Good morning! No. GREAT morning.

I woke up to several breaking news alerts, text messages, and my Facebook and Twitter feed were out of control. This morning, all before I even opened my eyes, the SCOTUS struck down a federal law that denied benefits to same-sex couples in 12 states AND legalized same-sex marriage in California. Bam.Bam.Thank you ma’am.

Source: CBS News

I’m feeling overly emotional this morning. Maybe it’s because I spent the last hour breaking it down and translating the news for my grandmother. And in the process of breaking it down, everything just sort of sunk in. Or maybe it’s because I spent the last month of the school year doing a Civil Rights Unit with my students. Back when I had taken a hiatus from blogging, we had some pretty powerful discussions in our classroom that I wish I had recorded somewhere. We studied the Civil War, the Freedom Riders and the Civil Rights movement, and culminated the unit with how intolerance still exists in our world today.

So maybe I’m just emotional because my students – my kids – are able to see that, yes, intolerance and inequality still exist in their world. But with enough drive and determination, things can change. WE CAN MAKE CHANGE. And we are a part of change.

Today is really a beautiful day.