We’re still in the early stages of this new normal in the workplace. It’s not just whether white-collar folks go back to the office — I’m betting most will — but the opportunities to choose one’s work, the nature of the work itself, the pay for work, the relationships between boss and employee. All appear to be changing.

Some of us are vexed with the CDC over its shifting guidelines, but you won’t get an amen from this corner. Scientists have to follow science, and if this is where the science leads, so be it. No, if you’re looking to apportion blame, blame the Delta variant. And blame, too, those people who refused to wear masks or be vaccinated, and the public officials who seconded them. Blame the ones who said these were matters of “personal choice.” As if personal choice supersedes public interest.

Next time you see a young couple where the girl is in short shorts, note what the boy is wearing. Odds are that his sexual parts are nicely covered. The issue is female dignity and gender equality, and little more.

Because while the deniers may deny many things, you cannot deny the stark moral clarity of a cop who tells you he was not as frightened in Iraq as he was in Washington, a cop who couldn’t hug his wife when he got home at 4 a.m. because his uniform was saturated with chemical irritants, a cop who got called “n—-r” so many times he found himself in the Capitol rotunda afterward demanding aloud, “Is this America?,” a cop who told himself, “This is how I’m going to die.”

Noem turns 50 later this year and is a first-time grandmother. She also displays qualities for national office Republicans claim to want. Trump and others (including her opponents) should keep an eye on her.

By all means, let’s be as truthful as possible about the Alamo and the Texas Revolution. But it’s pointlessly destructive to tear down what deserves to be honored and to forget what — as Sam Houston insisted so ringingly and aptly — should be remembered.

Most of us have socks older than that. But Faris Nunn already knows that America is a blood-drenched nation where everybody’s armed and if you hope to survive, you must be ready at any instant — in the ballpark, in the rec center — to duck and run. This is what she has come to understand. This is what normal looks like to her. And for that, shame on us all.

The visibility of Olympic protests — particularly around questions of Black rights — escalated during the 1960s. This was by design. Harry Edwards, who taught sociology at San Jose State, believed that by disrupting sporting events, African American athletes could confront White America about racial inequality and discrimination.