Category: Indiana Writers Group

by Andrea Neal Although the state constitution expressly prohibited it, slavery existed in early Indiana. Two court cases filed by enslaved black women put an end to the practice. In the early 19th century, Polly Strong and Mary Clark challenged prevailing attitudes to claim their civil rights as U.S. and Indiana citizens. “People get really…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. I persistently characterize my political philosophy as that of a classical liberal. This sows some confusion. Those who share my deep skepticism about the redistributionist tendency of a modern welfare state are usually characterized as conservatives. So why muddy the water? A short political history is in order. For those who…

by Ryan Cummins An Open Letter to Indiana City Councils The problem: A public-employee union has no check, no market mechanism, to temper its power. The solution: You, the councilman. A free market theoretically provides a check on private-sector unions except that government so often steps in to establish special rules. Couple that with a…

For the use of the membership only (759 words) “On average (since 1995), 69 percent of nonwhites have identified as Democrats or said they were independents who leaned Democratic, and 21 percent have identified as Republicans or leaned Republican.” — Gallup Politics, March 24, 2014   THE REPUBLICAN PARTY has a crisis. No, it isn’t…

by Andrea Neal In the rough-and-tumble world of frontier politics, Jonathan Jennings experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Indiana’s first governor, Jennings was credited with pushing Indiana from territory to statehood, defeating an old guard loyal to William Henry Harrison and insisting that the 16th state would not have slavery. By…

Do politicians ever apologize? Should they? And when? What would happen if one said, “I thought my law would do this, but it actually did that, and at great expense to my constituents. I am deeply sorry”? The question occurred to me while listening to my U.S. senator give a stirring speech this week on…

by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. In 1960, garment workers in a four-story walk-up factory in Philadelphia await the return of the shop’s owner-manager from New York. If the fashion industry, headquartered in New York, anticipates a good season, the owner-manager returns with a pattern and stacks of cloth to be assembled by cutters, machine operators,…

Now that the Legislature has agreed to let our friends at Ball State University regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the various tax “incentives,” here is a nomination for the next-worst economic-development program. Popular throughout Indiana, it is called a “façade” grant. Tens of thousands of tax dollars are awarded each year to select businesses to…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. Alice’s Restaurant in Hometown, Ind., makes the best pancakes and tenderloins this side of heaven. It also employs 150 workers; some full-time, some part-time. Suppose Alice, for whatever reason, announces she is going to let go an equivalent of two full-time workers. The sacking could take a number of forms: She…

by Andrea Neal It’s a date every Hoosier should know: Dec. 11, 1816. On that day, Indiana became the 16th state. We’ve been observing it formally since 1925, when the Indiana General Assembly passed a law requiring the governor to “issue a proclamation annually designating the eleventh day of December as Indiana Day.” Indiana Code…