Some 225 years ago, Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to James Madison, opened with, “I own I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.” He was talking about the overreach of the aggressive bureaucrats of the day. With reports of secret government investigations of news gathering agencies and evidence of widespread use of the [...]
This week, Keira Amstutz, chief executive officer of Indiana Humanities (www.indianahumanities.org), and Sally Jo Vasicko, co-director of the Bowen Center for Public Affairs at Ball State University, announced the recipients of grants to support local Community Conversations. The program, now in its fifth year, brings together civic, business and political leaders to consider significant regional matters important to Indiana communities. [...]
On my way to an unreasonably early Saturday morning conference, I found myself somewhat more of a curmudgeon than usual. It had been a long week. But as the alarm sounded, dutifully I dressed, woke the car from its slumber and lurched onward. Discontentedly, I fumbled for something on the radio other than commercial announcements. With most travel time dedicated [...]
In conversation today with a local businessman who is preparing to celebrate his 47th wedding anniversary, our attention turned to his advice in maintaining long-term relationships. As he smiled, even managed to blush a little, he said it was by making the right choice at the beginning. In his firmly Hoosier self-deprecating way, he went on to credit much of [...]
One term is public/private partnership. But, there are scores of expressions to describe the disposition of government officials to take our money and use it like a venture fund manager. The current nomenclature calls it government entrepreneurship. One wonders if it is an assistant, barrier or competitor with a healthy free-market. Entrepreneurs do great things and change the world, but [...]
How much work is too much work? Even as unemployment has ballooned to alarming levels in recent years, those of us who are working are spending more hours at our labors than ever before. In fact, time on the job has increased precipitously in the last generation. Now, the ubiquitous “smart” phones indicate that, even as we seem to find [...]
What defines the best in human relationships? Is it the setting and pursuing of shared goals? Is it in defining roles and specializing in optimal outcomes? Or, is it simply in being supportive – in carrying the burden when one’s partner, either because of inability or blindness, cannot? Perhaps, depending on the relationship and the circumstance, they are all true [...]
Around our house, taking a sick day is not terribly common place – mostly because we’re blessed that our family is fairly hearty stock. So far, we’ve logged very few days off work or school and even fewer visits to the emergency room. That’s not to say that we are immune to illness, but it seems we’ve missed many of [...]
Modern communication has come more and more to dictate continual availability. People carry their phones (and personal conversations) into some of the most improbable (and impolite) settings. On airplanes, in church and at the adjacent urinal, we have been unwilling witness to folks whose need for constant contact exceeds understanding. Unless they have the codes to our country’s nuclear arsenal [...]
As humans on this planet, we should all care about character. It helps keep us from killing each other, to be sure. But more importantly, it expects that we pay for our own consumption, that we care for our own offspring, that we help those who can’t help themselves and that we respect the rights and desires of others to [...]
