Category: Indiana Writers Group

by Mark Franke One thing we geezers, I mean senior citizens, are not so lovingly known for is constantly whining, I mean commenting, about being on a fixed income. Every time the price of gas goes up at the pump or groceries seem to cost more at checkout, an irritating choir of voices is heard…

Jason Riley’s Please Stop Helping Us is a good introduction to the ways in which government has harmed the poor in general and African-Americans in particular. He describes his broad concerns, but also devotes chapters to many of the most relevant public policies: welfare, crime, minimum wage, K-12 education and Affirmative Action.  Riley puts a lot…

by Leo Morris Is U.S. citizenship still worth something? That is such a grimly disheartening question because of where it came from. I did not hear it from the usual “America is awful” crowd, the people who either think the republic always was and always will be an oppressive blight on the face of the…

YOU REALIZE NOW that it can be considered seditious, if not an outright admission of domestic terrorism leading to insurrection, to ask whether the 2020 presidential election was “stolen.” Are you allowed, though, to ask whether future elections might be stolen? Good question, for without a thorough forensic examination of this last election we can…

I TELL THE STORY A LOT but events keep making it more applicable, the latest being the Indianapolis crime spike and the mayor’s pathetic response. The San Francisco earthquake of 1989 caused 63 deaths, 3,800 injuries, and an estimated $6 billion in damage. A film crew happened on a policeman picking his way down a rubble-filled street. He was yelling up…

by Richard McGowan, Ph. Consider the names of these teams: Florida State University Seminoles, Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Cleveland Indians. How are they the same and how are they different?  Florida State University managed to avoid the problem of illicit cultural appropriation by working with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The FSU Communications Office acknowledges…

by Mark Franke “A policeman is here and more are coming . . . from the bomb squad. Will you be home soon?” Needless to say, that is the kind of text message one would rather not get from his wife.  Now this is not a disaster story and it actually turns out quite well.…

by Leo Morris May I just say that I hate my friend Sofia today. She’s in Phoenix, where the expected high is 74. I’m not too crazy about my brother Larry, either. He’s in Hill Country, Texas, sunny and 71. Remember the pre-COVID days, when “cabin fever” meant being stuck in the house by weather…

WE FEEL LUCKY to get through a Super Bowl these days without seeing a commercial that includes a corporate message shaming us to mind our political correctness. The copywriters for Nike and Budweiser can say what they may but Joseph Epstein, past editor of the American Scholar, has written brilliantly about “the good intentions paving company,” a critique of the ever-expanding…

“Citizenship is what makes a republic; monarchies can get along without it.” — Mark Twain by Jason Arp Has the value of American citizenship degraded in recent years?  It is true that official costs do not reflect any reduction in the official value of U.S. citizenship. A recent report in USA Today shows that the price the…