by Mark Franke A group of friends were talking one afternoon about what we should look for in our elected officials. What characteristics must be displayed in a candidate in order to deserve our votes? It is easy to be cynical given the clown circus on display in Washington D.C. I just succumbed to this cynicism myself with the previous sentence. Such an attitude is not helpful; the crisis must be addressed. My standard operating…

by Leo Morris Imagine no possessionsI wonder if you canNo need for greed or hungerA brotherhood of man  — “Imagine,”1971 I don’t know if John Lennon was self-aware enough to see the irony of a filthy rich superstar longing for a utopia in which everything belongs to everybody, so nobody has to do without anything, the perfect equality within our reach if we just wish for it hard enough. But before he was murdered in…

by Mark Franke Allen County, where I live, is known for several things but perhaps the genealogy department at the public library is one of the best-known outside God’s country. I am told it has one of the largest collections of official and family documents in the nation. Serious researchers know its reputation and use its expansive digital and paper resources. While I have never visited the genealogy department, my wife spent many hours of…

by Leo Morris There are several stories about the origin of the three-shot volley fired at military funerals. Some go back to ancient Rome. At the end of the day of battle, one story goes, when the field was cleared, those removing a fallen soldier would say his name three times in honor of his sacrifice. Then there’s the one about Roman mourners casting dirt on a coffin three times, constituting a burial. The story…

By Richard McGowan, Ph.D. ”It is illegal to tattoo anyone under the age of 18 unless they are accompanied by, or have written consent from, a minor’s parent or legal guardian. This written permission from a minor’s parent legal guardian must be obtained on-site before any body piercings or tattooing is completed.” — Indiana Tattoo License Regulations The law on minors getting a tattoo has two important implications for procedures that would allegedly transform a…

by Mark Franke A friend of mine, a professor at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, was musing about what artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT could do to teaching. What he really was asking is what it would do to traditional grading of tests and papers. How can he know if a student actually did the research and wrote the text for an assigned paper? At the root of this question is another: How…

Economic Development: Return of the Music Man Friend, either you’re closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge,Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated by the presence of a pool table in your community.Well, you got trouble, my friend, right here, I say, trouble right here in River City. — Harold Hill, “The Music Man” IT IS HARD to get the score of “The Music Man” out…

by Richard Moss, M.D. Tyre Nichols was a 29-year-old black man who died three days after five black police officers beat him brutally for suspected reckless driving in the city of Memphis. Ben Crump, a high-profile attorney, who has represented the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd and others, was also representing the family of Tyre Nichols. In his comments, Crump implied that race was a factor. But how could that be? Blacks attacked a black. It is worth…

by Leo Morris People keep saying government should be run like a business. If you are one of them, consider this option. If your company needed a new president, which would you prefer: an outsider with demonstrable management skills but no knowledge of your product, service or customer base; or the best candidate from within the company, one with a proven track record in every department? I’ve been around enough poorly run companies to know…

by Mark Franke Every spring I have the opportunity to serve as a judge in the American Legion’s national oratorical contest. This contest began in 1938 to encourage knowledge of the Constitution among high school students. Contestants are sponsored by local American Legion posts and compete at ascending levels beginning with the district, zone and state levels. State winners compete at the national level. More than $200,000 in scholarships are awarded each year across the…