September 10, 2021

AF CommunityCulture

Reads of the Week: Vaccine Mandates, Home-Based Entrepreneurs, and ISIS in Libya

By: AF Editors

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!

Vaccine Passports Should Be Neither Mandatory Nor Forbidden by Billy Binion (Spring 2018) in Reason

The loudest, most extreme voices in the room tend to get the most attention, which is why the debate over vaccines and vaccine mandates seems to be between a group of people—including legislators and governors who claim to support limited government— who insist that not even private businesses should be allowed to require proof of vaccination for service or employment, versus another group of people—including leaders from the nation’s preeminent civil liberties organization—who say the government should be able to mandate vaccines for everyone.

Though it receives far less attention, there is another position on this spectrum: Individuals and private parties should be permitted to adopt whatever rules they please, but the government should refrain from mandating that people inject something into their bodies…

West Virginia should welcome home-based entrepreneurs by Amanda Kieffer (Spring 2020) in The Register-Herald

During the lockdowns last year, 6 out of 10 Americans started new hobbies to keep themselves occupied – 35 percent of them with the intent of making a few bucks off of it. Entrepreneurship helped keep many families afloat and gave folks creative outlets in a time that notoriously frayed America’s collective mental health. 

West Virginia needs to realize that this trend isn’t going anywhere, even as the pandemic grows and wanes. If we want to grow a reputation for opportunity and keep its people in state while attracting new people here, it’s vital that we update our laws and regulations for the modern economy…

Is ISIS Making a Comeback in Libya? by Emily Milliken (Fall 2020) in Newsweek

In July, a U.N. panel of experts released a new report on global terrorism, with some alarming conclusions. In it, they noted that East and West Africa have been the world regions hardest hit by terrorism over the past year, and that terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria are fast becoming “an entrenched insurgency.”

One data point was conspicuously absent from their survey. Nowhere in the report was the threat posed by the previously dormant Islamic State (ISIS) in Libya mentioned. That’s a glaring omission because the Libyan franchise of the world’s most dangerous terrorist group could now be poised for a strategic comeback…