Think About It with Michael Leppert

The Hoosier state was buzzing on a Saturday afternoon in February over a basketball game. The storied rivalry of Indiana and Purdue was the sports event of the weekend—in America. The top ranked Boilers were actually one-point underdogs in Bloomington on Saturday to an IU team that played a great first half and then held on for dear life in the second for a 79-74 win.

The game mattered. Like it always used to matter. And not just to the students and alums of the two schools, or even to those of us clinging to memories of one-class high school basketball. This game mattered to the entire basketball world.

As our state's place at the top of college basketball is being reestablished, our status in Congress has become solidly nonexistent. And it will remain that way for the foreseeable future.

Who are the power brokers from Indiana in what James Madison referred to as "the first branch of government?" Insert crickets chirping here. The answer is: there aren't any.

In a state that featured Sens. Richard Lugar and Birch Bayh, and Rep. Lee Hamilton during my lifetime, we aren't leading anything in the legislative branch these days. Even Rep. Dan Burton was the chairman of a committee in the U.S. House.

Indiana has been apportioned nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 118th U.S. Congress. We have had as many as thirteen from 1875 to 1933, then twelve from 1933 to 1983. Our declining share of national population has cost us dearly in the "people's House" since.

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I remember a meeting with my first financial adviser several years ago who told me that the money I had in the Indiana Public Retirement System, or INPRS, needed to be moved out of there. His perspective then was that INPRS did not give me enough control over my own money and that the government's politics would interfere with my interests eventually, one way or another. In fact, they likely already were.

INPRS now has approximately 500,000 members, whose money the system manages. I continue to be one of them. But the politics of today has put a target on the system and my retirement, for the sole purpose of scoring political points.

Leslie Bonilla Muñiz reported for the Indiana Capital Chronicle on Jan. 26 on two legislative initiatives, Senate Bills 268 and 292 that put this on full display.

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There's something happening in America following the upheaval of Roe that is surprising to some, and to others is completely predictable. Count me among the latter.

Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court chose poorly in its decision, Dobbs v. Mississippi, effectively overturning nearly half a century of precedent protecting a woman's right to choose an abortion. In events across the country on Sunday, Americans celebrated the 50th anniversary of that precedent, the decision in Roe v. Wade.

Did this court and those supporting their historic infringement actually believe Americans would simply accept it and go quietly into the night? For anyone who did, it is now clear that was a horrible miscalculation.

A variety of anniversary celebrations occurred across the country over the weekend, none more impressive than the one right here in Indiana. In Indianapolis, the Hi-Fi — a music venue in Fountain Square — was the site of a new kind of rally. New to this issue. New to Indiana.

What's new about it? I have been to plenty of marches and rallies over the last several years, and they often feature an attempt to inspire action, to motivate engagement, to begin a sustainable movement. On Sunday at the Hi-Fi, a group named Our Choice Coalition (OCC), didn't gather to inspire those things, it gathered to announce them.

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Legislation creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a national holiday was passed forty years ago and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. It was 1983.

The late Michael Jackson's "Thriller" dominated the music, video and dance world. The Washington Redskins, which thankfully doesn't exist anymore, won the Super Bowl. I got my driver's license that year, and a boom box to go with it for nights when I had my parents' car. What a year!

Forty years later, I hate driving.

Another thing that has changed significantly in the last forty years, is Dr. King's popularity. The thought of it hadn't crossed my mind until I came across a tweet about Gallup polling on the topic. Last January, CNN did an extensive piece on how divided America was on its view of the civil rights leader, and initially, it was hard for me to believe.

The Gallup data has slowly but drastically changed during my fifty-five years. CNN reported that after his death in 1968: "Nearly a third (31%) say he brought (it) upon himself. Less than a majority (43%) said they were sad (38%) or angry (5%). In 2011, 94% of Americans had a favorable view of him in Gallup polling. This included an 89% favorable rating among those ages 65 and older…"

I grew up under the assumption that MLK was beloved by every American. His importance and leadership were never questioned in my house. But data shows that our nation's more collective and uniform love of him took time to grow.

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Early in the Broadway smash, "Hamilton," the title character meets his nemesis, Aaron Burr. The polished and savvy politician advises young Alexander to "talk less, smile more, don't let them know what you're against or what you're for." Republicans in the U.S. House seem to be trying to follow the Burr plan, with the obvious exception of the "talk less" part.

Last week, the American public witnessed a governmental process it hasn't seen in 100 years: multiple elections for the Speaker of the House. During that century, the selection had routinely become an inside job. The majority party would work it out in private first and then come to the chamber and hold the ceremonial vote for the citizenry to witness. It had become such a snoozer, that most of America paid no attention at all.

Not this year. Not with this Congress. Not with this party.

The fight within the House Republican Caucus all comes down to a matter of trust. Some of the staunchest opponents of Speaker Kevin McCarthy's ascension consistently claimed their lack of trust in him was the issue. What took a backseat in this process, however, was the public trust. Reeling from things like the two-year anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, ongoing election denialism and conspiracy theorizing, this caucus already was weak in this category. The events of the last week all but obliterated what little trust remained.

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Every new year brings with it new hope, new goals and new fears. Resolutions and predictions fly like birds and then fall like snow, and by the time February arrives, the new year isn't new anymore. As a result, all of that nonsense from the month prior is treated like a trip to Vegas: what happens there, stays there.

2023 will be different though, won't it? Can't you feel it?

OK, maybe not. But let's try for a moment so that a year from now we can look back on this week and see how good our collective foresight turned out to be. Some of my bets are admittedly long shots but "could happen." Some are smaller fantasies, though they "should happen." And finally, some are stone-cold, lead-pipe locks that absolutely "will happen."

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To me, holidays are merely exercises in tradition, or traditions. Sometime in my 40s, I began to question all of them, reliving the "why" phase of my childhood for some unknown, yet admittedly irritating reason. Why do we eat turkey on Christmas? Why is everything closed?

And it isn't just the holidays. When did we start naming unpleasant weather events, and why is it just the unpleasant ones? Shouldn't an unusually beautiful day be named Mona Lisa or Brad Pitt?

If we must name bad weather, can we at least name it after we have gotten to know it a little? "Elliot" sounds more like a companion to share a pleasant cup of coffee with, not a horrifying monster. The most recent freeze should've been named "Polar Freeze-illa," or even more simply, "Holy S*it, It's Cold."

Likewise, Ian sounds more like a date for a shared spot of tea. Hurricane Ian turned out to be no tea-date for anyone, though. Any new parents in Southwest Florida naming a child Ian for the foreseeable future might have some explaining to do later.

With continued disregard for tradition, we had our first holiday celebration this year over sushi at a crowded restaurant with my younger son and his girlfriend on the 23rd. One of the restaurant managers appeared to be having a crowd-induced nervous breakdown. Her anxiety made me anxious. We were seated on the corner of the packed restaurant, so I felt her breeze blow by several times even before we met our server. I couldn't take my eyes off her. She had a look on her face that communicated, "if there is one more problem in here, I'm going to clear the room."

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If I could go back a few decades and change what was a part of the public education offered to me, I exclusively regret what my schools did not teach me. I can't recall a single thing they taught that I wish I hadn't learned. Try it yourself. Really try to think about an actual lesson you learned that you wish had not been taught.

Dodge ball? I can't complain about that, I was a champ at it. Choir? Loved it. That second entire year of Physics? Admittedly, I wish I could trade that for a year of Spanish, but it does help me with "Jeopardy" from time to time.

How fantastic it must be for a state legislature, in any state, to believe that one of its problems is that its schools are teaching too much. Delusions usually are fantastic, coming from the word's root, "fantasy." I learned things like that in school.

So, when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed its "Don't Say Gay" law earlier this year, I thought to myself, only the delusional can possibly believe that learning less will actually make us smarter. But that's the ridiculous, fantastical premise of the new law. I'm sure the law has been a smashing success, right? After all, it is months old and there is data to show how much smarter Floridian children have become now that they can't say "gay" in those schools, right?

Again, more fantasy.

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A few weeks back, I saw Jon Wertheim interview David Sedaris on 60 Minutes. I have plenty of friends who are big fans of the humorist, but honestly, before I saw the interview, I never gave him much thought. But after the interview aired on October 30, Sedaris just struck me as someone I would really like to talk with.

That is an unusual reaction to an interview for me. I consume an abundance of media, and a good long interview with just about anyone is usually enough of them for me. Not this time. Luckily, he's written enough that I can likely have half of that talk just by reading his work. So, I started with his latest book, "Happy-Go-Lucky," and I now know I have started a long project.

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The battle initiated by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita against Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indiana reproductive healthcare provider, disgracefully marches onward. Our embattled AG is wrong about this endeavor, in every possible way, but it is important not to lose track of who he is hurting, and why.

A 10-year-old girl was raped, became pregnant as a result of the rape, and understandably sought an abortion in Ohio earlier this year. Due to the restrictive abortion law already in place there, the girl sought and received medical care in Indiana from Dr. Bernard.

She is, or was, a 10-year-old girl.

The mother of the girl reported the allegation to child services in Franklin County, Ohio, before medical care was sought in Indiana. The story became known through an article by Shari Rudavsky and Rachel Fradette in the Indianapolis Star on July 1. It caught the attention of President Joe Biden during a press conference in early July announcing his administration's initial response to the Supreme Court's ruling on abortion in Dobbs v. Mississippi. Biden said, "10-years-old! 10-years-old…already traumatized and forced to travel to another state."

Yes, Mr. President, that was and continues to be sadly correct.

The following Monday, on July 11, the Attorney General in Ohio, Dave Yost, started the inglorious descent of the episode by going on Fox News and claiming that there was "not a whisper of evidence" to back up the story about the rape. Ohio congressman, Rep. Jim Jordan tweeted a story from the Washington Examiner that challenged the validity of the story, adding the comment that the account was "a lie." The tweet was deleted soon after, and for good reason.

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