By Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. Stories abound of school dropouts who consequently fail to establish themselves in jobs because of parental attempts to force youngsters onto a particular career path. Less noted are young people presenting in the offices of their undergraduate advisers with no interest in a particular major and indicating that all their parents care about is the diploma. Parents question what they, as a shelf-stocker, truck driver or home-care aid, have to…

by Andrea Neal If he could see it now, Father Edward Sorin would surely marvel at what has become of Notre Dame du Lac, Our Lady of the Lake, the Catholic university he founded in 1842. These days it’s called simply Notre Dame, of course, but for Sorin the lake that inspired the name was providential. The spring-fed St. Mary’s Lake provided not only food, water, ice and marl for making bricks, but inspiration. Arriving…

For the use of the membership only (594 words) A FORMER U.N. AMBASSADOR is being mentioned as a reform commissioner for the National Football League. Well and good for her. Maybe diplomacy can change the sport along more socio-politically correct lines. She will have to give it a different name, though. For football, the genuine thing, will go on unchanged. The game, an amazingly true reenactment of phalanx battle, has roots going deep into Western…

by Cecil Bohanon, Ph.D. I noticed something unusual about editorials over the Labor Day weekend: Instead of discussing the status of unions, or the state of labor in the American economy, they were about the state of college education. In a sense, this is not surprising. Increasing access to university education has long been seen as a key to reviving the middle class. The upshot of many of the commentaries, however, was that it doesn’t…

by Andrea Neal James F. D. Lanier twice came to the rescue when Indiana desperately needed his help. Without him, state history might have turned out differently. Lanier was born in 1800 in Beaufort County, North Carolina, and died in 1881 in New York City. During the interlude, he lived in Indiana and made lots of money in law, banking and railroads. His parents moved several times before ending up in Indiana in 1817, one…

“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” — Mahatma Gandhi THOSE WHO BELIEVE that their town’s economic development plan is working also read the bar charts in the Chamber of Commerce newsletter and trust that the utility company is figuring their bill accurately. The rest of us have our doubts. So it was encouraging to hear an old friend, an accomplished mayor and legislator, recall in a…

by Linda Christiansen, M.A, J.D., and Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. This is a story about four current college students who have similar family situations. Whatever the intention of politicians, all four were harmed by the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as “Obamacare.” Student No. 1 is a young graduate student still fully covered by both parents’ health-insurance plans. He works as a graduate assistant (five hours per week for a small tuition discount and a little…

By Bruce Ippel, M.D. In the office, we have a handout for smokers that gives some potent hints and tools on how to quit. What it doesn’t cover, however, is the magnitude and scope of the economic interests trying to keep them addicted. There’s a river of money flowing into a variety of pockets from tobacco — and money talks, not usually politely or with your health in mind. Here’s what it’s saying: Virtually any…

By Maryann O. Keating, Ph.D. The belief in tons of gold in Fort Knox backing the U.S. dollar is an illusion. There is absolutely no commodity backing for the dollar, either gold or silver or anything else. The dollar is accepted on faith; it is a “fiat” currency. This means that individuals accept the dollar in return for their labor, services or products because they trust those in authority to maintain its value. A rising…

by Andrea Neal On the morning of Sept. 4, 1838, 859 Potawatomi were forced at gunpoint from their homes in northern Indiana and sent on foot and horseback to the “Unorganized Territory” of Kansas to begin a new life. The march became known as the Trail of Death because 42 Indians died along the way. Hundreds fell ill during the two-month journey across Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. A few escaped and returned to Indiana. Most…