Review of "Parkland: Birth of a Movement" by Dave Cullen

Parkland: Birth of a Movement by Dave Cullen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rating: 4.5/5

I was alive when the Columbine shooting occurred in 1999, but at the young age of 11, I could not yet grasp exactly why this happened, what actually occurred, how it has impacted generations of people, and ultimately how it could have been prevented. Dave Cullen, the author of the book "Columbine", was down in the front lines after the shooting. He saw the massacre, the death, the utter grief. He saw how it effected the students of Columbine High School, the parents of the students and the surrounding areas. He also monitored exactly how the media responded to the event and how long the anger and demand for change echoed in the social conversation. Cullen was also there when, so soon after the execution of 13 lives on April 20th, the blazing flames demanding gun safety now had died down to a flicker.


On February 14th, 2018, I was at work and I think one of my friends posted a link to CNN on Facebook, unfolding the series of events that were occurring in real time that afternoon. My heart sunk to the floor. At this time, I had been soaking up the impact of mass shootings after mass shootings year after year in everywhere from an elementary school to a movie theater. It had already felt like there was no safe place anymore. Working in a public library since I was in college, I had always thought a little about the possibility of an active shooter. But the mere thought of that happening shook me to my core and scared me more than any of the horror films I watch regularly. To hear that an unknown number of children were dying at the hands of a man with a gun yet again just wrecked me. How many children must die before we can talk about gun safety in this country?


In Cullen's investigative work into Parkland, he breaks down the events in chronological order. He begins my introducing us to Jackie Corin, one of the members of March For Our Lives, in the prologue and then leads into how and why this movement began and exists. Cullen begins Chapter One with,


"Speed. That was the first answer to the question on everyone's lips when this movement erupted, suddenly and unexpectedly, just one day after the attack: 'Why this time?' They didn't wait a moment."

This is the perfect introduction to how this group of teenagers went from hiding under desks from a shooter, to being escorted out of the building by SWAT, to coordinating a huge rally in Washington D.C. mere weeks later. Cullen spends most of the book using exact quotes of the students themselves. Letting them speak for themselves, he lets them prove their competence. I knew how eloquent these kids were from watching their speeches and the town hall with Dana Loesch on CNN. However, Cullen gives the reader the whole background story of just how they were able to juggle school and organizing a nation-wide movement for gun safety.

The narrative of this book is a lot different from other investigative accounts that I've read in the past due to the extensive use of quotations in the teenage voice. The juxtaposition of the adolescent syntax, particularly in the exhaustive use of filler words, to the sheer amount of action they took and everything they were able to accomplish is astonishing. I have a Master's Degree and I don't think I could have the drive to achieve like they did. The author made it clear to the reader that these amazing people were truly just children in the end. They had to do their schoolwork and choose between extracurricular activities and activism (most of the time, they chose activism).

If you were at all interested in the story of the kids from March For Our Lives, you should read this book. It walks you through all the events you have seen on television but with the added bonus of the background scenes and all the work that led up to those moments. I was so inspired by these teenagers and I'm usually not that much of a fan of those aged between 12-24. They took this horrific incident and let it fuel action to make an actual change in the world. They didn't want to sit on their butts and send thoughts and prayers anymore. They wanted to fight for change. Yes, they are aware this is an ongoing battle, but Cullen communicates to the reader exactly the intentions of MFOL to continue fighting.

Jackie Corin said it best "...Nothing that's worth it is easy. So why would this be easy? We're going against the largest gun lobby in America. We could very well die trying to do this, but we could very well die not trying to do this, so why not die for something rather than for nothing."




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