Parkland - Dave Cullen Page 0,58

a lot, I asked. Too much?

“It’s a lot,” Ryan said. “But—”

“It’s manageable,” Alfonso said.

“It’s something we have to do,” Ryan said. “We have to stand for the families of those who are grieving and not just in our community. I was in New York last night, at a church and these women from Harlem talked about losing their children years ago and they said that they’ve been fighting this fight for eleven years and nearly nothing has changed. And now like maybe change will happen here.”

12

The Memes Men

1

Nine days until the march. They were all about the message now. A million little details to work out, but that was not the focus at MFOL headquarters. No one would remember if the buses got snarled getting folks there, or if some fine was levied for parking them wrong. If they failed to inspire young activists, they lost. If the march came off as too juvenile, too unfocused, too privileged, too white, or even too boring to keep millions tuned in to TV . . . loss. Every previous group of survivors had gotten a four-day window of relevance. The MFOL kids were the first to get a second shot, a shot they created, and they had to make the message sing.

They had mapped out message strategies for before, during, and after the march. During depended on the stage: the pacing, the visuals, the performers, and all the optics, because millions would be receiving their message through their eyes even more than their ears. The message was gun safety for all kids, so they all had better be visible. They had spent the spring meeting young urban activists, so they had a wide talent pool to draw from. Alex and D’Angelo from the Peace Warriors were no-brainers: passionate and articulate speakers—voices the world needed to hear. About half the performers and speakers would be people of color, representing hard-hit urban areas like Chicago, Brooklyn, and South Los Angeles.

Another major visual choice would be to exclusively feature kids at the podium. They wanted adults as allies—performers, for example—but their message would be delivered by kids. That was a powerful message itself. But they were wise enough to realize that kids were relatively new to this—and none of them had played a stage this big. They were not just handing them the mic cold. They had conducted a series of conference calls with speakers and organizers for DC and the sibling marches. “We want to make sure all of them have the same ideals that they’re pushing,” Jackie said. “Because people aren’t very clear about that, even though we’ve made the message pretty clear. People still are a little cloudy.” Repetition, repetition, repetition. They would keep scheduling conference calls until they heard everyone singing the same tune.

But even the world’s best orators could never hold a worldwide TV audience for two hours. They calibrated their own short attention spans: Who would they watch? They needed lively performers and big names. 42 West had opened doors; it was up to the kids to woo the talent.

Jackie’s top priority was recording personalized video for each performer they wanted—no frills, just straight to camera, expressing what it would mean to have them. They were casting a wide net, dreaming big and audacious, across hip-hop, pop, R&B, and country. Country was vital, Jackie said. Diversity didn’t always mean color—this time it also meant conservatives, who had been tough to reach. Diversity meant gun enthusiasts, making sure the performers also included a streak of white.

Big names were already on board, but they were reaching for more. Jackie had just completed appeals with four other girls to Drake, Chance the Rapper, Kendrick Lamar, and Jason Aldean. They coaxed Dwayne Wade to appear with them in one. Jackie was especially hopeful about Aldean, who had been performing in Las Vegas during the Route 91 concert shooting. He felt like a kindred spirit, and could reach red America. “He’s been involved in the issue, but he gets the different crowd,” she said.

Jackie wasn’t sure how the videos actually got to these people—not her problem. She just sent them to 42 West, she said, and whoosh, connected.

They reached out to a long list of performers, because many were previously committed. They didn’t hear from Aldean. But Demi Lovato said yes, and so did Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Platt, and several more.

They had expected to be pulling their hair out that week, but the office was eerily quiet. Things felt so