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Wikipedia Summary for Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (April 7, 1890 – May 14, 1998) was an American journalist, author, women's suffrage advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for The Miami Herald, she became a freelance writer, producing over one hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines. Her most influential work was the book The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), which redefined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Its impact has been compared to that of Rachel Carson's influential book Silent Spring (1962). Her books, stories, and journalism career brought her influence in Miami, enabling her to advance her causes.
As a young woman, Douglas was outspoken and politically conscious of the women's suffrage and civil rights movements. She was called upon to take a central role in the protection of the Everglades when she was 79 years old. For the remaining 29 years of her life she was "a relentless reporter and fearless crusader" for the natural preservation and restoration of South Florida. Her tireless efforts earned her several variations of the nickname "Grande Dame of the Everglades" as well as the hostility of agricultural and business interests looking to benefit from land development in Florida. She received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was inducted into several halls of fame.
Douglas lived to 108, working until nearly the end of her life for Everglades restoration. Upon her death, an obituary in The Independent in London stated, "In the history of the American environmental movement, there have been few more remarkable figures than Marjory Stoneman Douglas."
The hardest thing is to tell the truth about oneself. One doesn't like to remember unpleasant details, but forgetting them makes one's life seem disorganized.
It is a woman's business to be interested in the environment. It's an extended form of housekeeping.
Pigheaded covers a multitude of virtues -- as well as sins.
There are no other Everglades in the world.
The Everglades is a test. If we pass it, we may get to keep the planet.
The miracle of light pours over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and of water, shining and slowly moving, the grass and water that is the meaning and the central fact of the Everglades. It is a river of grass.
Life should be lived so vividly and so intensely that thoughts of another life, or of a longer life, are not necessary.
I believe that life should be lived so vividly and so intensely that thoughts of another life, or of a longer life, are not necessary.
No one is satisfied with their life's work.
I feel greatly at fault in not having made a loud public protest about Belle Glade before this.
You can't conserve what you haven't got.
It's a little bit late in the day for men to object that women are getting outside their proper sphere.
I wanted to go to a good college, and my mind was set on Wellesley.
I'll talk about the Everglades at the drop of a hat.
The problem of the environment is the extension of good housekeeping of the thinking woman.
Sometimes, I tell them more than they wanted to know.
Since 1972, I've been going around making speeches on the Everglades.
You have to stand up for some things in this world.
No matter how poor my eyes are I can still talk.
Child welfare ought really to cover all sorts of topics, such as better water and sanitation and good roads, and clean streets and public parks and playgrounds.
I'm just a tough old woman.
Conservation is now a dead word.
The miracle of light pours over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and of water, shining and slowly moving, the grass and water that is the meaning and the central fact of the Everglades. It is a river of grass.
The wealth of south Florida, but even more important, the meaning and significance of south Florida lies in the black muck of the Everglades and the inevitable development of this country to be the great tropic agricultural center of the world.
Whoever wants me to talk, I'll come over and tell them about the necessity of preserving the Everglades.
They are unique in the simplicity, the diversity, the related harmony of the forms of life that they enclose.
To be a friend of the Everglades is not necessarily to spend time wandering around out there.
I take advantage of every thing I can -- age, hair, disability -- because my cause is just.
There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth; remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them.
All we need, really, is a change from a near frigid to a tropical attitude of mind.
There is always the need to carry on.