((PKG)) MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS
((Banner: Marjory Stoneman Douglas))
((Producers: Beth Mendelson, Tom Detzel, Cliff Hackel))
((Camera: Brian Beryl, Esha Grover, Sean Lunski))
((Map: Everglades, Florida))
((NATS))
((Video Montage of Parkland shootings))
((Banner:
After Parkland
Episode 5
Mother of the Everglades))
((NATS))
((Banner: “Be a nuisance where it counts, but never give up.” – Marjory Stoneman Douglas))
((VO Sari Kaufman)): And that’s actually the quote
((Sari Kaufman, Student, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School))
that’s on the fence that covers the building that the shooting occurred.
((VO Sari Kaufman)): We went through such
((Sari Kaufman, Student, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School))
a trauma and sometimes we were at our very low and seeing those quotes around our school
((VO Sari Kaufman)) and especially from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who our school was named after, reminds us to never give up.
((Locator: Everglades National Park, Florida))
((VO Robert Schentrup)): Marjory Stoneman Douglas is a great example of the change that one person can have.
((Robert Schentrup, Former Student, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School))
She was instrumental in making sure that the Everglades was a protected area that became a national park
((Source: Wolfson))
((VO Robert Schentrup)): and to stop the encroachment of development. She almost single handedly saved the Everglades.
((VO Marjory Stoneman Douglas)): When I came down in 1915, nobody had ever written about the Everglades except the very few pamphlets that I found.
((Source: Florida Department of State))
((Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Mother of the Everglades))
Nobody knew anything about it.
((Theodora Long, Executive Director, MSD Biscayne Nature Center))
Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a little 4-foot-8 (142 cm) spitfire.
((Source: Florida Department of State))
((1st still Source: AP))
((2nd still Source: Florida Department of State))
((VO Theodora Long)): She was basically a writer. Her father owned the Miami Herald. She called her dad and her dad said,
((Theodora Long, Executive Director, MSD Biscayne Nature Center))
"Get on the train and come to Florida."
((Source: Florida Department of State))
((VO Theodora Long)) And that sparked her big interest in the Everglades.
((VO Marjory Stoneman Douglas)): I love the whole
((Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Mother of the Everglades))
Florida thing, the sunflower thing.
((VO Marjory Stoneman Douglas)): I love the tropics and the light, and the sun, and the openness of the landscape and being near the sea and so on.
((VO Cesar Becerra)): Well, she gets her start out of nepotism. You know her father hired her for the Miami Herald.
((Cesar Becerra, South Florida Historian))
She starts to take over a society page, talking about the little intricacies of everything from the women's clubs to there's a new bridge being opened etc.
((Source: AP))
((VO Cesar Becerra)): Later on, she actually goes to Europe. She signs up with the American Red Cross and it's in Paris where she really, really struggles with what she really wants to do in life
((Source: Miami Herald))
((VO Cesar Becerra)): and writing becomes the key thing. Above anything, she wants to be a writer.
((VO Theodora Long)): Marjory was well known for trying to save the Everglades.
((Theodora Long, Executive Director, MSD Biscayne Nature Center))
But earlier in her life, with women's suffrage, she would take the train to Tallahassee time and time again
((Source: Reuters))
((VO Theodora Long)): and it was about getting the right for women to vote, and she didn't give up until they did get the right to vote.
((Source: Miami Dade County))
((Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Mother of the Everglades))
I think we should think strongly about Florida….
((VO Theodora Long)): She didn’t have an environmental background. She was retired, so she was free to go sit at a commission meeting or a group gathering to convince politicians to change the rules and regulations.
((NATS))
((Source: Miami Dade County))
((VO Cesar Becerra)): Marjory Stoneman Douglas writes about the light in the Everglades and the light in Florida and she was very, very moved by it.
((Cesar Becerra, South Florida Historian))
She came from a very tough, early beginning and the light was very key in her life.
((VO Cesar Becerra)): And she also talks very poetically in how it hit everything from the sawgrass to the flaps of the birds. So, light was very key in her prose. When I take groups out to the Everglades, I actually remember Marjory Stoneman Douglas', one of her famous lines was that
((Cesar Becerra, South Florida Historian))
"We are never, ever finished with learning."
((Source: Miami Herald))
((VO Cesar Becerra)): Marjory was so good at the science that she actually sometimes knew more than some of the politicians and had to actually school them.
((Source: AP))
((VO Cesar Becerra)): That was actually her gift. She used to her advantage this kind of older grandmotherly figure that a lot of politicians like to placate.
((Cesar Becerra, South Florida Historian))
She would snap them right out of it: "I'm not here to play games. I don't care what you think about me. Let's get to what we're here to really, really talk about."
((Locator: December 6, 1947, Wolfson))
((Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Mother of the Everglades))
I don't believe in compromise. You only compromise from weakness. If you're winning, you don't have to compromise. The people losing are the ones who compromise.
((Source: AP))
((VO Cesar Becerra)): It's really interesting. When Harry Truman came down to inaugurate the park, I'm sure Marjory Stoneman Douglas was smiling. There were lots of people that came together that really struggled to create this park.
((Cesar Becerra, South Florida Historian))
It took twenty years to protect the park and Marjory was there from the very beginning.
((Source: November 30, 1993, William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum))
((VO Cesar Becerra)): Marjory Stoneman Douglas was bestowed with the highest honor, The Presidential Medal of Freedom.
((VO Theodora Long)): Marjory certainly deserved receiving that award.
((Theodora Long, Executive Director, MSD Biscayne Nature Center))
To receive the Medal of Freedom Award at a hundred and
((Source: William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum))
((VO Theodora Long)): three years old. And President Clinton called Marjory "The Grandmother of the Everglades."
((VO Cesar Becerra)): But I think that she passed it onto the next generation
((Cesar Becerra, South Florida Historian))
that we still had a lot of work to be done.
((Locator: March 24, 2018, Washington, D.C.))
((Emma Gonzalez, Student, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School))
Fight for your lives before it's someone else's job.
((VO Theodora Long)): It was really touching to watch these children on television when that Parkland incident happened.
((Cameron Kasky, Student, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School))
Since this movement began people have asked me: "Do you think any change is going to come from this?" Look around. We are to change.
((VO Theodora Long)): And it was just very ironic that they had her spirit.
((Cameron Kasky, Student, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School))
….learned that our voices are powerful and our votes matter.
((VO Theodora Long)): All of us who knew her, we all called each other and
((Theodora Long, Executive Director, MSD Biscayne Nature Center))
said, "Can you believe these students and, you know, what a job they're doing?" and they're doing it just like
((Source: Miami Herald))
((VO Theodora Long)): Marjory would have done it.
((VO Samantha Novick)): Just like Marjory Stoneman Douglas paves the way for us, as a woman,
((Samantha Novick, Former Student, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School))
as an activist, as a compassionate human being, who led
((Source: Wolfson))
((VO Samantha Novick)): from her heart, and who wasn't motivated by ego, or power, or money. She was motivated by
((Source: Miami Herald))
((VO Samantha Novick)): doing what's right. And I see
((Samantha Novick, Former Student, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School))
the same thing in these students.
((VO Samantha Novick)): They’re taking a stand and they’re saying that, “We care about the world and we care about humanity.”
((Source: Miami Herald))
((VO Theodora Long)): She went on to live to be a hundred and eight
((Theodora Long, Executive Director, MSD Biscayne Nature Center))
and up until, I want to say, the day she died, she was still talking about saving
((Source: AP))
((VO Theodora Long)): the Everglades.
((VO Marjory Stoneman Douglas)): You got to stick with it. You got to see it through. You got to be tough.
