The question we (Abi, Beraka, Alex, Megan, Sofie, Nyshai) were given was, "Should we be tolerant of intolerance?" The discussion was phenomenal, but we mostly ended up with more questions.

First, Abi told a story about a man who provided a warm, dry barn (and food and water) to a group of teenage bikers caught in a thunderstorm. The catch? His barn walls were covered with Confederate flags, and huge posters proclaiming racist, pro-Confederate-South messages--the most innocent of which being, "Go home Yankees." Some of the kids were made so uncomfortable by the political messages that they couldn't stay in that room, even though the man had been nothing but openly kind.

Sofie brought up a famous picture of two KKK members tenderly holding their babies. The contrasting images between KKK members as symbols of hatred, and the same men as loving fathers also presented a situation where the actions a person took collided with another aspect of that person. We imagined the same fatherly affection from Emmett Till's killers.

Our new questions:

• Can you tolerate a person, but not his/her actions? Is this separation something to which we should aspire?
• Does a person's actions create assumptions (positive or negative) about their character? Do we have the right to make those assumptions?
• What constitutes tolerance?
• Should we seek to understand hate?
• What conversation would we have with Emmett Till's killers, if we could meet them?
• Hazel and Elizabeth Eckford--can we see past the hate on Hazel's face? (Elizabeth and Hazel were briefly friends.)
• Do you as a person decide what is intolerance? Is there a universal definition? Should there be?
• If two men can come home from being hateful in the extreme and be loving fathers, how do we judge them? Which extreme are they?
• Is it possible to speak out against intolerant actions while being tolerant of the person acting?