been shy.

- Whoa.

- Are you testifying as a group?

- Yeah.

- But this program has brought me out.

- I joined FACT because I wanted to help fight a cause that is bigger than me. I wanted to prove to the industry that I can make a difference.

- My grandmother got emphysema and was told she had to quit smoking.

- More work still needs to be done to prevent youth from smoking and helping those addicted to quit.

- She passed away my freshman year of high school which motivated me even more.

- I started smoking at the age of 12. I am committed to FACT. And I will do everything I can to empower other teens to stand up against tobacco.

- They have learned how to utilize the process.

- It was kind of like the first experience for me. But I think it kind of went good.

- How to become engaged.

- My heart was pounding the entire time I was talking.

- And not be intimidated by elected officials.

- I can't vote yet, so I can't vote on the issues.

- This is part of the legislative process. This is part of democracy at work.

- We are the people and they are representing us.

- The importance of participating, having a voice, speaking up. It's the kind of thing that will make us think about what we're doing.

- We got what we came to hear. We got our message out and they listened.

- The students in FACT found the right people to talk to.

- They may need patience, but their quest for empowerment may lead to new laws.

- But what if the laws already exist and no one pays attention?

- Then we have to speak out so the laws are followed.

- But sometimes silence is the most powerful way to make a point.

- It may be the only way to make a point.

- I knew that I was gay when I was a freshman in high school.

- One problem we have in our school is like if you bring up anything about like homosexuality, or like anything along those lines, you'll pretty much get in trouble.

- I got in trouble for coming out, you know.

- And the whole class was picking on me because of it.

- The girl who came out as being a lesbian, and they threw her out of school.

- It being okay to harass somebody, and not allow them to join the group because of their sexual orientation.

- Coming out is like a good thing, in that people should accept it.

- The phrase, "that's so gay," is heard daily in high school hallways and classrooms. I had a teacher once who said, "That's so gay" twice within like ten minutes.

- Instead of saying, "gay," you're going to have like a whole bunch of other words you can use?

- So, today our workshop is on the Wisconsin Statute 11813. I was trying to let them know how they're protected legally.

- Well, the laws are in place. But people, unless they are educated, will continue to break them and discriminate against the people.

- The entire community should be told about the Pupil Non-Discrimination Policy.

- It is protecting groups who often face discrimination.

- Another good way to make this enforced maybe would be to build alliances with other diversity groups on campus. People are power in numbers. Governor Doyle proclaimed today a "Day of Silence" for the state of Wisconsin. On this day, we use our silence to be even louder.

- It focuses on the silence that they have to hold in order to feel safe in their jobs, or in their schools. A few people, when they found out that I was not speaking for the entire day, they said

that that was really stupid. And they questioned my sexuality. I identify as a straight ally. And the biggest thing was people said, "Oh, you shouldn't care about them. It's not a big deal." I think a non-violent protest against discrimination will achieve things.

- It shows that the people here really care.

- All right, we're going to start the march for Day of Silence.

- The Day of Silence is meant as a memorial for those who have been harassed or killed for their sexual identity, and who are forced to be quiet about who they are.

- We come here and we look at these numbers. This is powerful. And this makes a difference. I'm a straight ally. And I'm here today for my good friends that are or are not straight and have chosen to be silent today.

- Welcome everyone. Thank you for coming out today to our Breaking the Silence rally. There are thousands of students participating all across the U.S. 
(applause)

- All right. We have our official countdown. 
(cheering)

- Remember all the times that your sexuality was harassed, and remember your silence during that. Remember your feelings and your thoughts, and how doing this, taking this vow of silence showed that we will stand and fight for the things that everyone else has. Our rights.

- It's my right to be happy. My right to be mad. My right to stand up whenever I've had revelations when something's not right in the world. I think that like, everyone should be treated like the same, and everyone should be loved the same. 
(cheering)
 We have the freedom to be straight, the freedom to be gay. Without our freedoms, we could never be the people we feel we were all meant to be. Please let us bring a song to sing, a freedom ring. § Let freedom ring § 
(cheers and applause)

- Breaking the silence.

- Making streets safer.

- Fighting bad habits and thinking for yourself.

- These are all ways we have power to make changes.

- Changes that matter, that's our privilege in a democracy.

- Democracy it is!

For more information about our program visit our Web site at: democracyitis.ecb.org