A heart-breaking anniversary of my broken relationship with my father

I have not spoken to my father in a year. That sentence is hard and sad to write and even harder to fully accept.

Last February my wife joined other educators to protest the termination of Corey Wise by the Douglas County School Board. She had known him since they worked together in the same building during his first year teaching. More importantly, she trusted him as a superintendent who had extensive experience in the classroom.

As I watched the board meeting, my father arrived at my house because we had planned to go out for dinner. I explained what was happening and he promptly began to mock the protesters. I reiterated that my wife was among them, and it was important to her, but he persisted. Using derogatory language and flailing his arms like Donald Trump mocking…