Happy (belated) Presidents Day

Apparently I am a week behind on all the posts I've been meaning to write. Luckily I am a subscriber to the saying "better late than never" and I suppose it can still be appropriate to be posting this today as it is George Washington's birthday.

For those who don't already know, I am currently working at Polaris Charter Academy, reportedly the first Expeditionary Learning charter school in Chicago, in the 5th/6th grade Expedition classroom. This month, we started in on our Slavery/Civil War Expedition with students and it has inspired me to do so much incredibly fascinating, thought-provoking, and cringe-inducing research that I wish I could have directly shared & discussed with Liliane. (To those people who have been hearing me go on and on about Crash Course, this is how that obsession got started. I've also been taking full advantage of the massive open online courses available on Youtube and enjoying the writings of incredibly smart, learned people.)

So what is the point of me writing all this and how exactly does it relate to Liliane? I hope people can forgive me for coming off sounding terribly unpatriotic but the fact of the matter is America is a country that was founded on hypocrisy. One need only look at the massive institution of slavery that was allowed to develop and exist in this country for over 200 years to realize the truth in that statement. Liliane, however, was someone who always tried her very best to avoid being a hypocrite (or "hippo-butt" as she frequently would call me out on), and that is something I think worth being proud of. Of course, I am certainly not trying to say my sister was perfect - (in fact, I'm pretty sure it's my job as her older sister to occasionally point out how she's not perfect) - but as her friend Fadwa so eloquently put it, "Lili’s capability, ambition, and personality were far from simple. However, her kind, humble, innocent nature was what is simple." I hope people can find comfort in knowing that the Liliane you knew is most likely a true reflection of the person she was with no duplicity, insincerity, or pretense attached to it. And that's something she arguably had figured out even before some of our Founding Fathers.

There is a picture of Liliane & me at Mt. Rushmore that I wanted to include on this post although I can't seem to find it at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to track it down sometime in the near future.

Here's to the world being filled with less human hippo-butts, and more actual hippo butts!