The author, an alumnus of Indiana University, is a veteran journalist now working from Bloomington. She has reported for U.S. News & World Report, the Miami Herald, Columbia Journalism Review, Breitbart, the New York Observer and the American Conservative. by MARGARET MENGE March 6 was a busy morning on the campus of Indiana University. Every seat in the auditorium in the new, glassy, Hamilton-Lugar School of Global and International Studies was taken and people were standing up…

REACTING IN PART to protests hundreds of miles away, our Republican county chairman has asserted his “wokeness” by welcoming the resignation of a county councilman rebuked for a racial comment and nominating a black female lawyer as the replacement. And he pulled the name from an affirmative-action hat, a bipartisan one if that makes any sense. Does this heal our wounds, as they like to say? First, this is not how it’s supposed to work in a democratic republic. The electorate…

by Leo Morris In 1936, Bob Wian sold his car and used the $350 as a down payment on a 10-stool diner in Glendale, Calif., which he turned into a hamburger joint called Bob’s Pantry. Shortly, thereafter, the story goes, two things happened. Members of an orchestra stopped in and asked if Wian could come up with something different from the usual hamburger. What he created was a “double-deck cheeseburger” with two beef patties and…

by Eric Schansberg, Ph.D. “It’s a black thing; you wouldn’t understand.” There’s a lot of truth to that statement. It’s difficult for any of us to understand each other — especially when we’re in different social classes, have different ethnicities or varying personal circumstances. At its best, the slogan is a call to learn and deepen relationships, to listen patiently and talk humbly. It’s worth the energy to read more liberally and diversify your friendships.  How…

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all, By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul; But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.” — 1919, Rudyard Kipling, “The Gods of the Copy Book Headings” WHEN THE MOYNIHAN REPORT first raised concern about government incentives creating fatherless homes, they told us not…

by Leo Morris “To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.”  – From the nine principles set out in Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel’s General Instructions issued to every new police officer in the Metropolitan Police of the Greater London area, starting in 1829 PEEL’S DIRECTIVE to win the public’s…

by Jeff Abbott, Ph.D. Updated by the CDC on May 19, 2020 Introduction. Introduction: Shortly after the release of the Center of Disease Control (“CDC”) COVID-19 guidelines for schools on May 19, 2020, Orange County Public Schools superintendent said on an Orlando television station that the CDC guidelines would be “a challenge” for the school district. This is what the reader will soon see is one huge understatement. The CDC offers certain considerations to help…

by Leo Morris It has been a spring packed with surreal moments, but one in particular stands out for me. About a week after protests started in downtown Fort Wayne, the marchers were joined by the police chief, City Council members and the mayor, who linked arms with protesters and declared the city “a community” in which we can, “despite our differences,” all “work as one.” There is a jarring contradiction there. Who in that…

by Maryann O. Keating The first lesson to be learned in economics is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Those who have internalized this lesson cringe on hearing press reports about “free” school meals, haircuts, backpacks, tuition, diapers, etc. Someone is either donating voluntarily or being taxed to pay for these items. Then, the student of economics has to ask him or herself, “Have I developed into an insufficiently empathetic person?”…

by Leo Morris My sister is hot on the trail of history, eagerly searching for a missing piece of our father’s life. She was spring cleaning recently, and came across his separation papers from the Army. Written on the back, little more than a footnote, was the information that he had been a cook in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) starting in 1939. We’d known he was a cook in the Army, and that he…