Last
week I had the privilege of speaking (via Zoom) with a class on leadership at
the Presbyterian College, University of McGill School of Religious Studies in
Montreal, Quebec. At the end of our
engaging conversation on the book, Transforming Leadership (Everist and
Nessan) which the students in Montreal had been using as a textbook, I mentioned
the Parkland school shooting and how much we could learn from Canada in terms
of gun violence. In poignant words they responded with care but also with
concern. “We know you are a great country and that you can change.”
Likewise,
the Australian delegation, including the prime minister, visiting the United
States this week, also noted their care and concern for the United States. They
noted how after the horrendous Port Arthur massacre in 1996 that country adopted
sweeping reforms to that country’s gun laws.
After a massacre at Dunblane Primary School,
Scotland, in 1996, there have been no school shootings in the UK. Gun restrictions
now are much, more strict. Children feel safe in school.
Today Dick’s Sporting Goods, one of America’s largest
sporting goods retailers, is immediately ending its sales of assault-style
weapons and high capacity magazines. They will also require customers buying
firearms to be at least 21 years old.
Many businesses are ending their relationships with the NRA. People can make
change happen.
This is a great nation, but not one without
flaws. To admit that amidst our prominence we have things to learn from other
countries may be our most hopeful promise. Those who may admire us also see our
glaring, deadly, problems. We can change! They see this. I was humbled by those
words from the class in Montreal.
And we hear that from the students in Parkland,
Florida. Do you notice they do not refer to their school as just “Douglas High?”
That made me wonder just who was this woman after whom the school was named
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (April 7, 1890 – May 14,
1998) was an American journalist, author, women's suffrage and civil rights advocate,
and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for
development. She became a freelance
writer, publishing over a hundred short
stories. Her most influential work was the
book The Everglades: River of Grass(1947), which redefined 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).
Marjory Stoneman Douglas lived to 108 and received
numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Perhaps the
students returning today to the high school named in her honor have received
some of her eloquence, persistence, and outspoken political advocacy for the
public good. We can learn. We can
change.
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