Category: Indiana Writers Group

by Mark Franke If this were Maoist China, I would be headed directly to a reeducation camp. Then again, our progressive thought police may have that in mind for me anyway. My crime? Spending a week in Europe where I was force-fed a continual dose of sights and descriptions that would certainly infuriate those who…

by Leo Morris I don’t hate hate. I don’t know if that makes me an oddball, but it probably marks me as a member of a small minority. Hating hate, in fact, might turn out to be the one issue that can finally bridge the bitter tribal divide afflicting America these days. For proof, just…

‘In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’ — George Orwell As some of us become more discerning in the chaos of a fragmenting media, we guard our time by passing over articles in print and on line that are weighted with epithet and calculated narrative. Rather, we are desperate for…

by Leo Morris I hate to admit it, being a member in good standing of the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy, but I tried marijuana in my younger days. More than once. And I inhaled. Furthermore, I enjoyed the experience. It left me in a dazed and happy stupor, free of the anxieties that gritty reality often…

by Norman Van Cott, Ph.D. Tom is in the market for a used car. Harry is interested in selling his car. Tom and Harry meet and agree on a price of $7,500. Tom gets Harry’s car, and Harry gets Tom’s $7,500. Tom presumably values having the car more than anything else he can do with…

by Leo Morris Juxtaposition isn’t everything, but it’s an often-overlooked tool that can help us think about public events. It can be provocative, even illuminating. Comparing two stories together can lead us to insights we might have missed by absorbing them separately, each without the context of the other. Consider two road rage incidents in…

By David Penticuff Our “Haves” are again turning to our “Have Nots” for monetary help through tax increment financing. Central Indiana Ethanol (CIE) is asking my city to expand its Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district to include the former Omnisource property, which CIE purchased last year, in order to finance a project already underway at…

IT IS BEING SAID more often that the great disadvantage of Republican incumbents vis-a-vis Democratic ones is that their political party lacks conviction. Now, that is not meant to say Democrats have admirable convictions, merely that they have some — an adolescent sense of social justice, a willingness to kill the unwanted, wealth redistribution at…

by Leo Morris I hate getting Thomas Jefferson wrong. I don’t like slighting anybody from our past, given how hard they struggled and strained to bring us to the present. But, considering how much he contributed to this country’s founding ideas, I especially hate getting Jefferson wrong. Alas, I did, though. While writing a column…

THE PEOPLE GOVERNING my midsized Indiana city have plenty of vision. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have much to do with me or my neighbors. They have “rebranded” us. Hey, you wouldn’t recognize the place from our new and colorful branding website. It features videos about our exciting new life that can be used to entice people…