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In a Two Views commentary on free speech and campus protests, Olivia Alperstein, the communications and policy associate at Progressive Congress, wrote that to use the First Amendment as a shield to defend hate speech is to defend the oppression the Founders fought to eliminate. Meanwhile, Emily Ekins, a research fellow at the Cato Institute, issued a plea to millennials to not give up on free speech.
Gov. Greg Abbott spent three days in Cuba last week to try to take economic advantage of the trade opportunities that the Obama administration’s re-establishment of relations with the communist nation offers Texas.
At least on this one issue, the man who never hesitates to try to score political points against President Barack Obama when the issue is clean air, immigration or Syrian refugees, is putting aside ideological obstinacy for business practicality. Where Abbott succeeds in talking trade with Cuba, the state succeeds.
Pulled into print from the Viewpoints blog:
Editorial writer Gissela SantaCruz wrote about the Austin Recycle Games, a competition organized by Austin Resource Recovery to encourage more recycling in each of the city’s 10 council districts. Viewpoints editor Tara Trower Doolittle offered her take on recent attempts by Central Texas parents to opt out of standardized testing.
For more perspectives from the editorial board, go toviewpoints.blog.statesman.com.
Earlier this year, the city of Austin finalized its first master plan to help municipal cemeteries become more engaging public spaces. Since taking back the maintenance and management of its five cemeteries — Evergreen, Oakwood, Oakwood Annex, Plummers and Austin Memorial Park — the Parks and Recreation Department has steadily worked to improve them. It’s a task that is well overdue.
From sustainability to environmental impact, the upkeep of cemeteries — which tend to be located in very visible places — is very much entwined with Austin’s expansion.
The governors of 31 states, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, say they won’t take Syrian refugees. Are they right to take this stance?
That was a Two Views question debated by Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Irving, and Don Kusler, the executive director of Americans for Democratic Action.
Kusler wrote the governors are not only morally wrong, but also are irresponsible. By rejecting Syrian refugees, he argued, they are exaggerating terrorist strengths by making the United States seem weak, and they are validating fear and even outright hate with the American public. Matthews disagreed, and he lay the blame for the refugee stalemate with the White House, not the nation’s governors; they have legitimate safety concerns, he wrote.