#CapitolRiots As a history educator this week has been the toughest of my life. I work in a very conservative town, and in my private life am very much liberal. The last 4 years trying to stay neutral and impartial has been tough. I legitimately stayed up almost all night 1/7

Wednesday thinking of what to say the next day. What made this harder is we were somewhat discouraged from discussing the days events and making it “political”. Imo I don’t think strongly denouncing storming a Capitol with leaders present to potentially kill them is political 2/7

but these are our the times we live in. I stuck to basic facts about what happened, the procedural events of the day according to the Constitution, and a conciliatory message of reading a Washington quote about being Americans first before all else. As I read and learn 3/7

more and more about what happened I feel disgusted with myself. I think I was too conciliatory. Too generous to the feelings of students or families who may have supported the President. I get my audience was kids aged 11-13, and I definitely spoke on how bad the events were 4/7

but I don’t know if I captured the enormity of just how disgraceful they were. Now I’m left feeling as though I put lipstick on a pig, and missed a chance to denounce what happened more adamantly. I feel like a sellout. I’ve never once felt ineffective in my job or useless 5/7

but I do right now. It’s hard to look in the mirror. What frustrates even more is I don’t think many conservatives have this feeling at all. While true blame doesn’t fall on a lot of average people, they at the very least have added to the dangerous echo chamber. 6/7

Guess my point is reach out to your teacher friends and check in. This just sucks. Especially in top of a pandemic and struggling to feel validated in the midsts of that in the first place. 7/7