Weekly Writers Round-Up: Americans’ Apathy toward War, the Challenge of Student Journalism, and the Future of DACA

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? See here for info on how we can help make that a reality.

On Veterans Day, Americans should think less about the warriors and more about the wars by Gil Barndollar (Summer 2018) in the Los Angeles Times
This Veterans Day, Americans will roll out the thanks: parades, tributes and enough free chain restaurant food to satiate the most gluttonous Marine for a week. Some U.S. veterans, particularly those who have served overseas in combat, are increasingly skeptical of this cheap grace. Despite the often-genuine outpouring of affection, thanks and “support” for veterans, many Americans know little and seemingly care even less about the wars their veterans have fought over the past two decades…

A journalism lesson from Northwestern by Cole Carnick (Fall 2018) in Spectator USA
Student journalists at Northwestern University apologized for doing journalism on Sunday.

In response to complaints by student activists over their coverage of Jeff Sessions’s recent visit to campus, the staff of the Daily Northwestern apologized for causing ‘harm’ to their fellow students in a recent editorial. Among their supposed transgressions, the reporters posted pictures of protesters to social media, which was ‘retraumatizing and invasive’, and committed an ‘invasion of privacy’ by contacting students for interviews…

DACA is in trouble before the Supreme Court. Congress should step in by Brad Polumbo (Summer 2018) in the Washington Examiner
Remember the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals? It might be illegal. Or, alternatively, President Trump’s decision to revoke it might be.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over this issue on Tuesday. When the Trump administration in 2017 announced that it was revoking the Obama-era DACA policy that gave those who were brought into the country illegally at a young age legal status, they cited the program’s arguable unconstitutionality as their justification. Critics and immigration activists challenged this revocation in court, arguing that the government was legally baseless in rescinding the program.

Now, the Supreme Court will decide this matter once and for all…