Category: Indiana Writers Group

by Craig Ladwig This being both football and election season, a gridiron analogy for the Indiana GOP seems apt. It has long been said that Republicans here play politics “between the 40-yard lines” — these days, “stopped dead at midfield” is more like it. Rare is the Indiana Republican willing to articulate the difference between…

By Ryan Cummins My experience on a city council, in business and as a taxpayer tells me to beware when the government action being proposed is “for public safety,” “for the children” or “for economic development.” When you hear those words, grab your wallet and hold close your liberty; there is a hidden agenda. Another…

It is good every once in a while to push personalities and ideology out of the way and look at public policy in its purist form. It is bad for the blood pressure to always be imagining little Stalins, Trotskys and Obamas lurking in the back desks of the county planning department (although history tells…

The foundation’s white papers are intended to make scholarly research on Indiana issues more widely available to policy analysts and researchers. White papers represent research in progress and are published to invite comment and discussion as preparation for their submission to academic journals and other professional publications. The authors are solely responsible for the content…

by Andrea Neal It was Indiana’s version of the Gold Rush. In the 1880s, the discovery of a massive natural-gas field in east central Indiana launched a gas boom of historic proportion. The news spread fast — as it did with California gold — and folks poured into Indiana in search of fortune. “There was…

by Craig Ladwig Forgive skeptics of the tableau vivant unfolding for Regional Cities initiatives across the state. They seem dumbstruck. They don’t have the data to challenge the expansive vision and supporting PowerPoints of economic-development directors and their armies of experts. That does not mean, though, that they don’t have a vision of their own.…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. Did you know there is an Indiana Daffodil Society? I don’t know much about daffodils except they come up after the crocuses and before the tulips and irises. Nor do I desire to acquire detailed knowledge about a flower that shows its face for 20 days a year. However, I think…

Dear Editor: There are those of us still around who grew up in newsrooms where the model city editor was Jack Webb playing Sam Gatlin in the 1956 film “-30-.” We are limited in what we can add to the debate over your behind-the-back campaign to reorder Hoosier views on sexual orientation and gender. Nonetheless, no…

by John Kessler As a city councilman, you cannot address the questions on any agenda until you have decided the role of government: What should government do or not do? Economists, of course, have been thinking about this question for a long time. They can tell you two things that the government should do and…

by Andrea Neal The most poignant moments in Indiana history have taken place under its dome and on its front steps. Suffragettes lobbied for the right to vote. Mourners filed past the casket of President Benjamin Harrison to pay last respects. Actress Carole Lombard raised the American flag and sold war bonds the day before…