A few rambling paragraphs about a meeting in which I end up supporting the Confederate flag

I recently attended a presentation from an American Federation of Teachers (AFT) representative about the AFT’s strategy for the upcoming presidential election season. The speaker was lively and informative. He discussed the current predictions for November’s election, some results from a survey of AFT members about their political views, and the AFT’s plan for getting people out to vote.

As I sit here, the day after I attended the event, writing this essay and thinking about how I want to express my thoughts on the Confederate flag, I can’t help but indulge in flights of fancy.

I imagine shuffling down the sidewalks towards a church for a hastily called meeting. The meeting’s organizers — primarily male pastors and female educators — are working on the best way to take advantage of one of their own being hauled off to jail unjustly for wanting to sit down on a city bus. The meeting would lead to the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association and the rise to prominence of a young pastor named Martin Luther King Jr. It would be a few years before King truly developed into a transcendent speaker and moral leader. But at the meeting, there would have been glimpses, as I would have heard King say in a speech:

And you know, my…