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An alternative view

To the Journal editor:

Although history is full of examples of “tyranny, servitude and misery,” it is crucial to recognize that specific races, religions and cultures were deliberately targeted. If you believe people are solely upset about America’s racist past, you are missing the fact that many live in a racist present.

The failure to acknowledge and rectify this as a nation is why our young people are standing up to make changes. As a social studies educator, it has been my job to teach the foundations of this nation, but also introduce students to the tools they have as citizens to advocate for change, just as our Founding Fathers had intended and as citizens have used throughout our U.S. history. If students and young people are speaking out against things they don’t believe in, peacefully advocating for change, and presenting ideas for the future, then our education system is not failing our children.

Heavily biased news and websites, like the one mentioned in the previous article, perpetuate the false belief that all young people hate the United States and don’t care what happens.

However, in my experience, if you step into most classrooms, you will find that students see injustice in both the past and the present, and want to understand and correct it in their own ways.

It is possible to live in a country you love and a country you want to improve at the same time. You can be an American and say negative things about our country, they are not mutually exclusive.

By accusing those who speak out against current, and past, policies of being un-American and uneducated, we are discouraging the very system of government that our Founders fought so hard to construct.

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