Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Her High-School-Student Namesakes

Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the School Shooting Victims and 
Survivors at Her Namesake High School in Parkland, Florida

If you think you're too old (or too young, for that matter) to Make a Difference, take a lesson from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the namesake of the Parkland, Florida, high school where the tragic mass shooting took place last Ash Wednesday/Valentine's Day.

Wikipedia: Marjory Stoneman Douglas Bio

Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890–1998) was blessed with extreme longevity, so that she was a feminist before the word existed, an early suffragette and remembered her Quaker grandparents' dedication to the abolition of slavery. A 1912 graduate of Wellesley, she moved to Florida, first working as a reporter for the Miami Herald, then quitting in 1923 to become a freelancer.

Although she helped care for wounded World War I soldiers in Paris with the Red Cross and later helped end laws that allowing the "leasing" of prison convicts as laborers, she is best remembered for her tireless work on behalf of the Florida Everglades, founding the organization Friends of the Everglades at age 79 and continuing for the next 29 years until her death.

You may not have heard of Ms. Stoneman, but you have probably heard of The Everglades: River of Grass, her seminal work published in 1947, that changed perception of the Everglades from that of a "worthless swamp" to that of a "treasured river."

Diminutive and outspoken, Marjory Stoneman Douglas stood 5'2" and weighed 100 pounds, speaking in "precise paragraphs" and pointed prose. She used her position as a "little old lady" to great advantage, reportedly saying, "People can't be rude to me, this poor little old woman. But I can be rude to them, poor darlings, and nobody can stop me."

She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, who cited her passionate commitment to the cause.

The young victims of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, take after their namesake. They are educated, eloquent, articulate, and free of preconceptions. They are not ceasing their efforts for perceived political roadblocks. They are using available tools and platforms to further their cause. They channel their grief and anger into action rather than collapse in futility and despair.

What are we going to do?

What am I going to do?

Kind regards,

George