'Sedition Caucus' should resign
When the Indiana General Assembly reconvenes in January, it will be tasked with the essential duties of adopting a two-year state budget and redistricting legislative and congressional boundaries based on the 2020 decennial census. Recent news has buoyed optimism that the state has successfu…
Last Sunday night I sat in front of the TV a few extra minutes basking in the Colts victory. Much to my delight, the venerable 60 Minutes teaser announced they’d profile the civil anti-trust case of Sutter Health in Sacramento California. This reporting should be interesting to Hoosiers and …
A good friend of mine, now sainted, was a professor of theology at our local Lutheran seminary. He had a brilliant mind that was manifested in a pastoral heart. He was known for his pithy statements, expressing profound points in a handful of words. Recently I was reminded of one such. It is…
It is the season of giving; therefore, it must also be the season of receiving. It takes two to play this game. But truth be told, I am much more comfortable being on the giving team. I attribute this partly to the book of Acts in the New Testament. There in the 20th chapter the writer, Luke…
I’ve mentioned this in passing in a couple of columns, but I think it bears some elaboration: Hypocrisy is a very boring subject. It’s the cheapest sort of complaint to make against somebody, reflexive and shallow.
I start this column by admitting that I just don’t know what the right policy recommendation is for state leaders concerning this pandemic. That is a change from the early days of January through April, when we knew much less about the disease. Uncertainty is an input to decisions, and so ma…
The least we can do
The glorious leaves disappeared overnight and the fruitful garden is a memory of a time gone by. There really can be no doubt that winter is coming, a time made difficult by cold, wind, ice, and the necessity of having to rely on what has been “put by.” My grandmother would face this time wi…
Unspoken Reality
"A Republic if You Can Keep It"
Repent is one of those religious words that now struggle to be meaningful in our day. Some think it is confined to religious contexts and therefore irrelevant in the secular world. Others have an idea of what it means, but connect it with a set up for a punchline. You know, it’s the word on …
Putting a vice president into the Oval Office is like putting a new Supreme Court justice on the bench. You might think you know what you’re getting, but people who are given such power have an alarming tendency to do whatever they want to.
While technology has done wonders for American quality of life, it has wreaked havoc on our political system.
“… we passed / into the dark last week the even mark of day and night / and what we hoped would stay we yield to change.” (from “Equinox” by A.R. Ammons)
I am putting character first
Unbalanced editorial pages
Joe Mackey the person
My wife Peggy and I have a little game we like to play. It goes like this: Peggy makes a statement (or asks a question, either way, it doesn’t matter) and I respond, “What?” She then repeats what she just said, as do I, “What?” She then tells me I need my hearing checked. I give her a puzzle…
Take steps to prevent suicide
Why has there not been an arrest made?
In case there was any doubt that life is challenging … let’s put aside the niceties. Life is damn hard. Allow me to place into evidence 2020. It is hard on so many levels, and from so many perspectives that it is a spherical challenge (a challenge from any angle). I can barely begin to descr…
“Each one is a gift, no doubt,
We live in a fearful world. The pandemic rages, civil unrest continues, scientists revise virus theories and possible treatment as more data accumulates when all we want are definite answers now, political leaders base their response on ideology, and don’t even get us started on the problems…
Frankfort Main Street is essential to small business recovery
I have a happy place. It’s my garden, my back yard. This year I am unburdened by the goal of producing vegetables for the table. I leave that hard and anxious work to “my farmer” at Smith Farms where I have a share in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. My backyard freed from …
Too often we assume our life experience is the norm and therefore lose our appreciation for what our neighbors must live with. In truth, however, the trials we face are not others’ trials; ours are of a different nature, they may be harder or easier, or longer in duration or shorter than our…
I recently attended a workshop on healthy boundaries. The denomination I serve requires people involved in active ministry to attend such an event every several years. The purpose of the workshop is to prepare and remind people working in the church to recognize and honor the boundaries of o…
Importance of Voting for Delegates
Call To Action – CARES Act Money not appropriated correctly by the State of Indiana
Call To Action – CARES Act Money not appropriated correctly by the State of Indiana
I’ve been thinking lately about gardening. Perhaps it has arisen out of the article I wrote a week or so ago about gratitude. Perhaps it is because in the spring an old man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of sunshine and a warm breeze upon his face. Perhaps it has to do with a more primal …
In uncertain times, the Y is still here
I came across a poem on Facebook the other day. The poem is “Seed” from “Mysteries of the Home” by Paula Meehan. It caught my attention because the subject is the early spring garden. I fancy myself a gardener, but if that title is bestowed based on the efficient production of abundant produ…
Paying attention to “social media” has revealed to me that many of you have spent your time at home cleaning out closets, attics and/or basements. In the process you may have discovered your “Mother lode” of family photographs taken over the years by family members. Possibly, some of them we…
There is an ancient blessing that works equally well as a curse: “May you live in interesting times.” We live in a time such as that. It has come upon us quickly and relentlessly. In December there were small stories of a deadly disease half a world away beginning to spread and now that same…
While these past few weeks have brought fear, uncertainty and isolation, we all owe the people risking their health for our benefit more than we can imagine.
As a retired physician I have been following the developments of the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic with interest. I think there will continue to be great disruptions to our economy for the short term. We are all becoming familiar with the obvious disruptions to our “old normal” routi…
Dear Editor,
February 26th was Ash Wednesday. It marked the beginning of the Season of Lent, which is the 40 day long season on the Church calendar that leads up to Good Friday. Ash Wednesday sets the tone for the season with a reminder, that “we are from dust and to dust we shall return;” a somber motto…
Donald Trump has been insisting for years that our country has been too economically dependent on China, so it is sad that it took a global public health crisis to prove he was right all this time. When he began imposing strategic tariffs on China in response to its long history of abusive t…
The biggest obstacle to an effective national response to the spreading coronavirus is the notion that no response is really necessary — that the virus is a nothingburger.
Congratulations to Judy Sheets, precinct committee members
If you commit acts of government corruption like wire fraud, tax fraud, or lying to the federal government you might get a pardon.
Indiana’s economic future will be primarily determined by the share of Hoosier adults who graduated from college. If that share remains low, our economy will languish, our incomes will continue to fall further behind the national average and our best-educated citizens will relocate elsewhere…
Since the end of the Great Recession, more than a quarter of economic growth in Indiana has been swallowed by ballooning healthcare cost growth. Our healthcare spending is a clear national outlier, ranking only behind Alaska. Since the end of the Great Recession, increased healthcare costs a…
I was shocked to read a headline that concerned a small church in rural (transitioning to suburban) Minneapolis. The headline from the Twin Cities Pioneer Press read, “Cottage Grove church to usher out gray-haired members in effort to attract more young parishioners.” Once my sexagenarian bl…
Trump is destroying truth
Editor,
Trust in the States
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