Category: Indiana Writers Group

By Mark Franke “You can observe a lot just by watching.” Yogi Berra Writing a weekly column isn’t as glamorous as my editor described it when he recruited me to do this. Finding an idea worthy of 800 cogent and coherent words every seven days is not as easy as one would think. It’s like…

The Power of Individuals “Top management is discouraged and saddened, and middle management is drinking too much. Morale in the newsroom is fair, because of the recent raises, but the shining brows of the copy boys, traditional emblems of energy and hope, have begun to display odd, unattractive lines. At every level, people want management…

By Richard McGowan, Ph.D. Englishman John Locke wrote over 3,000 letters to luminaries in England, France, Netherlands and other European countries. His ideas appear in American documents and provide the foundation for our government. However, during his lifetime, his arguments and reasoning brought him under attack severe enough for him to exile himself to the Netherlands. Locke was…

by Jason Arp At our weekly meeting something completely unsurprising happened: Yet another real property tax abatement was granted by the city to a real estate developer. These have become a regular part of the proceedings of any council meeting. This particular abatement was in the form of a 10-year phase-in of real property tax. The…

by Mark Franke It’s that time of year when all insist on putting themselves through the annual ritual of making New Year’s resolutions, resolutions honored mostly in the breach. Instead, I intend to spend my intellectual energy reflecting on the major issues of our day. Why does January 1 get to be the start of…

by Leo Morris It was just last week when I announced my intention to embrace the joy of the Christmas season, “wherever I find it, even if I only stumble across it by accident.” Little did I know that it would don a disguise and hide, daring me to find it. My car wouldn’t start…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. The economist James Gwartney has a thought experiment which illustrates why a system which features socialism and monopoly power is not a good idea. Imagine that government decides to operate all restaurants. Further, your geography determines your restaurant; you will eat at the government (“public”) restaurant in your neighborhood. (To make…

by Tommy Franke Andrea O’Neal recently presented data during the Indiana Policy Review’s Winter Seminar that showed precipitous declines in reading and math proficiency in Indiana K-8 schools. The disturbing graphs looked like the marks of someone skiing down the side of Mt. Everest. The sharp decline in scores began around 2000-2010. What happened during this time…

by Mark Franke Anne Perry is a popular author of Victorian era mysteries. She writes several series using her stable of inter-related characters. I’ve read some and understand why she has such a fan base. Every Christmas she releases a novella using her regular characters but not in their usual milieu of murder and depravity.…

by Leo Morris You realize that it’s not a proper Christmas season unless the realist killjoys among us start whining about “It’s a Wonderful Life.” This year, we have two contenders for top curmudgeon. The saga of small-town hero George Bailey saving Bedford Falls from the despicable Henry Potter “grievously misrepresents the truth,” writes George…