Category: Indiana Writers Group

by Leo Morris I can barely keep track of all the shaming going on these days. There is fat shaming. And slut shaming. And stay-at-home-mom shaming and LGBTQ shaming and even religion shaming. And we have apparently become so judgmental that as soon as we feel properly chastised about one form of shaming, another one…

by Leo Morris Have you ever driven a car without wearing your seatbelt? Shame on you. That makes you just one of the scofflaws, those people who think they can do whatever they want to, regardless of the rules everyone else has agreed to abide by. You deserve whatever punishment you get. Have you ever…

by Leo Morris “Socialism” has become such a loose term, open to such a variety of interpretations, that people can end up arguing past each other, some of us attacking something we incorrectly think the other side is defending. Those of us on the attack tend to be thinking of the formal, classical definition in…

by Andrew Horning Orwell was right. “Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.” So it’s natural that people today (perhaps Mayor Pete Buttigieg) think our nation’s founders were not just slaveholders and sexists, but also idiots. However, before…

by T. Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. To many Americans, the mention of Florida conjures up images of orange juice. For others, it’s Disney theme parks, a place to escape harsh winters, or even a place to spend the rest of your life. All represent things Floridians export to other Americans. Popular thinking aside, there is…

by T. Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. Whether one is a . . . churchman or a heathen, it is useful to know the causes and consequences of economic phenomena. — George Stigler (Nobel Prize in Economics, 1982) “Forgive us, Lord, for we eat food harvested by people working for starvation wages.” So spoke the leader…

by Leo Morris I did not attend my college commencement because, at the time, it did not seem that obvious a demarcation in my life. I’d split my post-secondary time between two schools, with military service in the middle. I still lived with my parents for the first phase at Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne and commuted…

by Leo Morris It’s amazing how so-called professional journalists can report the bare facts and somehow miss the bigger story right in front of them. Here is the news report from KOB-4 out of Albuquerque, N.M.: Two girls in Roswell had a plan to get a message to their grandparents in Heaven. Shayla and Haylie…

“To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind.” — Edmund Burke A FAVORITE HOOSIER,…

THE FORT WAYNE JOURNAL GAZETTE treats journalism as a magic show where key facts are hidden from subscribers trying to match reality with what they read at election time. It is to be expected, then, that the newspaper would keep its show on the road after Tuesday’s primary. Its May 9 editorial pulled this rabbit…