You ought not go over there. Ain’t no telling what could happen to you.”
That’s how an aunt warned me when I decided to study abroad. The decision wasn’t surprising because I had a lifelong fascination with foreign languages. But in Siler City, about fifty miles southwest of Durham, I had nearly exhausted the opportunities to use them. It was a shock to both my community and me that I found myself going, with an actual passport and airline ticket, over a big, real ocean.
“But do you even speak Paris?” a cousin asked that summer night after my freshman year before I left for France.
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As police departments struggle to 
We, like many of you, watched Wednesday night’s presidential debate and are counting the days to Election Day which will end an election cycle that feels like it has lasted for a lifetime. We have our own political views and preferences for who should win this election and you should too. But above those political differences, all Americans should take pride in how we freely conduct elections and accept their results.