As someone who has consistently voted for progressive change and remains a huge fan of Obama, I remain concerned about the next backlash. As some people have said there can be an ideological rigidity on the left as much as on the right.

Do you choose Robespierre or Napoleon?

Would you prefer Tsar Nicholas II or Lenin?

Would you prefer Stalin or Hitler?

I would choose Franklin Roosevelt over any of them, Japanese internment and all.

I loath the Japanese internment and have debated the topic for decades with students. We must be careful of letting the perfect become the enemy of the much better.

I can quote Dr. King, Malcolm X, and Frederick Douglass until the cows come home against my above arguments.

At the same time, from my perch in the exurbs of Boston we are now in danger of lurching too far to the left too quickly.

Before we try and reinvent the wheel, the constitution, and the bill of rights lets make sure we fully understand them first.

Lets preserve both freedom of speech and the right to peaceful petition.

Let those of us who have spent our careers educating children keep doing so.

If there is anything certain besides death and taxes it is another political pendulum swing in the next 10 years or so.

Lets listen to one another and start pulling together. It is much easier to tear down a statue and burn down a house than it is to build a new one.

If nation building begins at home then lets do it the right way.