May 8, 2020

CulturePolicy

Learn It, Live It, Love It: The Reopen Edition

By: Cindy Cerquitella

Learn It:
Ballotpedia has put together a constantly updated, exhaustive list of the path’s states and cities are taking to reopen their economies.

This week, AF-HQ hosted an event with Avik Roy of The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP) and Steven Anderson of the Pacific Legal Foundation, where they presented their plans to reopen. You can view those linked below, as well as a few other pathways that are out there. These organizations are working both at the public and policy level to ensure reopening is done in a safe way that unleashes the energy of individuals and entrepreneurs so they can rebuild quickly. 

FREOPP

Pacific Legal Foundation

American Enterprise Institute 

Heritage Foundation

Live it:
Whether you’ve been laid off over the last several months, or you were hoping to make a career move, it can be difficult to navigate the new and constantly changing hiring landscape. But there is good news: hiring is happening! Join AF-HQ along with Claire Dixon of Talent Market and Anastasia Uglova of Joy Adjacent to explore how you can plan your next career moves Wednesday, May 13, at 7:00 pm EST.

Arthur Brooks’ new column in the Atlantic, How to Build a Life, has been fantastic as it’s helped people navigate the many emotions of quarantine. This week’s issue on how to have a happy retirement may feel like a far off dream for most of us, but thinking through how to set up your mindset and make decisions now for long-term happiness is very empowering. 

We were all talking about America’s polarization long before COVID-19 arrived on the scene. But the virus and the response has highlighted the very different ways so many of us see the world.  As we chart a path for rebuilding society, it will be vital to understand the fears, concerns, and hopes of those around us, even if we don’t agree with them. This article on the way conservatives and liberals have experienced a different pandemic is fascinating and could help frame our conversations. 

Love it:
I’m still holding out hope that I’ll get to take my planned trip to France for a cooking workshop in June. Wishful thinking? Probably, but Gary Leff says it may be time to start planning travel, and as the former chairman of AF’s board, I should probably listen to him. If late 2020 travel is in your dreams, I highly recommend you sign up for the Scott’s Cheap Flights email list. 

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” they say, and that’s certainly proving to be true lately. Efforts to find ways to offer safe, secure vote by mail options could be the key to securing our republic.