Category: Indiana Writers Group

For the use of the membership only (668 words) “With the flanneled fools at the wicket or the muddied oafs at the goals. Given to strong delusion, wholly believing a lie.” — Rudyard Kipling, “The Islanders” (1902) The mayor of Indianapolis (or someone who has his ear) looked down from a corner window office of…

by Stephen M. King, Ph.D. Neither on the Left nor the Right was there a shortage of viewpoints regarding Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) opinion. The Wall Street Journal  labeled it “A Gay Marriage Muddle.” Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion in Hollingsworth vs. Perry called DOMA “an illegal federal intrusion on the traditional…

by Andrea Neal Indiana’s name means “Land of the Indians.” A trip to Mounds State Park in Anderson reminds us why. Among the first inhabitants of our state were the Adena, a hunting and gathering people that lived in east central Indiana beginning around 1,000 BC. They left behind earthen monuments — deep ditches surrounded…

Editors: For a high-resolution copy, click on mug shot. by Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. For those 25 years of age and under, joblessness remains a disaster both in the U.S. and elsewhere. German chancellor Angela Merkel risked incurring the wrath of struggling Eurozone countries by saying unemployed youngsters must be prepared to move for work.…

by Stephen M. King, Ph.D. The Supreme Court of the U.S. has capped off another contentious session by ruling on four major cases: affirmative action, voting rights and two same-sex marriage cases. All of these cases enjoin the diminishing effects of federalism as the Founders envisioned. None of the cases directly affect Indiana — at…

by Stephen M. King, Ph.D. In a recent Governing Magazine article (“What Happened to Federalism?”), the author laments that the 1996 closing of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) was a mortal blow to the non-partisan influence and interaction of state and local officials with their federal counterparts on a plethora of policy…

by Thomas Heller Tax Increment Financing (TIF), a widely misunderstood economic-development tool in Indiana, operates something like a bank. TIF districts make investments in local public improvements (roads, etc.) hoping to attract follow-on investment from private companies. Often these improvements are financed by borrowing — that is, issuing bonds to be paid off by the…

by Tad DeHaven When he was a high-ranking conservative Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Pence was a chief critic of Washington’s out-of-control spending and growing debt. Now that he is Indiana’s governor, Pence is dependent on the same federal largesse that he bemoaned. Most Hoosiers would be surprised to know that under…

This is about my Indiana city’s inferiority complex. First, though, consider the issue of modern art — specifically “Helmholtz,” a 10-ton reddish orange outdoor sculpture toppled in a late-night car crash. Now, some believe there is a relationship between art, specifically nonobjective art, and progress, e.g., economic development, i.e., money. In my city, that position…

(7.17.2013-1) by Andrea Neal Long before Indiana was Indiana, a river of ice glided across the state, bringing with it monsoon-like rains, mudflows to rival Mount St. Helens and rich sediment deposits that to this day nourish the crops that are the backbone of the Hoosier economy. Indiana the state has been 200 years in…