The Whole Kristen ca-Doodle

I knew I needed to do it. I was too afraid to start.  I rehearsed the conversation in my head over and over, but still didn't know where to begin.  I had excuses:  They are too young.  They won't understand.  It doesn't directly affect them.  They don't have the historical perspective yet. But the truth is, I was afraid to tell my children about Charlottesville, because I was afraid to reveal to them the ugliness of humanity, the failure of my generation and their grandparents' generation to address social ills and instead to sweep them under the rug.  I was afraid to see my pain, confusion, sadness, guilt, and fear reflected in their innocent faces.  It was hard enough to address the inadvertent mispronunciation of the African country, Niger, by a classmate, and the loving, necessary correction of that mispronunciation by another of their friends, last year,  and the conversation about words the people use to steal the humanity a...