Weekly Writers Round-Up: Veterans Day in a Pandemic, Leaving Big Tech, and Student Loan Forgiveness

Each week, we’ll be featuring opinion pieces from the alumni and current participants of AFF’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!

How you can still honor Veterans Day, even in a pandemic by Beth Bailey (Fall 2018) in the Washington Examiner
This year, the observance of Veterans Day threatens to be obscured by an upswing in a devastating coronavirus pandemic and the aftermath of a contentious national election. However, now more than during any year in recent memory, it is vital for civilians to educate themselves about the issues affecting U.S. veterans in order to honor their service today and throughout the year.

Like much of the population, veterans and service members have struggled with the stress and isolation brought on by COVID-19. The Associated Press reported a 20% increase in military suicides in September. Many are concerned about a similar increase in veteran suicides, which occurred at a rate 1.5 times that of the civilian population, with an average of 20 veterans dying from suicide each day in 2019…

To tackle bias, conservatives should leave Big Tech platforms by James Czerniawski (Summer 2020) in the Orange County Register
Facebook and Twitter continue to draw the ire of conservatives over their actions against President Trump and other conservative voice’s tweets about voting and the election process during what has turned out to be a highly contentious election.

If there’s one thing that’s clear in the cacophony of complaints about the media’s anti-conservative bias and even the allegations of election interference that have surfaced in the aftermath, it’s that conservatives have a constitutional crisis in their hearts and minds…

The Case Against Student Loan Forgiveness by Preston Cooper (Fall 2015) in Forbes
Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) are calling on President-elect Biden to use his executive authority to cancel $50,000 in federal student loan debt per borrower. At a cost of roughly $1 trillion, that might be the most expensive policy ever enacted by executive order. Biden himself favors a smaller loan cancelation of $10,000 per borrower, but this would still cost upwards of $370 billion.

As a general rule, executive orders are not a great way to make policy. A move by Biden to unilaterally cancel student debt would invite a deluge of lawsuits and poison any chance for bipartisan cooperation on higher education reform in Congress. Moreover, it all might come to naught if a judge rules that the president lacks the statutory authority to forgive loans en masse…