Hello. I'm Tess Lynch,
and today we're going to be talking about
Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
Listen. I'm gonna transport you back in time.
Picture it. Florida. The 1920s.
There's a special place
that is the craziest environment that you can find
called the Everglades.
But South Florida is experiencing
an unprecedented population explosion.
So they're draining wetlands, building houses.
The developers are like, great!
I'm gonna build condos! I'm gonna build little tiny
ticky-tacky, ticky-tacky, ticky-tacky houses.
Hey, look at this swamp. It's full of bullshit.
I'm gonna put a [bleep] 99¢ store on it.
But the problem with this
is that everybody's draining the resources
of one of the most unique ecosystems on the planet--
the Everglades! - [laughs]
- And Ernest Coe, and landscape architect,
realizes, like, this place is special as hell.
I'm gonna get this place certified as a national park
if it's the last thing I do.
And so he's flipping through
the "Important People of Florida Directory,"
and he comes across a name-- Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
Very interesting lady. She's like, you know,
I'm a very early supporter of the ACLU,
and I'm supporting, you know, women's suffrage
and civil rights, and that's just what I do.
I'm opinionated!
And Coe's like, this is the perfect person
to get on board with my cause.
And Coe is like, come with me to the Everglades.
And so she goes down to the Everglades,
and she's all in her [bleep] pearls,
and she's wearing her straw hat,
and she's like, yikes, this place is too muggy,
too buggy, too inhospitable.
It's mucky and gucky! I don't like it.
And then she's looking around like, holy shit,
that's a crocodile holding hands with an alligator
is what that is!
That's a manatee!
That [bleep] thing looks like a cow under the ocean floor.
And that's a mangrove tree!
That's growing in the brackish water
that's half salt, half fresh, and I don't know
how that thing grows, but it's [bleep] doing it.
I actually think I love this place.
I'm gonna be a champion for here.
There's a bug in front of me. - What?
- You see that bug. I see you seeing the bug.
- Yeah, I see the [bleep]-- - I love bugs,
but that bug I don't like.
It's like he's, like, antagonistic. He's there.
I could grab him. But I don't wanna kill him.
I just wanna release him to nature.
You know what I mean? - That's nice.
- Can we keep going?
So they go to these town hall meetings.
The developers are like, malls, malls, malls!
Coe and Marjory are like,
shut the [bleep] up. Protect the Everglades.
And the legislators are like...[stammering]
Ahh. All right.
But, I mean, it's not gonna be so simple as like pffftt.
Coe says to Marjory, I think they're saying
that this land is pretty much protected.
And Marjory's like, don't you know the government
by now? It's gonna be a long-fought battle, Coe!
So Marjory goes down into the Everglades,
and she spends 13 crazy long years
writing every detail down.
You know, I'm gonna write a book!
"The Everglades: River of Grass."
That's a good title, God damn it.
1947, this thing is published.
Immediate best seller.
So people are like, holy shit!
I was just sort of thinking about my casseroles.
Now I'm a [bleep] activist!
All of a sudden, the Everglades are really important to people
who never cared before.
And then later that year,
the first 1.3 million acres of the Everglades
are officially desigignated--
desigignated.
♪ Designated ♪ as a national park,
just like Coe and Marjory had wanted.
But then Ernest Coe dies.
- Oh. - It's so sad.
Most people could kinda kick back.
Guess what. She doesn't quit.
You know why? Girl likes a challenge.
So when she hears the Nixon administration
is planning to build Miami Nat--International Airport
on the Everglades, she just can't let it slide.
♪ ♪
- Would you mind if I made your drink
just a little higher? - I would love it.
- Is that okay? - [snickers]
- ♪ You're simply the Tess ♪
- This is a very small wine glass.
- Yeah. They catch up on you, though.
- Let me know when. Now?
Cool. So what she does--
Marjory Stoneman Douglas meets the Nixon administration
on the [bleep] runway.
And they're like, ugh, oh! You're such a pebble
in my shoe. She's a nuisance.
She won't budge.
And Nixon is like,
puhhhh. Fine! We'll build it somewhere else.
And she goes, hah hah hah hah hah hah hah!
I'll see ya next time, bozos.
And she skips away.
How can you argue with someone who's like,
don't destroy nature.
How can you?
So Marjory is looking back
at what she's done,
and she's like, holy cow,
it's the third largest national park,
and that's nothin' to shrug at.
I'll just keep goin' till I die.
And she does. In 1998, at the age of 108,
the Everglades, for a moment,
grow silent, and there's a manatee,
and he's like, ah...there she goes...
the mother of the Everglades.
[whispers] Darkness.
To quote Marjory:
"Be a nuisance where it counts.
"Be depressed, discouraged,
"and disappointed at failure
"and the disheartening effects of ignorance,
"greed, corruption, and bad politics.
But never give up."
Today the students
at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
carry on that idea
by turning their pain into action.
They are the pebble in the shoe,
they are the nuisance,
they are the people who will not let
something so important be taken away.
There are some things that are too special to take.
[soft music]
- Cheers.
Be a nuisance. - Cheers.
Sweaty here in the Everglades.
- Very sweaty.