We hope you enjoy these top news stories about TFAS activities, alumni and events this week. Please visit us on social media for additional up-to-the-moment TFAS news and information and sign up to receive weekly updates.
TFAS alumni, staff and faculty continue to make headlines. Read news, analysis and updates by visiting this week’s “Quick Links.”
TFAS Executive Vice President Calls for Reasonable, Civil Dialogue on Nation’s Most Pressing Issues
Last week, TFAS Executive Vice President Steve Slattery penned an op-ed in The Washington Times on the growing need for open dialogue surrounding the important issues facing the United States.
In the article, Slattery cites the need for adult conversations on the big issues facing our nation. Addressing bipartisanship, national unrest, election integrity and the national debt, he writes how Americans must have fact-based discussions based on knowledge of history, government and politics.
Integral to all of these issues, as Slattery outlines, is freedom of speech.
“We must talk openly about freedom of speech,” he writes. “We need to understand the origins of the First Amendment and grasp how restrictions on speech have been the first moves toward totalitarianism through history.”
There are important challenges facing this country, and we will solve none of them if we do not come to the public forum with open minds, knowledge, data and a spirit of civility, even when we may disagree on policy issues.” – Steve Slattery, The Washington Times
Through this understanding, Slattery goes on to explain how “a functioning democratic society demands that intelligent thoughtful debate be the foundation for solutions to our most pressing problems.”
Read the full article to see why Slattery calls for open, two-way conversations to address issues from both sides of the aisle.
Venezuelan Campus Speakers Share Horrors of Socialism
Venezuelan asylum seekers Andrés Guilarte and Jorge Galicia shared the mic on The Dan Proft Show with TFAS alumnus Dan Proft ’93. On Tuesday evening, Guilarte and Galicia spoke of TFAS’s college campus tour and how they are sharing a warning on the true impacts of socialism with college students in the U.S.
In the segment, the pair discuss the dangers of socialism and how American students are receiving their vital message.
To those who argue that “it can’t happen here,” Guilarte warns: “It’s not always the same misery, it depends on the country….but [socialism] is like a cancer. It can be totally different from person to person, but in the end you will die if it’s not treated.” He continues to outline examples where we see this happening in the U.S., such as in raising minimum wage, which will ultimately result in higher costs and closing of businesses.
Galicia followed by debunking the myth that “what could happen in America wouldn’t be true socialism,” but instead would be “democratic socialism.” He rebuts: “The first steps Venezuela took toward socialism were when we were still a democracy…I always try to explain to students that, in a sense, democratic socialism gave us the path to the more authoritarian socialism and Marxism.”
List to the full 18 minute segment here:
Economics Lesson of The Week: The Future of Water – Crisis or Cooperation?
TFAS provides resources to help teachers and parents continue the important task of educating our nation’s future leaders. Our “Economics Lesson of The Week” series features new lessons from our high school programming division – the Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE) – each week.
This week’s lesson is “The Future of Water – Crisis or Cooperation?” In this activity, students will act as Oyster Valley farmers under an appropriation system. Students will then analyze the fair and desirable outcomes of water appropriation as they consider alternative water allocation methods that could help increase the sum of total revenues to all farmers. Over the course of the activity, students will learn the potential cooperative solutions for water disputes through water markets.
Visit TFAS.org/FTELessons for a one-stop guide to our available resources.
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QUICK LINKS
Kristin Tate, Novak ’19, opines for The Hill on potential threats to democratic government.
Tim Alberta, Novak ’18, will be joining The Atlantic as a staff writer. He was previously the chief political correspondent for POLITICO.
Laura Vanderkam ’99, Novak ’06, shares a two-step system for starting new projects in her advice column for Forge.
Firas Maksad ’01 discussed on NPR the future of U.S.-Saudi relations in the Biden administration.
Alexis Black ’17, ’19 and Justin Black ’18, ’19 joined the American Enterprise Institute’s podcast “Hardly Working” with Brent Orrell to discuss how communities can better serve foster kids and at-risk youth amid the release of their new book, “Redefining Normal.”
Peter Suderman, Novak ’10, discusses the potential effects of raising the minimum wage in a piece for Reason.
TFAS Director of International and Continuing Education Programs Brenda Hafera opines for RealClearPublicAffairs on “The Female American Mind.”
Darielle Fair ’20 has been accepted to the Pepperdine School of Public Policy’s Master of Public Policy Program.
Giorgi Lomsadze ’08, ’08 writes about how waiting for the vaccine rollout in the country of Georgia has affected public health communications for Eurasianet.
Ken Rosen, Novak ’18, shares his personal experience in traditional schooling and the basis for his new book, “Troubled,” in a piece for The Washington Post.
Joseph Rago Memorial Fellow for Excellence in Journalism, Alessandra Bocchi, Rago ’20, discusses Italy’s “Years of Lead” in a piece for The Wall Street Journal.
Rachel Lu, Novak ’15, shares the importance of recognizing the impact that mothers have on society in a piece for Law & Liberty.
Stephanie Slade, Novak ’16, analyzes the history and future of fusionism in Reason.
Katherine Mangu-Ward, Novak ’05, opines for Reason on the recent presidential transfer of power.
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