Today's moment weighs heavy on me as the nation turns focus to the Confederate flag. During my third year of teaching in rural Missouri, I assigned my students the coat of arms and I had two students put Confederate flags on them. I had told the students I would hang them, but never hung these two. When they asked why, I said it would be considered offensive to others in the class. They said it represented their freedom of speech and their pride. However, it occurred to me that they did not understand what freedom of speech meant nor did they understand the meaning of the confederate flag. See, to me, it wasn't just a symbol of race, but a symbol of a broken nation, a symbol of hate for the over 500,000 Americans that died because of that flag. See, to me, it represented not pride for one's country or state, but of fear and distress. That is not the pride I choose to share.
Today's moment: going to better define pride and freedom
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