INDIANA SEN. TODD YOUNG in a widely circulated column this week unpacked some Lincolnesque but tired bromides on his way to addressing the calamity that is America. We are not enemies but friends and fellow Americans, he instructs. That and we should do less shouting and more listening. The senator’s little homily, though, hid a personal concern, one to be examined in a moment. First, we may indeed all be “Americans” in an ever-expanding sense of citizenship or in the halcyon vision of a speech writer. But there…

by Leo Morris I participated in a PBS TV show last week – three General Assembly watchers and a host doing our annual legislative preview session – and it was a little unsettling. Because of the pandemic, only two participants were in-studio – properly distanced, of course – and two of us chimed in remotely via teleconferencing. The video I saw of the others in their little Zoom computer windows was live, but the sound…

“There is nothing that will give power to the (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) to require hiring, firing and promotion to meet a racial ‘quota.”’ — Sen. Hubert Humphrey in promising that the 1964 Civil Rights Act would lead only to nondiscrimination and not to social engineering.  INDIANA COMPANIES that want to be listed on at least one of the New York stock exchanges will want to check the chromosome arrangements and melanin levels in their board rooms. East Coast lunacy is…

by Mark Franke Dark. Depressing. Frightening. These are just a few of the adjectives people are using to describe 2020 as it passes into a bad memory for all of us. Most, though, will follow with a more positive statement about what 2021 is expected to bring. Perhaps this incipient optimism reflects the rolling out of a vaccine which we all hope will be effective at a nearly 100 percent rate. Or maybe it is just…

by Leo Morris I apologize, but this is the time of year when I must do my annual beating-a-dead-horse ritual of imploring the Indiana General Assembly to go to every-other-year sessions. The so-called “short” session was originally supposed to just involve a brief review of potential problems in the two-year budget. But it has become as active as the long session, so Hoosiers get twice the new government initiatives, which means twice the bureaucracy, twice…

by Mark Franke I am not going to resolve in 2021 to exercise more or lose weight. Sure, I need to do both those things and will work on them, but I won’t take the cheap way out and declare them to be my New Year resolutions. They are too easy to make and even easier to break. Rather, I am looking inward at my character and resolve to focus on those positive aspects which ought…

ALTHOUGH THE DEBATE is over as to whether equality should be “of opportunity” or “of results” (we lost), there are doubts that still nag. The bullet points below reflect our random thoughts denying the winning side’s promise of a better society: • There is a rise of diversity “officers” at every level from elementary school to university. We are told that the school board of prestigious Park Tudor in Indianapolis hired one even though the school is 20 percent “minority.”…

by Leo Morris Time magazine, demonstrating the legacy media’s continued decline into irrelevance, has deemed 2020 “the worst year ever.” No, not hardly, and that claim is easily dismissed with an expansion of Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am.” If you are reading this, you are not dead yet. Ergo, not the worst year ever. There are plenty of candidates for the worst year ever.  In 536, for example, volcanic eruptions blanketed much of the world…

by Mark Franke A good friend of mine, now sainted, was a professor of theology at our local Lutheran seminary. He had a brilliant mind that was manifested in a pastoral heart. He was known for his pithy statements, expressing profound points in a handful of words. Recently I was reminded of one such. It is quite apropos today, probably more so than when he said it. “Hatred is simply chilled and hardened anger.” Why…

by Leo Morris On a wall of the weight room in my gym at St. Joseph Medical Center downtown is a quote attributed to Mother Teresa that’s been sneaking up on me for the last few months. Many of you probably already know it: People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; forgive them anyway. / If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway. / If you are successful,…