Dennis Sasso: Helping asylum seekers is the American way
Our country has both a glorious and a shameful history of welcoming and resisting immigrants. We are a country of both generous and nativist instincts.
Opinion
Articles
Letter: Cut military spending to fix budget deficit
There is simply no reason to have a deficit when the economy is doing so well if the administration would simply tax the rich so that all are paying their fair share.
Editorial: ‘Abundance of caution’ is appropriate in decisions about coronavirus
This is not a time to be critical of organizations that make what might seem like drastic decisions “out of an abundance of caution.” They are not panicking.
Mandy Haskett: Make sure to be ‘brilliant at the basics’
We get focused on making sure the big, complicated tough stuff is intact, only to miss the basic thing. The first thing. The most fundamental thing.
Editorial: IndyGo stuck in pothole of its own making
If IndyGo is to move forward with the next phases of its rapid-transit system—which we believe is crucial to the economic vitality of a huge swath of the city’s workers—it must shore up the community’s confidence in its ability to operate effectively and avoid future political gaffes.
Sheila Kennedy: Legislators like to remind us who’s boss
Their most consistent behavior, year after year, is their adamant refusal to allow cities and towns—especially Indianapolis—to do much of anything unless and until our overlords in the Legislature deign to give local elected officials their official blessing.
Karen Tallian: Outdated bail system creates two-tiered justice
The use of money bail fuels mass incarceration, erodes public safety and does irreparable harm to poor communities, with a particularly devastating impact on communities of color.
Letter: Moving schools requires careful study
It would be wise for officials to work with knowledgeable city planners and neighborhood leaders if any potential redevelopment of these school properties is to be studied.
Ed Feigenbaum: Statehouse ‘silly season’ produces legislative surprises
As legislation entered the final days of committee deliberations, solons frantically sought to insert key provisions into bills perhaps only tangentially related. In some cases, amendments became the principal focus of the new bill, just like, for example, a former 500 winner salvaging a part-time ride with a small team.
Garrett Mintz: The fallacy of thinking that work must be a calling
Workers run in their own lanes and live their own lives and can achieve happiness and self-actualization in their own ways.
Patrice Dawson: Madam Walker’s legacy still inspires a century later
While the struggles my fellow African American women face today are different from the ones Madam Walker faced as a daughter of slaves in the late 1800s, we can all learn from the persistence that led to her becoming an influential African American businesswomen and one of the first to become a millionaire.
Julie Reed: End surprise billing without damaging access to care
Without an independent dispute resolution process, physicians are concerned the repercussions will lead to higher health care costs and less access to critical care—the exact problems lawmakers have vowed to fix.
GOP should tighten charter-school oversight
For-profit school proposals need more vetting and oversight than the Republicans seem willing to support. It’s time to ask our representatives to change their approach, or we need to change these legislators.
Editorial: State should let cities set rules for landlord/tenant relations
Rules about evictions and landlord/tenant relations seem like especially important decisions to be made locally. After all, the landlord-tenant rules that work in Bloomington or West Lafayette—communities that are packed with rental housing for students—might be less appropriate for suburban communities or urban centers.
Samantha Julka: We can do better. Let’s be designerly.
Simple is smart. Making something simple for other people is actually much harder than making something complex.
Editorial: Lilly Endowment, Indy Chamber step up to facilitate study of inner loop rebuild
Ideally, a broad look at alternatives, with input from diverse stakeholders, would have come sooner in the process of planning the reconstruction of a roadway that was controversial to begin with.
Robert Enlow: In our public schools, central office staff is growing—not shrinking
According to the data presented, from 2000-2013, the number of central office administrators rose steadily and consistently year over year. This was followed by a dramatic and precipitous drop in 2014 and 2015 (from 1,266 down to 547), then a massive gain in 2016 (back up to 1,170), followed by another massive reduction in force in 2017 (down to 603).
April Klein: State should leverage its outdoor-recreation economy
In Indiana, the BEA estimates outdoor recreation is 2.8% of the state’s economy, with nearly 110,000 direct jobs. Just one segment of this important sector, the RV industry, has an economic impact of $32.4 billion and supports more than 126,140 jobs and $7.8 billion in wages paid to Hoosiers.
Letter: Juvenile justice disparities run deep
The reality is, decades of policies throughout the criminal legal system, as well as implicit racial biases, have led to racial disparities.
Ed Feigenbaum: Slow second half creates puzzle for bill authors
The legislative process is a puzzle-solving exercise, dependent upon precisely positioning those pieces. The committee to which a bill is assigned might portend a fast-track or slow death. Even a “good” bill could find itself behind the legislative eight-ball should several other major bills be scheduled for a hearing, and simply die from lack of time.