Periodically, someone will respond to a column I have written with a statement beginning "well, you liberals always…" Being dismissed as a liberal always amuses me, because I hold precisely the same political values I held in 1980, when I was the Republican nominee running for Congress against Andy Jacobs, and a fair number of voters found me "too conservative." The only thing that has changed is the label.
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Charitable Choice
Charitable Choice was intended to encourage government contracts with “faith-based organizations” to provide social services to welfare recipients, and to remove legal obstacles discouraging participation by religious providers.
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The Time Has Come
Current Indiana law does not protect people from being fired, or denied housing, simply because they are gay or transgendered. When this fact comes up in one of my classes, it usually stuns my students, most of whom were born after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. They regard civil rights laws as part of the natural order of things, and even those who are disapproving of homosexuality are appalled that people could actually lose their jobs or homes because they are gay.
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Do You See What I See?
Michael Kinsley recently defined “spin” as a “description of reality that suits your purposes. Whether it resembles the reality we all share is an issue that doesn’t even arise.”
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School Days
America is full of bi-polar people, by which I mean people who approach every issue as a pro or con choice between two–and only two–alternatives. In real life, of course, most choices are not so limited. Here in Indianapolis, the flap over School #54 is a perfect example.
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