Category: Indiana Writers Group

by Arthur Foulkes “It’s a sickness,” said a friend of mine who until recently was an elected official in our city. “It sets in after you’re elected the first time, or maybe even when you’re running for office.” That sickness is “thinking you’re smarter than everyone else.” My friend made this statement after reading in our…

“Run through the Flesch-Kincaid grade-level test, his text of responses score at the 4th-grade reading level.” — Jack Shafer in Politico in advance of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech.  by Mark Franke It’s amazing what you can find on the Internet these days. Definition.org, presumably an on-line dictionary of sorts, recently ran…

by Leo Morris Indiana is one of only five states that don’t have hate-crimes laws on the books. If we wise up and pass one, it will repair the state’s image as a haven for intolerance. Play it safe and follow the crowd. That’s basic psychology. A hate-crimes law would send the message that Indiana values…

 by Mark Franke “That government is best which governs least,” is a quote often attributed to Thomas Jefferson but actually belongs to Henry David Thoreau in his essay on civil disobedience. What Jefferson did say is “the government closest to the people serves the people best.” Each of these noble sentiments spring to mind regarding…

Searching for Hope: Life at a Failing School in the Heart of America Matthew Tully Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2012 (261 pages) by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. Emmerich Manual High School in Indianapolis was founded in 1895 to provide training in such fields as mechanics, drafting, and the domestic arts. However, for most…

by Leo Morris My work here is done. Those of us who go into journalism learn so much about so many things we eventually think we know everything there is to know about the human condition. Those of us who go on to become editorial writers and columnists feel an obligation to share that knowledge…

by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. In a pre-digital age, a municipal department of public assistance was swamped with paper files generated by open welfare cases. In the summer of 1968, graduate students, including this writer, were hired to summarize files, documenting home visitations, onto standardized forms. Each analyst was expected to evaluate each case on…

A FAVORITE QUIP comes from the provost at my daughter’s college. In a moment of candor during freshman orientation he told us parents that there is only one thing in the world that is exactly as it seems — “professional wrestling.” I would add to that, “political proposals to fix imbalances of any sort in…

by Leo Morris Eli Whitney is one of my favorite forgotten giants of American history. Not completely forgotten. He invented the cotton gin. Many Americans know that about him. But that is the sum total of their knowledge. And his life was so much more consequential than that. Most people can only dream of having an enduring…

IF YOU HEARD Gov. Eric Holcomb’s comments on economic development in his “second” State of the State address last night, you realize you’re on your own. He’s not going to help. Your community and your business will have to work out its fortune in its own way. You will be lucky if state government doesn’t actually impede your efforts.…