Category: Indiana Writers Group

by Mark Franke It seems one can’t pick up a newspaper or journal without seeing a major piece on artificial intelligence. 9Until perhaps a year or so ago, I hadn’t even heard the term except in science fiction and now it gets more Google hits than Taylor Swift’s antics at a Kansas City Chiefs football…

An Eternal Education Conundrum I BELONG TO A STUDY GROUP that takes up a public policy issue each month. Over the months, one thing has become painfully clear: Viable and sometimes obvious solutions are more plentiful than the will to apply them. Indeed, in many cases it would be just a matter of noticing what’s going on.…

Inside Journalism: What to Know IT WAS A COMMENDABLE practice in the Old Journalism that you did not write on the internal workings of the news room — no “inside baseball,” they said. Readers didn’t have time for it; all they wanted was reasonably accurate reports of the city’s goings-on, prescient whenever possible. That is all out…

Equity? Here’s a Position for You ALMOST 50 YEARS of an incoherent national dialogue on race has left me with some perverse views. If we are going to have separate black and and white national anthems, for instance, my position is that one of them ought to be Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor,…

by Jim O’Donnell Some of our Lord’s harshest statements were about wealth and the rich: Marx adapted that last one: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” With such strong statements by Jesus against wealth, it might seem like a contradiction that He could be a free-market capitalist. But capitalism…

by Mark Franke Presentism is one of the pervasive evils in our brave new world. It is the new orthodoxy to examine history under a filtering lens that subjects all events and people to our modern conceits. And it is not surprising that everything in the past falls short at some point. Perfection, you see,…

Growing Indiana Small Towns THE NEXT U.S. Census is expected to show a historic migration of middle-class families away from the large urban areas and into adjacent small towns. The foundation has asked Dr. Eric Schansberg, an adjunct scholar and nationally known economist, to address the inherent opportunities of Indiana small towns, especially those with a unique…

A Return to Founding Principles You can now order “Indiana Mandate: A Return to Founding Principles” at the member price of $19.54 with free delivery for a limited time.  Amazon.com/books. With both a presidential election and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approaching, the Indiana Policy Review, through the lens of the Declaration, examines 75 of…

by John F. Gaski, Ph.D. Satire Alert: Channeling and appropriating the reverse-projective style of William Safire: 1) in tribute to the late New York Times columnist; 2) for possible reader nostalgia; and 3) because the situation calls for it. Pundits and pols speculate that we Democrats might find a way to remove Joe Biden from…

by Mark Franke When should one’s conscience have the final say in a dilemma? Or must it answer to a higher authority? And if such a higher authority exists, what is it? Last week I was part of a discussion with a roomful of students enrolled in a seminar focused on the relationship between church…