Category: Indiana Writers Group

by Andrea Neal In 1848, the Indiana Hospital for the Insane opened on the west side of Indianapolis, launching a new era in health care that would witness the most progressive innovations and the most heinous abuses. Historians credit a great social reformer, Dorothea Dix, with persuading Hoosier lawmakers to fund a mental hospital in…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. It is common to support Trump — and among certain other people, it is common to have disdain for people who support Trump. A few thoughts from a two-time Libertarian congressional candidate who is more like Trump than you might have thought: First, recognize that your candidate is not all that…

by Craig Ladwig Imagine for a moment that you are not a baker of wedding cakes, a deliverer of pizzas, a lesbian, a gay, a bisexual or a transvestite. Imagine further that you don’t give a whit about restoring religious freedom or whatever, that your only concern is amorphous — just bringing more business to…

by Fred McCarthy They say insanity is doing the same thing time after time and expecting different results. And citizen ignorance plus lethargy adds to the insanity by accepting rosy financial fantasies and outright lies. A recent front-page story in the Indianapolis Star, with artwork, is headed “A project expands.” It concerns, of course, another…

Every Tribe and Nation: A Historian’s Discovery of the Global Christian Story by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. Awhile back, I read a review of Mark Noll’s “Every Tribe and Nation” in First Things magazine. It looked good, so I picked it up and was not disappointed. I first came across Noll with his provocative book, “The Scandal of…

Whether you agree or disagree with these assertions, they tend to demarcate the Republican Party today: Current levels of immigration benefit the country. The U.S. should not restrict immigration by persons from predominately Muslim countries. Persons in the country illegally should be accorded a path to citizenship. The U.S. ought to commit thousands of ground…

by Andrea Neal Fulton County historian Shirley Willard calls round barns the “cathedrals” of the countryside. They are symbols of a bygone time in Indiana agriculture when farmers combined form, function and aesthetics. Their heyday was 1890 to 1915. Agricultural experts of the day advocated round barns as efficient and economical. Architect Benton Steele of…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. Imagine a world where cars no longer require repairs and maintenance. Would this be good for the economy and society? For individuals and the economy, the costs of this improvement are obvious. Producers of auto parts and engine fluids would go bankrupt, with job losses and investment failures. Service providers of…

by Tom Huston I’ll bet you didn’t know that barely five percent of Indianapolis residents live within easy walking distance to a grocery store that sells fresh produce. Being familiar with the geography, demographics and zoning code of our capital city, I would have guessed as much. Where I would have gone wrong was in…

by Jason Arp “This is how Liberty dies . . . with thunderous applause.” — Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman), “Revenge of the Sith” The excitement over Indiana’s recently announced Regional Cities awards reminds me of the scene in the 2005 Star Wars in which the Galactic Republic is dissolved and is replaced with an emperor.…