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| It has been a mix of news this week and we have the columns to prove it. We have everything from school shootings to cancel culture to American exceptionalism. And we have them in the form of our weekly top premium columns, marked exclusively for our subscribers. If you're considering subscribing, now is a good time. Just click on this link and join the club. |
| We hope everybody has a safe weekend. |
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| By Connie Schultz |
| From those first wakeful moments to the end of the day when heads sink into nighttime pillows, each family moves to its own rhythm. At its best, family is a safe place steeped in the comforts of familiarity. From special nicknames to the shared history of private jokes, traditions bloom. |
| An essential ritual for families with school-age children revolves around the morning's fleeting farewell. Our mission, seldom articulated but felt deep in our bones, is to fuel our children's courage to explore the big world unfolding before them. Braided into the ritual of departure is the promise of their safe return. |
| For many parents, these morning goodbyes become a fraught endeavor in the wake of a school shooting. READ MORE |
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| By Carli Pierson |
 | | A mother and daughter are reunited after a shooting on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. Two students killed 12 others and a teacher before dying by suicide. | | Ed Andrieski/AP | |
| Frank DeAngelis, who was principal of Columbine High School when the campus shooting happened, sat down with members of the USA TODAY Editorial Board to talk about that horrible day in 1999 and what the nation has learned, or failed to learn, about school shootings since 1999. |
| These questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity: |
| You were the principal at Columbine on that horrible day. Could you tell me about what you remember from when the shooting started? |
| DeAngelis: My secretary came running towards me and face-planted and I knew something was wrong. She said there had been a report of gunfire down in the cafeteria, bombs exploding. And this isn't registering me with me because my first instinct is this has to be a senior prank. In my years at Columbine, I can count on two hands the number of fistfights we had, so this was the last place I thought it would happen. READ MORE |
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| By John Wood Jr. |
 | | Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to supporters before signing a 15-week abortion ban into law Thursday, April 14, 2022, in Kissimmee, Florida. The move comes amid a growing conservative push to restrict abortion ahead of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that could limit access to the procedure nationwide. | | John Raoux, AP | |
| We live in an age of social sanction. Perhaps every age is to a degree. But the predominating social sanction (or "cancel culture" if you like) from the American left as it expresses itself in popular culture and the activist activation of major American institutions are yielding a soft secessionism from the American right. |
| Cancel culture, whether one generally supports or opposes it, has been well discussed. But within the worrisome rise of existential polarization in American life, the latter phenomenon also deserves attention. READ MORE |
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| By Steven Porter |
| When we moved to a new city several Junes ago, Zach and I were excited to meet new friends and make the area feel like home. So even before we finished unboxing our belongings, we made sure to attend some of the local LGBTQ Pride events. |
| We watched as hundreds of our new neighbors in solid-colored T-shirts marched through the historic downtown in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, forming a rainbow as long as the parade itself. We stopped by the open-air marketplace to sample food and drinks from local vendors. And later that evening we enjoyed live music and nightlife complete with thumping dance beats and drag queens. |
| The lineup was striking for a city of fewer than 22,000 residents. As boyfriends in our late 20s, we found plenty to enjoy at Pride in our new city – even though we encountered one event that left us feeling a bit uncomfortable. |
| We may be exceptional, but we're also tragically flawed. Especially when it comes to guns. READ MORE |
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| By Jill Lawrence |
 | | Sen. Ted Cruz confronted by reporters on gun control | | SkyNews | |
| Why only in America? Why is this American exceptionalism so awful? – Sky News reporter Mark Stone |
| You know, I'm sorry you think American exceptionalism is awful. … Why is it that people come from all over the world to America? Because it's the freest, most prosperous, safest country on earth. And stop being a propagandist. – Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas |
| Two days after the horror of Uvalde, where an 18-year-old with an assault weapon killed 19 children and two teachers at school in Texas, and 12 days after the horror of Buffalo, New York, where another 18-year-old with an assault weapon killed 10 Black people in a supermarket, Sen. Ted Cruz's exchange with Sky News reporter Mark Stone underscored a major difference between America and other countries. |
| It's that we think we're special, and they see us as we are: Tragically flawed. Especially on guns. READ MORE |
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