Category: Indiana Writers Group

by Fred McCarthy Nothing like good news if in fact it is good news. We’re talking about the announced anticipation of the addition of another large hotel — 800 to 1,000 rooms — in the downtown area of Indianapolis. Which might or might not include a super-sized ballroom that the city needs. It seems the…

by Leo Morris “How can we know the dancer from the dance?” That sentence has been stuck in my head for as long as I can remember. By making it the last line of his great “Among School Children,” William Butler Yeats was summarizing his belief and the theme of the poem that we cannot understand…

by Mark Franke 1517, Printing, and the Making of the Reformation. Andrew Pettegree (Penguin House, 2015) Having just passed the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, numerous new books on the period and Martin Luther have been published. One that takes a modern approach to the man and the movement is Brand Luther: 1517,…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. This year is the 100th anniversary of a key U.S. Supreme Court case on civil and economic rights. Buchanan vs. Warley (1917) overturned racial zoning ordinances in Louisville which prohibited whites selling and blacks buying homes in white-majority neighborhoods. (On November 29th, the city dedicated a historical market at 37th and…

by Leo Morris “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe when the legislature is in session.” Contrary to accepted wisdom, Mark Twain didn’t say that, although it sounds like something he should have said. It was included in the opinion issued by a New York magistrate in 1866, chiding a lawyer for bollixing up…

by Leo Morris On reading that Indiana lawmakers are considering lowering the compulsory school age from 7 to 5 years old, I immediately went into full fuddy-duddy mode. “I didn’t need to go to any silly kindergarten classes, so I don’t understand why children today need to. I started out in first grade and turned out…

“We believe diversity of thought, background, experience and people drive innovation. We promote an environment that is welcoming and conducive to the success of all. It is through our inclusive culture that we can attract the best employees, empower our customers and help our communities achieve great things.” — Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana’s “Commitment…

by Leo Morris I have a confession. It’s not exactly a guilty pleasure, but something I am a little embarrassed to admit in public. I am hopelessly addicted to Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. If you’ve ever seen one of them, you’ve seen all of them. You can tell 10 minutes in exactly where the movie is…

 by John Gaski, Ph.D. Someone else should have been the one to transmit this message. It should have been done by Roger Goodell, the National Football League commissioner, or perhaps even more appropriately ― for reasons to be disclosed presently ― by former NFL boss Paul Tagliabue. The precipitating issue and provocation is the current…

by Leo Morris I’m stumped. I’ve been trying for days, ever since checking out the oral arguments in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case now before the Supreme Court, to come up with an analogy that would make the issues involved easier to understand. But there isn’t one. How do you simplify something so glaringly obvious that…