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USA Today
11-06-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Opinion: What does Pride month mean to the LGBTQ+ community in 2025?
Opinion: What does Pride month mean to the LGBTQ+ community in 2025? | The Excerpt On a special episode (first released on June 9, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: As Pride Month 2025 gets underway across the country (albeit with fewer corporate sponsors), we asked what pride means to you – not just the parades, protests and community, but also your feelings, fears and hopes – and whether it can continue to exist in its current form. Here's what you told us. Forum is a series from USA TODAY's Opinion team that is dedicated to showcasing views from across the political spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on. If you'd like to weigh in on a different topic, you can find more questions at And if your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Michael McCarter: Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. LGBTQ+ rights are back in the spotlight as President Donald Trump issues executive orders banning transgender military service members and rescinding funding from educational institutions that allow trans athletes to compete in sports. So far, in 2025, more than 500 bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community have been introduced across America. As Pride Month 2025 gets underway across the country, we asked what Pride means to you, not just the parades, protests, and community, but also your feelings, fears, hopes, and whether it can continue to exist in its current form. I'm Michael McCarter. I lead the opinion sections of Gannett, the parent company of USA TODAY. This is a bonus episode of The Excerpt highlighting a series from USA TODAY's opinion team called Forum. Here's what readers told us. Gillian Gurney is 26 and lives in New York. She shared that current events have made Pride more important and that Pride must be seen through the lens of revolution and protest. Gillian Gurney: Pride is beyond important though in the current climate we are seeing people try to consistently attack this month in a way that hasn't been seen in several decades. And to me, Pride means so much more than just the joy and courage that we exude as a community year round. But I think this time specifically is a time to acknowledge the revolution that it took to get us here. This is my second Pride being publicly out at age 26, and I think back to people like my grandfather, who is an out gay man, but wasn't able to actually be out until the 1980s when at the same time, the AIDS crisis was rampant throughout his community and he lost several friends to AIDS unknowing as to why, and was treated like a national pariah. So not only is Pride about joy, but Pride is also about honoring those who came before us to make things like this possible. Trump has never been shy about his direct homophobia, transphobia, and attacks against the queer community amidst at least every other minority community in this country. His hateful rhetoric and quite frankly, unconstitutional directives that he's issued since his first day in office that are purporting baseless attacks on our community that doesn't affect him in any way are deeply concerning. So if corporations, organizations, communities, lawmakers and individuals at every single level of both government and public sector and private sector don't stand up and mobilize and advocate in ways that we need, we could see our country fall back into a time where being yourself could be punishable by law. And we're already starting to see that. This highlights the responsibility that we have both as queer people and both as allies to stand up and not allow that to happen because the second that we curtail to being silenced, that's when the other side wins. The queer community is both a very diverse community in and of itself, and I think my question would be how can we unite together and not allow other communities to split us up into further factions and band together to make sure that we're able to help everyone? Michael McCarter: Sixty-four-year-old David Thibodeau lives in Washington D.C. He's concerned about the threat of violence at Pride events across the country. David Thibodeau: I mean, I've worked corporate for a long time and they were strong supporters of Pride and I hate to see corporations and their support for Pride, I hate to see that atrophy. I think it is important. I probably won't be going to Pride this year, even though [inaudible 00:03:55] is holding World Pride. Last year during Pride, there were a lot of warnings from the previous administration about credible terrorist threats to Prides across the country, and this year there have been none, and it gives me pause because I don't think those groups that were issuing the threats last year have stopped issuing threats. I think that this administration is not paying attention to those groups anymore, so it's a matter of safety. I actually had invited family to come down because it was World Pride this year, and I've kind of uninvited them. I don't want them to be in the middle of anything that might be unsafe. Kind of goes back to when I was a lot younger. Maybe I feel like we've gone 30 years back in time, maybe 40 years. I don't know. I think that anti-LGBTQ voices, their groups are being given a voice and I'm not sure that they represent the greater sentiment of the population. I'm pretty sure that they don't. I think we need to recognize more the root of these events and where they come from and that they are form of protest. There should be more room for a somber recollection of why these events are important. Michael McCarter: Houston, Texas native Jazz Paz told us she sees Pride as one way to honor elders in the LGBTQ+ community. She's 73. Jazz Paz: I think Pride month is very important and to me it means the celebration of our survivorship. It means that we recognize and are grateful to our elders who made Pride happen. What I'm seeing, especially this year, is big corporations wanting to participate anonymously, which doesn't seem very Pride-ful to me. There are also, of course, the ones that only come out for the Pride events and we never hear or see from them again. That makes me kind of mad. Ones like Target that used to be supportive are now almost like against us, and I think it is a lot of the DEI pushback that we're seeing from this prevailing political environment. I suspect the federal government might continue to honor Pride Month with lip service, but I don't think they're proud of us and I don't think they like us, and I don't think they're going to be enthusiastically endorsing us for the next several years. I'm a little bit sad that Pride Month has sort of devolved into just partying. There's no sense of, at least in Houston, there didn't seemed to be any recognition of what made all this necessary or possible. It was a political and very serious, it was joyful, but it was taken seriously. In the beginning, in Pride in Houston all the bars closed, all the stores closed. Everybody was in the street watching the parade. There was a band. There was very creative floats. But it was just for our community, nobody else even knew about it. And now there's people with babies in strollers and their grandparents are there, and it's a spectacle. It's no longer, in Houston at least to me, it's no longer an honoring holiday. I think too many of the elders that suffered and really, really worked hard to make this possible have passed on. I think the more younger generations don't have any idea how hard it was just to survive as a gay person. It was against the law to be gay. It was against the law for women to wear front zipping pants in Houston years ago, maybe like 50 or 60 years ago. And all the people that went to jail and a lot of them committed suicide when they were going to be outed in the newspapers, I don't think young people realize any of that. I think there's a lot of difference between reading about it or hearing about it and knowing the people that separate these things and knowing them personally as your friend. Michael McCarter: KJ Novoa is 27 and he's from Douglas, Arizona. He shared that Pride can't be erased even if corporations and politics stand against it. KJ Novoa: I think Pride means a lot of things to me, but first and foremost, it means visibility. I think I associate Pride with being out not just in terms of social media or in the media sphere, but also just in the world, being authentic, being ourselves. It's a reminder that we're free to be ourselves in this day and age no matter where the political winds may swing. I do think corporations play some role in Pride, and I do think that could be a positive thing and also to our detriment. Corporations obviously provide a lot of visibility whether we like it or not, and they are sort of a gateway to exposure for whatever cause that we may want to put out there. I think that in the same way, corporations pulling out based on a political direction being inconvenient for them can also be to our detriment, because then that means less visibility for us. We shouldn't have to depend on corporations or big companies for this type of exposure and visibility for any type of marginalized community, but unfortunately we do. I think within the LGBTQ community, we have to ask ourselves regarding Pride, are we going to hinge so much on corporate support? Are we going to hinge so much on whether a certain president supports us or not? Are we going to hinge so much on public opinion that we let that decide whether we want to be visible or not? Whether we want to be out and about free and showing who we are without embarrassment or without any type of reservation? I feel like even though I'm only 27 years old, I have learned a lot about LGBTQ history, and I know there's been many cases throughout history where there was times where the politics at the time were even more hostile towards LGBTQ people, whether it was during the Reagan years and when the AIDS crisis started to emerge, or the Lavender Scare when people were afraid of being associated even with certain colors or walking or acting a certain way because they thought it would get them labeled as gay and thrown out of their jobs. So I think we need to remember that above all, we're resilient, and regardless of whether political winds swing right or left, I think that at the end of the day, we have to remember we're not going to be erased. Michael McCarter: That's all we have for today's episode. This is a co-production with the Forum team at USA TODAY, where we invite our readers to weigh in writing on a national topic of interest. If your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. There's a link to Forum in the show description. Let us know what you think about this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Thanks for listening. I'm Michael McCarter, vice president of the Gannett Opinion Group. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.
USA Today
03-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- USA Today
Opinion: Is Caitlin Clark improving women's sports for the better or worse?
Opinion: Is Caitlin Clark improving women's sports for the better or worse? On a special episode (first released on June 2, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: People from across the country weighed in on the impact Indiana Fever's point guard Caitlin Clark is having on the WNBA and women's sports in general. Forum is a series from USA TODAY's Opinion team that is dedicated to showcasing views from across the political spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Michael McCarter: Hello, and welcome to The Excerpt. Caitlin Clark is an athlete that has made more people pay attention to the WNBA. She had a record-breaking rookie season with the Indiana Fever last year. As the 2025 season kicked off last month, we asked, "Is there too much media coverage of Caitlin or too little? Has she changed women's sports for the better or made things worse?" I'm Michael McCarter. I lead the opinion sections of Gannett, the parent company of USA TODAY. This is a special bonus episode of The Excerpt, highlighting a series from USA TODAY's opinion team called Forum. Here's what we heard from you about Caitlin Clark, the WNBA, and women's sports. Theresa Koster: I think Caitlin gets the right amount of coverage. For fans who may not have been paying attention, it may seem to be excessive, but I do think there's some great players across the WNBA and I'm really excited that the coverage seems to be getting a little bit better dispersed this year. Michael McCarter: This is Theresa Koster, a 58-year-old from Marietta, Georgia. She started watching WNBA games and learning more about the league's players because of her interest in Caitlin. Theresa Koster: I think Caitlin Clark is changing the WNBA and women's sports for the better. I think she has a natural ability to attract attention, and she has a unique ability to tell a story. She's very composed and she's often cited going back to the history with Title IX and the extent that the University of Iowa in particular championed it and calls back a lot of that support and activity that maybe a lot of people just aren't as familiar with. I think the WNBA's newfound popularity is here to stay. I think things fundamentally changed in the last four to five years. Just from a behavioral perspective, I think people started paying attention differently, but I think there's a more recognized acceptance of the WNBA, and you see that from all walks of life, including their counterparts in the NBA, that they respect the game and are helping lift up women's sports. I love volleyball and I've been happy to see all of the pro volleyball leagues get started in softball. I played softball all through high school, and softball, it's just fun, so it'll be fun to see that and hopefully see it catch up to what the attention that the WNBA has been getting. Michael McCarter: Anthony Sowinski is 68 and lives in Huntersville, North Carolina. He's a fan of Caitlin Clark and of her team, and he thinks that the level of play for women's basketball has soared over the last few decades. Anthony Sowinski: I believe Caitlin Clark is going to get as much coverage as the sports media and fans demand. The game she plays is so pure and she reminds me of Pete Maravich. She's like the female version of somebody new coming out, and if anything, she elevates every one of the players around her and they either get better or she exposes the fact that they can't handle what she is able to produce these days. When I was coaching basketball and reffing 30 years ago, it was horrible level of play. Frankly, nobody wanted to do women's games or it was considered whatever it was considered. I think as camps and interest and all that has occurred over the last few decades, the level of play has just gone up and up. It has a ways to go yet, but it has come a long way. Hopefully with the level of play and the interest, TV contracts get better, therefore women get paid more, but obviously she's going to make many, many more times in endorsements what she's going to make as a player, and that's very sad. But that will probably be the same kind of reflection that you can make on what NBA players used to make 30 years ago versus what they make now. If people took a look at women's softball a little more than they do, I think they'd find that really riveting as well. Those games are heavy right at the edge of your seat, especially at the level of play and how intensely competitive that is. Michael McCarter: In Naperville, Illinois, Ruth Anerino has been delighted by the rise in attention to women's sports in general. She's 78. Ruth Anerino: Even my neighborhood book club that has ladies older than I are chit-chatting about her, and the kiddos love her, and she's being very responsive to the kids. I'm concerned about kind of the roughhousing and the kind of acceptance of the tough plays, and also I'm concerned that the refs are not calling plays. She's hurt, she's out for two weeks, and some of the moving picks could be career-ending for these women athletes. Accidents will happen, but some of this stuff is not pure game. I played basketball in the old days in Iowa with three on three, couldn't cross the middle line, two dribbles, it was pure basketball, stop, reach, not like it is today. And I hope it stays more pure basketball. Caitlin kind of epitomizes the joy and the family and the faith and the philanthropic things. I mean, she's giving back a lot. That's what I think makes her appeal. She's just down to earth and caring about not herself. You hear her speak of gratitude, and that's really an important value right now, to really be compassionate and caring, and I hope she heals fast and gets back on the court. Michael McCarter: Julian Howard hails from Buffalo, New York. The 63-year-old thinks that the WNBA's newfound popularity will be short-lived, lasting only as long as Caitlyn plays. Julian Howard: I think Caitlin is changing the WNBA for the better, because the more attention that we can draw to women's sports and the more people that watch it and get interested in it, I think that's good not only for the WNBA, but for all of women's sports. It's always been a fairly popular league. Caitlin Clark has elevated the media attention to it. I don't know if it's here to stay. I would like it to be here to stay because I think there needs to be some good options to sitting on your couch and watching men's sports all weekend. The US women's national team in soccer certainly plays better soccer than the US men's national team, and certainly being good increases their visibility. So I think Caitlin Clark is a good player, people want to watch her play for the Indiana Fever. Now, whether that lasts or not, who knows? I mean, she's out with an injury right now. In fact, not only is she out, but I heard that they're having trouble selling tickets. So right now, the popularity of the Indiana Fever and any road game they play is based solely on Caitlin. Whether that lasts depends on whether she continues to play at the same high level. I think the biggest issue facing women's sports is the sexualization of women athletes, especially as it pertains to the uniforms that in many cases they are mandated to wear. And this affects women's track and field, it affects volleyball, it affects field hockey. If you watch women's beach volleyball at the Olympics, they're playing in bikinis, whereas the men are playing in board shorts and T-shirts. I know a couple of my daughter's friends quit the volleyball team because they weren't comfortable wearing those uniforms. So I think we're going to have to ask ourselves, "Are women's sports popular because women are great athletes, or are men watching women's sports because there are scantily clad women jumping around?" Because those are two very different things. But that is the issue to me. If you've got young women who are giving up on sports because they're not comfortable with their body in the uniform that they are mandated by a regulatory body to wear, then I don't think we're doing what we need to do for female athletes. Michael McCarter: That's all we have for today's episode. This is a co-production with the Forum team at USA TODAY where we invite readers to weigh in in writing on a national topic of interest. If your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. There's a link to Forum in the show description. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Thanks for listening. I'm Michael McCarter, Vice President of the Gannett Opinion Group. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.
USA Today
23-05-2025
- General
- USA Today
Juneteenth is a federal holiday – but it's new to me. Is it important to you? Tell us.
Juneteenth is a federal holiday – but it's new to me. Is it important to you? Tell us. | Opinion I was nearly 40 years old when I first heard of Juneteenth – and I didn't know the significance of the date at all. What does Juneteenth mean to you? Share your thoughts below. Show Caption Hide Caption Juneteenth 2024: How to celebrate Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021. Here's how to prep for and celebrate the important holiday. Problem Solved I was nearly 40 years old when I first heard of Juneteenth. I was living and working in Cincinnati at the time. I didn't know the significance of the date at all, I figured it was just another summer festival or a day in June to hop in the pool or go to a cookout. Juneteenth was not covered in my history classes, nor publicly celebrated in any of the numerous towns where I previously lived. Here's what I know now. On June 19, 1865, 160 years ago, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned that slavery had been abolished in Confederate states with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation – more than two years after it was signed. Although the date is widely recognized now as "Juneteenth," also known as Emancipation Day or Black Independence Day, its historical context is more complex. Now an official federal holiday, Juneteenth offers an opportunity to engage with a significant chapter in American history that is often overlooked. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. On June 19, 1865 (Juneteenth), enslaved people discovered they were free. The Emancipation Proclamation wasn't ratified until December 1865, making it the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Think about it, can you imagine something as significant as being freed from bondage and not knowing you were freed for more than two years after the paperwork was signed? For some, this holiday represents a time to reflect on and celebrate freedom, resilience and the pursuit of equality. For others, who are just beginning to understand the significance of the date, they may appreciate the federal holiday aspect – a day off – without delving into the complex and often uncomfortable conversations about our shared history. Your Turn: I suffered for 51 years without DEI policies. I won't go back. | Opinion Forum What is Juneteenth – and what does it mean to you? Tell us. As we observe the fourth anniversary of Juneteenth as a national holiday, we invite you to share your thoughts on what this holiday means to you. We want to hear from you. Please tell us your thoughts on how this important day resonates (or does not) across your community and whether holidays such as this one have become too politicized to hold significant meaning. Fill out the form below, or send us an email to forum@ with the subject line "Forum Juneteenth." We'll publish perspectives from all sides of the conversation in a weekly Forum installment. Michael McCarter is vice president of the Gannett Opinion Group.
USA Today
21-05-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Opinion: Do you support Elon Musk and his work with DOGE?
Opinion: Do you support Elon Musk and his work with DOGE? | The Excerpt On a bonus episode (first released on May 19, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: Do you think DOGE has helped to shrink the federal government or was it all for show? We asked and you answered on Forum. The series from USA TODAY's Opinion team is dedicated to showcasing views from across the political spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on. Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Michael McCarter: Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. President Donald Trump appointed Elon Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency as he started his term in office. Do you think DOGE has helped shrink the federal government or was it all for show? And should a private citizen have this level of influence? I'm Michael McCarter. I lead the opinion sections of Gannett, the parent company of USA Today. This is a bonus episode of The Excerpt highlighting a series from USA Today's opinion team called Forum. Here's what we heard from you about Elon Musk and DOGE. Charles Peterson: I do not support Elon Musk. I don't think as a private person, he has any business involved with the government or on behalf of the president doing what he's doing. Michael McCarter: This is Charles Peterson, a 70-year-old from Rocky Hill, Connecticut. He views Musk's involvement in government as inappropriate and potentially harmful. Charles Peterson: DOGE is all for show. It's part of Trump's show. Trump went as far as to involve private citizens, especially with such things as our social security system and private concerns that outside individuals shouldn't be involved in and have no business in. They didn't save any money, and it was a big waste of time. As most of the Trump's antics are a waste of time. As far as Musk's businesses, Tesla, SpaceX, and X and so forth, those businesses are showing fracture and lots of points of failure right now as well. So I think Mr. Musk wants to get back to his businesses and stop losing money. Michael McCarter: Lorraine Michaud is 62 and a Cape Cod native. She thinks Elon Musk is the right choice to quickly change US federal systems and spending. Lorraine Michaud: I fully support Elon Musk. The reason that I do is I think it's the transparency. I love the fact that he's smart, innovative, out of the box thinker. The government is just so slow and there's so much inaction, and then you see these business people come in and it's a whole new world. All of a sudden it's doing. We're not researching, we're not forming commissions. The action, just moving in that direction and the action, it's fabulous. I love it. I love it. I don't really view Elon Musk as some rogue actor like a lot of people do. I view him as part of the President's team. You know what I feel what's happening right now? It's a little bit like Bar Rescue. Are you familiar with Bar Rescue the show? You have a struggling entity that's probably going out of business or is definitely going in the wrong direction, and then you have a guy like John Taffer. He's a long term, obviously, food and beverage consultant, but what does he do? He comes in with his team. He comes in like a wrecking ball. He shakes things up, and at first everybody probably can't stand the guy. Things are crazy, but you judge by the results. Before you know it, the bar is rocking, the customers are happy, people are making money, and they're hugging John like he's family. So I feel like right now we're in America Rescue situation. Trump is John Taffer and Elon Musk is just part of the team that he's bringing in with his areas of expertise to shake things up and to turn things around just to right our ship. That's how I look at it. Michael McCarter: Paul Bradshaw, who lives in Stuart, Florida, is critical of Musk's mass layoffs. The 74 year-old has growing concerns about unchecked power that influences public institutions. Paul Bradshaw: I do not support him in any shape or form in his political arena because I think that in that way of just arbitrarily axing jobs left, right and center, they were just by process. A lot of good people that were needed lost their jobs, so without really researching what they actually did, and that was really proven when there were people who had to immediately be rehired when they found out that what we can't do without those people. When he took over Twitter now X, it was really bizarre the way that he behaved when he first took that company over. Again, he went in, fired a whole bunch of people, arbitrarily changed the way everything was done, but that appears to be his personality. I became a citizen 12 years ago, so of course, as I'm sure you're aware, I had to learn a whole bunch of stuff and take a test, which as it turned out was pretty simple. I was only asked about six questions, but I had to research the whole civics class that the checks and balances are being overridden by a private entity as far as I can see, and I'm not comfortable with that. I was so proud to become a citizen of this country, and I think the country's in crisis. I really do. I think I would ask him why he feels that a man of his power and wealth and influence thinks it's okay to just arbitrarily fire hundreds of thousands of people that he really doesn't know anything about. I would expect a fairly glib reply. Michael McCarter: John Burns, who is from Ellisville, Missouri, strongly supports Elon Musk, praising his efforts as necessary to get significant cost savings. He's 73. John Burns: I love the guy. I think he's probably one of the greatest additions to help our government along simply because he is not really a politician, and I think because his kind of mind works from logic and common sense. Although his initial anticipation of 2 trillion was a little excessive, what they've shown so far in 150 plus billion dollars in savings over the course of the next 10 years, especially, I think it will turn into a trillion dollars by the time he's done. Eliminating graft corruption, all that has to happen in order to save our economy, and we know that it's there. Just like our Congress does on bills, they throw in everything and the kitchen sink to try to load up their own personal agendas, and I think it's going to have a very, very good effect. Reagan tried it back in the eighties. Well, they did stop Trump from achieving what he wanted to do in his first term. Trump learned a lot in those years, and that's why he's come back and from day one, he is just started. He may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but we can always pull the baby back in. I think the acting president, who obviously has gotten the majority of votes or the majority of the Electoral College should be able to appoint people who are not voted in and have such great ability to help the US government. Michael McCarter: That's all we have for today's episode. This is a co-production with the Forum team at USA TODAY, where we invite our readers to weigh in, in writing, on a national topic of interest. If your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. There's a link to Forum in the show description. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcast@ Thanks for listening. I'm Michael McCarter, Vice President of the Gannett Opinion Group. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.
USA Today
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Opinion: What do you want your mom to know?
Opinion: What do you want your mom to know? | The Excerpt On a special bonus episode (first released on May 12, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: We're putting the spotlight on moms today, asking readers to share about why it's so important to honor moms or maternal figures in our lives. Forum is a series from USA TODAY's Opinion team, dedicated to showcasing views from across the political spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on. If you'd like to weigh in on a different topic, you can find more questions at And if your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Michael McCarter: Hello, and welcome to The Excerpt. Yesterday was Mother's Day, so today on Forum, we're sharing what our readers wanted to share about their moms. I'm Michael McCarter. I lead the opinion sections of Gannett, the parent company of USA TODAY. This is a special bonus episode of the Excerpt, highlighting a series from USA TODAY's Opinion Team called Forum. Here's what you told us. Ariel Mitsch: My favorite Mother's Day tradition is probably the ones that I've started with my children and my mom now. Instead of us getting a hanging plant or just buying something, my daughter really likes to make certain things. So just the other day, we painted her a canvas of mountains. So I try to incorporate things that are handmade because I know my mom is really sentimental, and I am too. Michael McCarter: That's Ariel Mitsch, a 35-year-old who lives in Lowell, Indiana. Even when it's hard work, she's grateful for the relationship she has with her mom. Ariel Mitsch: I would just like to tell my mom that I appreciate her, that I acknowledge all the things that as mothers we do that go unnoticed. But being a mom now, I see it, I totally see it, and I thank her for everything she did for me. I think it's important to honor moms because we do so much, and most of the time, we're putting ourselves last, and I don't think we realized what kind of toll that takes on us until later. Our mothers are everything, it's how we become who we are. So I know how much of an effect everything I say and do is affecting my kids, and I want to be a good role model for them, just the way my mom was. I'm just so grateful and thankful for my mom and the relationship that we have. We worked hard to get it, it's not something that came easy all the time. No mom is perfect, we are all just trying to do the best that we can. This Mother's Day, I just want everyone to know how much we're appreciated, even if our kids and our husbands and our family can't say it, but I know how much they appreciate everything we do. Michael McCarter: Andrea Markel lives in Danbury, Connecticut, and she's 33 years old. She shared that she's pulling for her mom to head down a different path than the one that she's on. Andrea Markel: I believe being a good mother is probably the most challenging task in the world. Absolutely, we should honor our mothers for taking on such a tremendous and incredibly important task. I would like to tell my mother that there is always time to change your course for the next chapter of your life. My mother has struggled throughout her life with alcoholism, I struggled with pretty much a wide range of substance abuse, alcohol and drug use myself. There's always time. There's always time. It doesn't matter what your age, where you are, you can always change the course of direction in your life. It is not easy, but it is absolutely feasible, very, very possible. I am a living example of that. I started using drugs probably when I was 14. I haven't used drugs in at least eight years, and I just like to let my mother, all addicts, all women, know it is possible. It may feel very, very impossible, but it can be done, and the world is just waiting to see you shine. Michael McCarter: 41-year-old Ashley Leonard is from Memphis, Tennessee. Her message to her mom is simple, she loves and appreciates her. Ashley Leonard: It's a big deal for women to know as a mom, "You're doing a great job, we're here for you for whatever you need." And that's my mom. That's her top thing, she's very active. She has always been there for me every step of the way, all of my 41 years, helping me with my kids. My mother's gift, one year, she gave me, at the time, 15 gifts, one for each year... I was a mother, and my daughter at the time was 15 years old, so I had a gift for every year. So I just really want to let her know that I love her, I appreciate her, I haven't forgotten about her. I think about her all the time. I worry about her all the time. For as a mom, she's great. She's awesome. I don't even know... I don't have all the words for it. She's just the greatest mom ever. It's very important for moms to know they're being seen, their work is not going unnoticed. Like I said before, as a mother, it is very hard, challenging, with kids of all ages, every stages. So just mainly making sure moms are seen, making sure moms are known they're appreciated, let them know any token would help. Michael McCarter: Meta Marie Griffin is 55 and lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She says that as she's grown older, she's come to see her mom in a different light. Meta Marie Griffin: I'd like to thank her for being a good model. It was hard when we moved back to Spartanburg, and she worked full time, and went to school, I didn't think she was any fun. But I learned the importance of getting an education, because she used to say, "It's a man's world," and I have to work harder. It was such a transition because we had lived in a nice neighborhood, and then when my mom divorced, we moved back into the house she grew up in, and my grandmother owned it at the time, and it took a lot of work. And she still lives there now, and it's a major difference, if you see the pictures. I know sometimes, my mom says I wasn't a good mother, and sometimes, our moms, maybe they feel guilty, they weren't there enough, but it's important to appreciate what they've done, and they are important role models in our lives. Michael McCarter: That's all we have for today's episode. This is a co-production with the Forum team at USA TODAY, where we invite our readers to weigh in, in writing, on a national topic of interest. If your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. There's a link to Forum in the show description. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@ Thanks for listening. I'm Michael McCarter, Vice President of the Gannett Opinion Group. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.
