Reads of the Week: Problems with the Menthol Ban, Consequences of High Taxes, and Free Speech on the Korean Peninsula
Each week, we’ll be featuring opinion pieces from the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. Do you dream of having bylines like these? Learn more about how the Writing Fellows Program can help boost your writing career!
FDA ban on menthol cigarettes: Bad for criminal justice, health policy by Guy Bentley (Spring 2017) in The Hill
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just announced it will pursue a ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes. Menthol cigarettes, which currently make up around a third of the cigarette market, are disproportionately used by Black Americans. While proponents of the ban claim that a menthol prohibition is a matter of racial justice, the reality is that such a ban will most likely contribute to overcriminalization in Black communities already struggling to determine the role that policing should play in their neighborhoods…
New Census Data Reinforce the High Prices High Tax States Pay by Andrew Wilford (Spring 2017) in RealClearMarkets
Certain high-tax states in this country just can’t seem to help themselves. Even as their tax bases flee their states, these states continue to stick to the same tax-and-spend policies that have some of their residents desperate to get out. Unfortunately for states starting to feel the pain through diminished revenue collections, it seems there’s another consequence as well: a loss of electoral and legislative power.
With the arrival of new census data comes Congressional reapportionment, and we now know that six states will gain seats in Congress while seven states will lose seats (Texas is gaining two seats). These changes are the same for Electoral College representation. But when looking at the states affected by these changes, a clear pattern of taxpayers fleeing high-tax states for low-tax ones emerges…
South Korea Should Expand Free Speech on the Peninsula, Not Reduce It by Arielle Del Turco (Summer 2020) in Providence Magazine
A South Korean law that threatens human rights activists with fines of nearly $27,000 or up to three years in prison has prompted international concern about the status of free speech in South Korea and the future of human rights advocacy. Passed in December by South Korea’s parliament, the law bans civilians from floating balloons with informational leaflets and sending bottles with rice and USBs over water.
Last month, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the US House of Representatives held a hearing on freedom of expression on the Korean Peninsula. The hearing revealed several causes for concern, but one thing is clear: the South Korean government should expend more effort to promote access to information in North Korea than it does to stifle freedom of speech and expression in the South…