by Richard J. McGowan, Ph.D. Plato’s dialogue, “Meno,” begins abruptly. Meno asks Socrates, “Can ethics be taught?” I followed Plato’s approach. On the first day of class, I asked my students, “Can ethics be taught?” They wrote that “Ethics and moral standards depend on the individual and their upbringing,” “Morals are not absolute in that they change from culture to culture and over the course of time,” “What one person deems ethical, another may think is…

by Leo Morris On CBS-TV’s Sunday Morning this week, a former Army sergeant who left parts of both arms and legs in Afghanistan came on and tried to say something positive in the face of our ugly retreat from that country. He talked about being “angry, hurt, depressed and hopeless” after his injuries but finding solace in the fact that “Afghanistan wasn’t all for nothing.” “We did good,” he said of America’s 20-year involvement, listing all the…

THE GOVERNOR, following form, has created a new state health commission with former state senator Luke Kenley as its chairman. Because that’s what we need right now, isn’t it? Another layer of bureaucracy, this one wielding gubernatorial power over what medicine we can have and when we can have it. Its mandate is unlimited, according to a commission member. The definition of “health” will include the behavior and environment of the public and such issues as lack of…

by Mark Franke I am blessed in having many exceptionally intelligent friends, several of whom deserve the adjective brilliant. Most have doctorates in something and I don’t hesitate to query them on every occasion which presents itself. One such friend is a semi-retired theology professor. Every time I listen to him, I feel like my mind is about to explode. He is enlightening and humbling at the same time. My reaction to hearing him is…

by Leo Morris Early in my newspaper career, I learned that our education reporter had tried to engineer a takeover of the school board behind the scenes. He was also a parent, and he was unhappy with the elementary school his children were assigned to. He wanted some changes made, which would have been unlikely with the board as then constituted. On a personal level, I could admire his civic engagement in caring about his…

Mayor Hogsett Maps Out Indianapolis Public ‘Safety’ “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid.” — Micah 4:4, quoted by George Washington in his 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport. FOR MORE THAN A HALF CENTURY, since the riots in the Watts district of Los Angeles, progressives have been throwing money at inner-city communities hoping some of it would stick. Mayor Joe Hogsett…

by Leo Morris Three points to ponder if for some reason you have put “diversity” on your list of things to agonize over today. 1. At our weekly bridge game, my friend the Navy veteran was kidding me a little about something my branch of the service supposedly did. “The Army’s promotion board is going to start putting the photos back in candidates’ packages because not enough minorities are being advanced.” But he had to…

“Youʼve all gone completely crazy.” — the architect father of Albert Speers on being shown Hitler’s plans for a new Berlin MY CITY HAS an almost 70-year-old coliseum, the old-fashioned kind built simply to serve the sports and entertainment needs of the community. It continues to do that impressively well, paying its own bills and undergoing regular renovation and expansion. Some years ago, the local powers, encouraged by bonding attorneys, architectural firms, contractors and consultants, decided…

by Mark Franke I wouldn’t want to be on the United States Supreme Court even if I were qualified. It seems those poor justices can’t even come close to Abraham Lincoln’s observation that you can please some of the people all the time let alone all the people some of the time. It begins with their confirmation hearings which are nothing less than public campaigns of character assassination reminiscent of the Salem witch trials. Somewhere, sometime…