The election has come and gone, and Republicans and Democrats alike are expressing amazement that a Democrat is the new Mayor in "Republican" Indianapolis. How did it happen, and what does it mean?…
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New Millennium
When I was growing up in Anderson, Indiana, it was not unusual to be called "dirty Jew" or "kike" by a young classmate who had obviously gotten the terminology at home. After one such incident, when I ran home crying, my mother said something I never forgot….
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Electing a Leader
Another November, another election. So what, you shrug. Why the quadrennial blather about "leadership"? What does a Mayor do, anyway, besides pave streets, fix sewers, pick up trash and see to it that…
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I’m Back
With this month’s edition of the Word, my regular column returns. For those of you who have only recently begun reading this publication, I must warn you that this is a mixed blessing. (Longtime readers already know that!) During my…
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Twinkies & Oliver Stone
If I write a mystery novel in which a murder is committed in a particularly gruesome way, and someone reads that novel and commits a similar crime, am I responsible? If I produce a…
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