SWAYZE: Beyond symptoms to root causes
It hurts to watch crime escalate in Indianapolis, especially among African-American boys and girls.
It hurts to watch crime escalate in Indianapolis, especially among African-American boys and girls.
Those chosen to govern have wrestled eternally with troublesome, often serious situations. Political disunity, stalemating action in city or state. Law enforcement losing its battle against dope, gangs and crime.
Pundits and public officials are trying to make sense of the level of crime in Indianapolis, the relative safety of our community, and the apparent “new breed” of young toughs—and everyone has an opinion on what we ought to be doing to make the community safer.
A half-century ago, 14 percent of college degrees were awarded to people who majored in the humanities. Today, only 7 percent of graduates in the country are humanities majors. Even over the past decade alone, the number of incoming students at Harvard who express interest in becoming humanities majors has dropped by a third.
What happens when good jobs disappear? It’s a question that’s been asked for centuries.
For thousands of years, people around the world had the common sense to realize that putting young men and young women together in military operations was asking for trouble, not only for young people of both sexes, but for the effectiveness of military forces entrusted with the fate of nations.
A good friend has come up with a good idea. I know it is a good idea because, when he presented it to me and another friend, both of us were skeptical. Such is the inevitable fate of good ideas among friends.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It’s a tale of two Indianas—one rich, one poor.
I weep for my Afghan friends and thank God for the relative civility that characterizes Indiana political conflict.
At the 1969 Young Americans for Freedom convention, I learned firsthand of the intense ideological divisions within the conservative movement.
Gov. Mike Pence has borne the brunt of unfair criticism from politicos around the state of late. Not even six months into his term, he has been described as lackluster, lacking vision and as having a dearth of ideas.
General Assembly, 1; Mike Pence, 0. That’s how the scorecard reads from the recent one-day meeting of the Legislature.
Everyone knows the old real estate adage about location, location, location. But these days, for revenue-hungry Indianapolis communities, you can add another priority—development, development, development.
There has been much discussion recently about the need to “beef up” Marion County law enforcement to reduce crime. I agree. The Indianapolis public safety director recently reported that only about half of the sworn officers are on the street.
Three promising efforts are under way in Indianapolis to unite the community and propel us forward. I hope we pursue each initiative with a sense of urgency and change the trajectory on our health, skills and economic prosperity.
The next mayoral election might represent the functional end to Republican government in Indianapolis.
A two-front war is waging over control of the City-County Council. The General Assembly recently changed the Unigov statute to eliminate the four at-large council seats. Meanwhile, a special five-judge panel is considering a challenge to the city-county ordinance drawing the council’s 25 single-member districts.
"Privacy" comes from a Latin word meaning “separated from the rest,” initially thought of in negative terms, mostly having to do with deprivation of the ability to participate in government.
The question continues to be pondered by many people and seems to always rise to a high level during each session of the General Assembly. The issue is typically considered and debated regularly by those of us from around the state who live outside of Marion County.
In modern politics, the term “fair share” has endured more than its fair share of political contortion. I’ve never enjoyed engaging in that kind of debate. What I’ve always enjoyed are facts.