Whether it's literature or some other key that opens the door, it's important that school communities explicitly reflect on our readiness to offer these children, and all children, the opportunities for moral development and moral leadership that our nation needs.

There is no magic formula to annihilate racism. Acknowledging we may have regurgitated hateful, flimsy terms that don't necessarily reflect what's in our true hearts is a start.

In the fuzzy arithmetic of their moral equivocation, flag pins matter, firearms matter, border patrols matter, but black and brown lives don't matter unless they can be leveraged for some self-serving political purpose

Gov. Bentley probably wanted to have a legislature vote but wouldn't get much support from the conservative politicians. Some say, "Let's vote on the Confederate flag," but given the failure of prior referendums and the angst from the state debate over that issue, Bentley reasoned that it just wasn't going to work in Alabama.

Both political parties seized the opportunity to talk about how the love and generosity of the American people will conquer hate and intolerance. But still, neither party is talking about race in any real way. For both parties, playing ostrich to race and guns has solved nothing.